Dental Specialist (ANZSCO 252311)

On the Short-term Skilled Occupation 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 Dental Specialist on?

STSOL — Short-term Skilled Occupation List. Occupations on the STSOL can access state-nominated and regional skilled visas (190/491), but not the Skilled Independent 189.

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 Dental Specialist comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

The Australian Dental Council runs skills assessments only for dentists, dental assistants and dental specialists, and eligibility for its lighter skills-assessment route, rather than the fuller, multi-stage dental practitioner assessment process involving a written and a practical exam, is narrow — current New Zealand registration, an eligible UK, Irish or NZ qualification, a post-2010 Canadian qualification certified by that country's own dental examination board, or a qualification completed in Australia. Overseas-qualified dentists outside those categories must complete the full practitioner assessment process first and can then request the migration-facing assessment once that is passed. ADC's own site runs one framework covering both codes; there is no separate specialist-only assessment stream.

Where these applications come unstuck

Nominating this code without already holding, or being clearly on track for, Dental Board of Australia specialist registration is the central trap — ADC's skills assessment does not itself confer or certify specialist status, and that distinction is made at the registration stage by a different body. A second, narrower risk applies to anyone outside the eligibility categories for the lighter skills-assessment route, who may not realise the full, longer dental practitioner assessment process has to be completed first before the migration-facing step becomes available at all.

An honest read on this pathway

The pathway is genuinely open for applicants who fit the narrow eligibility categories — current NZ registration or specific UK, Irish, Canadian or Australian qualifications — with a comparatively contained assessment timeframe of around eight weeks. For everyone else, the full dental practitioner assessment process sits in front of it as a longer prerequisite, and general dental registration with the Dental Board is a separate later requirement regardless of route, so a positive skills-assessment result on its own does not confer the right to practise as a specialist.

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.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Dental Specialist 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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