Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical) (ANZSCO 323112)

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 Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical) 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 Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical) comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

TRA has no dedicated page for the Mechanical discipline; the same six-program logic that covers Avionics and Structures applies here, sorted by your occupation, passport country, place of study and the visa sought. The documentary Migration Skills Assessment is the usual route for offshore applicants: qualification and transcripts, an Employer Template per job, matching pay evidence, no English test. ANZSCO's own description centres this code on aircraft hydromechanical and flight system components and aircraft engines — distinct from the electrical work Avionics covers — and TRA is explicit that “TRA does not accept work experience as a substitute for a qualification” for any occupation it assesses, this one included.

Where these applications come unstuck

The confusable-code trap runs both ways: someone whose day-to-day work is engine and hydromechanical systems but who nominates Avionics or Structures out of habit risks supplying evidence that does not match the nominated code, since TRA's evidence must be directly relevant to what was actually claimed. Separately, and more consequentially, a clean TRA result here says nothing about being allowed to work on an aircraft — TRA's own program pages for this discipline do not mention the licensing body that actually governs that question, leaving a genuine gap for anyone who reads only TRA's site.

An honest read on this pathway

Mechanical carries the same list membership and reach as its two sibling codes — STSOL and CSOL, six visas including standard 482/186 sponsorship. The ceiling on turning that into real work is CASA's Part 66 licence, not TRA: CASA recognises foreign AME licences from the UK and USA directly, while everyone else — including a New Zealand-licensed engineer, whose licence alone is explicitly not enough under the Trans-Tasman arrangement — needs a Part 147 Maintenance Training Organisation assessment on top of a successful TRA outcome.

Going through Trades Recognition Australia? TRA pathways lean heavily on documented work history and evidence of on-the-job experience. The Employment History Builder reconstructs it with gap detection, so the record you submit holds together.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical) 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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