Residential Care Officer (ANZSCO 411715)

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 Residential Care Officer 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 Residential Care Officer comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Residential Care Officer shares the 4117 family's AQF Level 5 diploma floor and its specialised/non-specialised employment split: a diploma specialised in residential care services, health and wellbeing, disability services, or youth work needs about 1 year of paid employment in a residential care services setting, against 2 years for a generalist community-services diploma. Its list of qualifying specialised fields is the widest of any 4117 code — four named fields rather than one — reflecting how residential care roles draw from adjacent specialisations. The shared qualification-comparability, English and currency tests apply, and an accredited qualification's field placement again substitutes for paid employment.

Where these applications come unstuck

Because four separate qualification fields count as specialised for this code, applicants sometimes assume any community-services-adjacent diploma qualifies for the shorter 1-year threshold — it doesn't; the diploma has to sit within the named list (residential care, health and wellbeing, disability services or youth work), not simply be community-sector-adjacent. As with the rest of the family, evidence has to be a proper statement of service or signed employer letter, not a contract or job ad, and Residential Care Officer as a job title covers a wide range of actual duties — an applicant whose real work was closer to hands-on personal care risks the same lower-skill-level exclusion that Community Worker and Disability Services Officer apply.

An honest read on this pathway

Residential Care Officer sits on STSOL and CSOL, reaching 186 and 482 alongside the points-tested and DAMA routes, so employer sponsorship is open here in a way it isn't for Welfare Worker or Disabilities Services Officer. The wide specialised-field list is a genuine advantage for applicants moving between adjacent residential, disability and youth settings, since more qualification backgrounds clear the shorter employment bar than on the narrower-worded sibling codes. The trade-off is that the occupation's real-world title covers everything from case coordination to close-to-hands-on care, so the actual duties evidenced — not the job title — decide which side of the family's skill-level line an application lands on.

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 Residential Care Officer 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

Related occupations

All skilled occupations · Points calculator · Skilled visa agents