Telecommunications Engineer (ANZSCO 263311)

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 Telecommunications Engineer 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 Telecommunications Engineer comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Engineers Australia assesses this as a Professional Engineer-tier occupation (skill level 1, bachelor degree or higher). ANZSCO describes the function as designing and developing telecommunications systems, devices and products — a device and product design role, distinct from network planning. Category assignment (Professional Engineer versus Engineering Technologist) follows the applicant's degree length under EA's usual rule; the assessment route is the accredited pathway or, for non-accredited or differently-titled qualifications, a Competency Demonstration Report.

Where these applications come unstuck

This code carries a genuine data conflict worth knowing before you plan around it: it sits on the Core Skills Occupation List, but its published visa list does not currently include the 482 or the 186 employer-sponsored pathways that most similarly-listed occupations in this family reach. It is also easily confused with its own sibling, 263312 Telecommunications Network Engineer, which covers network planning and monitoring rather than device design.

An honest read on this pathway

This code is on the MLTSSL and the CSOL. Do not plan an employer-sponsored 482 or 186 pathway around it without checking the current Home Affairs skilled occupation list first — its own published reach is narrower than list membership alone would suggest, and that gap should be confirmed directly rather than assumed to be a website error. The assessment itself is unaffected by the conflict — it is a migration list question, not an Engineers Australia question — but a device-design engineer weighing employer sponsorship should confirm current reach before committing to this code over its sibling.

Preparing a CDR for Engineers Australia? The CDR Organiser structures your three career episodes and summary statement against the assessment criteria — your own writing, organised properly. Engineers Australia runs plagiarism detection, so a ghost-written CDR is a real risk to your application.

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

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Telecommunications Engineer 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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