Skills demand for Occupational Therapist
Whether an occupation is in demand shapes almost everything else about a skilled application — which visas are realistic, how competitive an invitation round is likely to be, and whether a state has any reason to nominate you.
Jobs and Skills Australia currently assesses this occupation as being in shortage. That is an assessment of the labour market, not a promise about your application — but it is the signal states and employers pay attention to.
Visa pathways for Occupational Therapist
Your visa options follow directly from the occupation lists your ANZSCO code sits on. Each list unlocks a different set of subclasses, and appearing on one says nothing about the others.
This occupation appears on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List, which is the list that opens the independent and state-nominated skilled visas as well as the regional pathway.
This occupation appears on the Core Skills Occupation List, which is the list used for the Skills in Demand visa's Core Skills stream.
Skills assessment for Occupational Therapist
Every skilled application turns on the skills assessment. An independent authority — not the Department — decides whether your qualifications and experience genuinely correspond to the occupation you are nominating, and there is no way around it.
We do not publish a fee for this authority. Its fee schedule is not available in a form we can source reliably and keep current, and a stale figure on a page like this is worse than no figure at all — it looks authoritative and it is wrong. Use the link to the authority's own page.
The points test and Occupational Therapist
More applicants misread the points test than any other part of the skilled program, and it is nearly always the same misreading.
Meeting the minimum lets you submit an Expression of Interest. It does not get you invited. The Department invites in rank order from the top down, which means the effective bar is whatever the strongest applicants in your occupation happen to score.
A published minimum for this occupation appears above. Read it as occupation-specific and round-specific — it is not a standing cut-off, and it changes between rounds.
State and territory nomination
State and territory nomination is a separate process with its own rules. Each state publishes its own list and its own criteria, they change without much notice, and being nominated by one state does not help you with another. Check the nominating body directly.
How to apply, step by step
- Confirm the correct ANZSCO code for your occupation. Everything downstream depends on it, and an assessment obtained for the wrong code does not transfer.
- Obtain a positive skills assessment from the assessing authority for that occupation.
- Meet the English language requirement for the visa you are applying for.
- Lodge an Expression of Interest through SkillSelect, claiming only points you can evidence.
- If you are seeking state nomination, apply to the nominating body separately and on its terms.
- Wait to be invited. You cannot apply for the visa until an invitation is issued.
- Lodge the visa application within the period allowed by the invitation, with the evidence for every claim you made.