Massage Therapist (ANZSCO 411611)

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 Massage Therapist 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 Massage Therapist comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Massage Therapist is a VETASSESS Group C occupation, but with a genuinely more forgiving structure than most Group C codes in this family. VETASSESS names four separate pathways rather than one, and Pathway 4 stands out: it "requires a qualification assessed as comparable to the education level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Diploma or higher with or without a highly relevant major field of study to the nominated occupation." In practice that means at least four years of employment on any Diploma-or-higher qualification, relevant or not, with only one of those years needing to be highly relevant and within the last five — the most forgiving route anywhere in this family.

Where these applications come unstuck

The trap with a multi-pathway code like this is defaulting to the most demanding route out of unfamiliarity with the others. Pathway 4's flexibility on field of study is real, but it trades that flexibility for a longer employment requirement — four years rather than the one year typical of a directly relevant qualification elsewhere in this family. An applicant whose qualification is not massage-specific but who has accumulated years of relevant employment has a genuine route here that a narrower, single-pathway code would not offer; someone with a directly relevant qualification and only a year of experience should check whether a different, faster pathway on the same VETASSESS page suits them better.

An honest read on this pathway

Massage Therapist sits on STSOL plus CSOL, reaching eight visas including 189, 186 and 482 — the full visa range this family offers, combined with the most pathway flexibility of any code here. This guide did not find, and did not attempt to confirm, any registration or licensing requirement specific to massage therapy on the VETASSESS page reviewed for this research; none is named, and none should be assumed. Given the pathway flexibility on offer, applicants should read all four VETASSESS pathways directly rather than assuming the standard one-year highly-relevant-employment rule that governs most other Group A and Group C codes in this family.

VETASSESS assesses qualifications and employment separately. Both need documentation that agrees with itself. The Employment History Builder and Document Vault organise each trail before you lodge.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Massage Therapist 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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