Upholsterer (ANZSCO 393311)

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 Upholsterer 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).

Processing priority

Upholsterer 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 Upholsterer comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Upholsterer carries the Short-term Skilled Occupations List and the Core Skills Occupation List together, which places it inside TRA's own repeated eligibility wording for the Migration Skills Assessment, the Offshore Skills Assessment Program and the TSS Skills Assessment Program — each of those names only the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List or the Short-term Skilled Occupations Lists, so this occupation is genuinely covered by TRA's stated eligibility rather than reliant on a separate list this dossier could not reach. It sits alone in its own unit group with Furniture Upholsterer and Mattress Maker as named specialisations, with no confusable sibling occupation inside this family.

Where these applications come unstuck

A real, dated forum question captures the exact evidence risk this occupation carries: an applicant with genuine upholstery-adjacent sewing experience but no formal Upholsterer job title asked whether that work counted as 'closely related' to the assessable occupation. TRA does not publish a closely-related-occupations doctrine of its own reachable from here, and its flat MSA rule — no work experience accepted as a substitute for a qualification — suggests the safer position is evidence that matches Upholsterer's own ANZSCO description directly, covering upholstered furniture, beds and mattresses, rather than an adjacent sewing trade argued into the same code.

An honest read on this pathway

Upholsterer reaches the same wide visa set as Print Finisher and Printing Machinist — regional and state-nominated routes plus 482/186 sponsorship under the standard Core Skills Stream income thresholds — because it carries both the Short-term Skilled Occupations List and the Core Skills Occupation List. It still never reaches the points-tested subclass 189 or the post-study 485, because, like every occupation in this family, it carries no Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List membership at all. For an upholsterer or mattress maker, that means the pathway is genuinely open through a sponsor or state nomination, just never through an unsponsored expression of interest.

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 Upholsterer 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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