Personal Assistant (ANZSCO 521111)
On the Regional 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 Personal Assistant on?
ROL — Regional Occupation List. Occupations on the ROL are limited to the regional provisional visas — mainly the Skilled Work Regional 491 and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional 494.
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).
- Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) — Provisional, regional employer sponsored · all occupations for the 494
Skills assessment
A positive skills assessment for Personal Assistant comes from:
- Vocational Education and Training Assessment Services (VETASSESS) (official site) · our guide to the VETASSESS process
What the assessment actually involves
VETASSESS places Personal Assistant in Group C, requiring a qualification comparable to an AQF Diploma or higher, run through the family's four-pathway structure. Its highly relevant fields of study are business administration and management. ANZSCO puts Personal Assistant in its own unit group, 5211, separate from the unit group housing Secretary (General) and Legal Secretary — a structural distinction, not just a VETASSESS one, even though both occupations sit under the same minor group, Personal Assistants and Secretaries.
Where these applications come unstuck
VETASSESS's own exclusion list states: “Occupations not considered under this ANZSCO code: Secretary (General) (ANZSCO Code 521211) Legal Secretary (ANZSCO Code 521212) Office Manager (ANZSCO Code 512111) Receptionists (ANZSCO Unit Group 5421)” — and Secretary (General)'s page returns the favour, excluding Personal Assistant by name in turn. The two occupations' highly relevant fields of study overlap heavily, both centring on business administration and management, which makes it easy to assume either qualification supports either code. It does not: the exclusion lists run both ways, and employment built up under one title will not automatically transfer to a nomination under the other.
An honest read on this pathway
Personal Assistant carries Regional Occupation List membership only, reaching subclass 494 alone — the same narrow ceiling as Secretary (General) and most of this family's clerical and administrative codes. The Diploma-level qualification bar is a genuine step up from Certificate III, so the pathway suits an applicant with real administrative-management training and matching duties, but it buys no more visa reach than the Certificate-III-level codes around it. Getting the code right matters for the assessment outcome, not for opening a wider set of visas.
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 Personal Assistant 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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