Cabinetmaker (ANZSCO 394111)

On the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills 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 Cabinetmaker 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.

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 Cabinetmaker comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Trades Recognition Australia has no page specific to Cabinetmaker — it runs a handful of assessment programs across every trade it assesses, chosen by occupation, passport country, where you studied and the visa you are seeking. Cabinetmaker sits on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List, which puts it inside TRA's Migration Skills Assessment eligibility wording, and TRA is explicit that a qualification is required regardless of experience — work experience is never accepted as a substitute. What sets this code apart from every other occupation in this family is TRA's Construction Occupations List: Cabinetmaker is both Prioritised and Streamlined, and an applicant with a relevant qualification from China, Iran, Ireland, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, the UAE or the UK skips the Offshore Skills Assessment Program for the cheaper Migration Skills Assessment route instead.

Where these applications come unstuck

The costly mistake is treating this code as interchangeable with Cabinet Maker or Furniture Maker because they sound like the same trade. They are not a rename — ANZSCO 2022 split the old, single Cabinetmaker occupation into two narrower ones, and Home Affairs still runs the skilled lists against the older, broader definition for this code specifically. Someone whose actual current work is narrowly kitchen-cabinet installation, or narrowly freestanding furniture fabrication, should check whether their evidence genuinely matches Cabinetmaker's wider pre-2022 description — covering both built-in cabinetry and freestanding furniture, plus antique restoration, chair-and-couch making and coffin making — before nominating it purely to keep access to the points-tested and post-study visas the split codes lose.

An honest read on this pathway

This is the only occupation in the whole family that reaches subclass 189 or 485, because it carries no Core Skills Occupation List membership at all — its routes are 189, 190, 407, 485 and 491, plus 494, never 482 or 186. That trade-off runs the other way for anyone hoping to be employer-sponsored: Cabinetmaker cannot be sponsored under 482 or 186 no matter how strong the offer, and an applicant in that position needs to look at whether their work actually fits the narrower Cabinet Maker or Furniture Maker description instead. For the seven named countries, the Construction Occupations List streamlining is a genuine, checked cost and speed advantage unique to this code.

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 Cabinetmaker 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.

Compare registered agents — free

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