Solicitor (ANZSCO 271311)

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 Solicitor 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).

Processing priority

Solicitor isn't in any of the ANZSCO groups that Directions 121 and 122 list for the priority sectors. Some of the first group is defined by the job rather than the code: a nominated position directly involved in agriculture, aquaculture or fishing, one that directly supports mining, oil and gas or coal production, or one related to defence. Otherwise the application is processed after the priority sectors. For the permanent and provisional skilled visas, applicants who were in Australia when they applied come next, then those who applied from outside Australia. For the 482, Specialist Skills stream applications come before both.

Priority changes the order in which lodged applications are looked at, not whether they are granted. Who is invited to apply through SkillSelect is decided separately. See all 202 occupations in the priority sectors.

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Solicitor comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

The same absence of a single national body applies to this code as to Barrister — admission is decided by the admitting authority of whichever state or territory the applicant applies in, following national standards published by the coordinating body but not administered by it. In New South Wales, the same Legal Profession Admission Board process applies regardless of which of the two legal codes an applicant is ultimately heading toward: academic-qualification assessment through one sub-committee, practical-training assessment through another, both preceding an application for admission itself. The fork between this occupation and Barrister happens only after that shared admission step.

Where these applications come unstuck

The most consequential misreading is assuming admission itself confers the right to practise as a solicitor — it does not. Once admitted, practising as a solicitor in NSW requires a separately issued practising certificate from the Law Society, distinct from the admission process and from the barrister track's Bar Association route. A second trap, shared with Barrister, is underestimating the academic and practical-training equivalence assessment an overseas-trained lawyer must clear before admission is even possible, which is a genuinely separate multi-week process rather than a formality.

An honest read on this pathway

Once admitted, the solicitor route does not carry the Bar's minimum-length supervised Reading Program requirement, so the practising-certificate step for this code is structurally lighter than the barrister path, though it still involves its own conditions and ongoing professional obligations through the Law Society. As with Barrister, only New South Wales's specific process was verified here; other states and territories run their own admitting authorities and practising-certificate frameworks under the same national standards, and an applicant heading elsewhere needs to confirm the local detail directly.

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 Solicitor pathway guide.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Solicitor 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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