Occupational Registration

Professional bodies

Certain industries such as in the legal, medical, education, trades, or engineering fields, have a representative body in Australia These professional bodies advocate on behalf of the industry, handle occupational registration for certain jobs, and in some cases, can also recognise your qualifications.

Mandatory VS optional occupational registration

If registration is sometimes optional, for some occupations it is mandatory to have it in order to secure positive skills assessment or to apply for a specific visa. This can be a lengthy process that your Registered Agent can assist you with. There are requirements specific to each industry and not doing things in the right order may delay or jeopardise your migration plans.

While certain residence class visas, such as Sc 186 visa, require you to have a mandatory license or registration in order to have the visa granted, it is not a mandatory requirement for a visa grant under Sc 482 visa. This, however, does not apply to Medical Practitioners who will need to provide written evidence that they have been registered or will be given medical registration when applying for Sc 482 visa and evidence of full registration when applying for GSM residence class visas – Sc 189 or 190.

It is important to know that if granted, Sc 482 visa will have condition 8607 imposed which requires the principal visa holder to obtain any mandatory registration/licensing/membership before commencing their employment in the nominated occupation. Furthermore, Sc 482 visa holder must start working for their employer within 90 days after their visa is granted (for onshore applicants), or after they arrive in Australia (for offshore applicants).

Considering the above it may be beneficial to investigate the registration/licensing process before applying for Sc 482 visa. Not only the fact of holding registration/licensing/membership may be accepted by DHA to deem you skilled for a nominated occupation, but should this process take more than 90 days to complete or involve a formal external training, it would be recommended to rather apply for a different type of visa first, i.e Training visa (Sc 407) or a Student visa (Sc 500), and only pursue Sc 482 visa after such training is completed. By doing so you will avoid the risk of your Sc 482 visa being cancelled should you not be able to comply with 8607 condition due to not securing mandatory registration/licensing/membership within the 90-day period.

How to check requirements