Veterinarian (ANZSCO 234711)

On the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and Core Skills Occupation List

From the official Home Affairs skilled occupation lists, as at 2026-08-12. Lists change at each government update — always confirm on the official page before acting.

Which lists is Veterinarian on?

MLTSSL — Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List. The widest list — occupations on the MLTSSL can access the points-tested permanent skilled visas including the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), which needs no state nomination or employer.

CSOL — Core Skills Occupation List. The employer-sponsorship list — occupations on the CSOL can be nominated for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme 186.

Visas this occupation can access

Being on a list makes the occupation nominatable for these visas — each visa still has its own requirements (points, age, English, a positive skills assessment, and for sponsored visas a willing employer or state).

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Veterinarian comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Veterinarian is the one code in this family assessed by AVBC, not VETASSESS, and AVBC is the only body the Migration Regulations approve for this occupation — there is no alternative assessing authority. AVBC's process inverts the usual order: its own eligibility checklist requires the applicant to already hold full, unconditional registration with an Australian state or territory veterinary board before the migration skills assessment can even be lodged. If the applicant's qualification is not on AVBC's recognised list, the Australasian Veterinary Examination sits between them and that registration — meaning the practical first move is contacting an Australian veterinary board, not AVBC's migration team.

Where these applications come unstuck

AVBC will not assess Veterinary Nurses at all — its own site directs them to VETASSESS — and VETASSESS's Veterinary Nurse page states the reverse exclusion explicitly, so time spent as a vet nurse, however senior, carries no credit toward a Veterinarian assessment. The most consequential planning error is treating the migration skills assessment as the first step: AVBC will not accept the application until board registration is already held, so an applicant who has not yet approached a state veterinary board, or sat the Australasian Veterinary Examination if required, is further from the assessment than a qualification alone suggests.

An honest read on this pathway

Veterinarian is the only code in this family reaching 189 and 485 — a points-tested permanent pathway and a post-study work route that do not depend on an employer or state, on top of 186, 190, 407, 482, 491 and 494. That reach comes with the family's most demanding process: full board registration, potentially preceded by the Australasian Veterinary Examination, has to be secured before the migration skills assessment is even lodged. A positive AVBC assessment does not itself authorise practice — board registration is what does that, and per AVBC's own rule it has to come first regardless.

Whichever authority assesses you, the paperwork is the part applicants underestimate. The Document Vault keeps a single register of every document, what it was needed for, and what is still missing.

We've also written a full pathway guide for this occupation: read the Veterinarian pathway guide.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Veterinarian is your best route depends on your points, experience evidence and timing — exactly what a MARA-registered agent works through in an initial consultation. Describe your situation once through Migratio and compare real consultation quotes from registered agents, free.

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