closely related skilled occupation

Your employment must have been in your nominated skilled occupation or a closely related skilled occupation.

You can only claim skilled employment if:

in the 10 years before you are invited to apply you completed at least 20 hours of paid work per week (this may be adjusted for shift or fly-in-fly-out workers) in your nominated occupation and/or a closely related occupation. Closely-related occupations must be:
- in the same ANZSCO Unit Group or
- consistent with a career advancement pathway or
- determined by an assessing authority that it is closely related to your nominated occupation.
either the authority undertaking your skills assessment states in the assessment that your employment is skilled (in your EOI, use the date stated in your assessment as your employment commencement date) or your employment experience meets the standards for skilled employment set by your assessing authority on their website.

What does “closely related” mean in practice?

An occupation is usually accepted as closely related when the duties you performed match the main tasks of your nominated occupation at the same skill level. Some examples:

An accountant (general) who previously worked as a management accountant or taxation accountant. These occupations are in the same ANZSCO unit group.
A software engineer who started as a developer programmer and was promoted. This is consistent with a career advancement pathway.
A registered nurse who worked as an enrolled nurse is generally not closely related, because the skill level is different.

Your skills assessment is the key document. Many assessing authorities state the date from which your employment is considered skilled and which positions they accepted. If the assessment does not cover a job, you may need to show with detailed reference letters that the duties were closely related.

Points for skilled employment

Only skilled employment in your nominated or a closely related occupation in the 10 years before invitation counts for points:

Years of skilled employment	Outside Australia	In Australia
Less than 1 year	0	0
1 to less than 3 years	0	5
3 to less than 5 years	5	10
5 to less than 8 years	10	15
8 to 10 years	15	20

The combined points for overseas and Australian employment are capped at 20 points. See points for work experience for more detail and examples.

Common mistakes

Claiming employment from before the skilled date in your skills assessment.
Counting part-time work of less than 20 hours per week.
Claiming unpaid work, internships or periods of leave without pay.
Claiming a job with a different occupation title without evidence that the duties were closely related.

Overclaiming points in your EOI can lead to a visa refusal. Book a consultation if you are unsure how much of your experience you can claim.