The Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) is designed to fill critical skills that are currently in shortage in Australia. The occupations on this list are intended to give employers requiring skilled workers the flexibility to fill vacant positions with international talent.
Any business intending to hire foreign talent for an occupation on the PMSOL will be given priority processing status on both respective nomination and visa applications.
This also means that if the talent is currently offshore, they can request a travel exemption to relocate to Australia and commence their work with the Australian business. However, mandatory quarantine still applies, and this will be at either the traveller or the business’s expense.
The relevant visa categories that will be given priority processing are:
- Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482)
- Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494)
- Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa (subclass 186)
- Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa (subclass 187)
Occupations on the PMSOL list (as of 27 July 2021):
- Chief Executive or Managing Director (111111)
- Construction Project Manager (133111)
- Accountant (General) (221111)
- Management Accountant (221112)
- Taxation Accountant (221113)
- External Auditor (221213)
- Internal Auditor (221214)
- Surveyor (232212)
- Cartographer (232213)
- Other Spatial Scientist (232214)
- Civil Engineer (233211)
- Geotechnical Engineer (233212)
- Structural Engineer (233214)
- Transport Engineer (233215)
- Electrical Engineer (233311)
- Mechanical Engineer (233512)
- Mining Engineer (excluding Petroleum) (233611)
- Petroleum Engineer (233612)
- Medical Laboratory Scientist (234611)
- Veterinarian (234711)
- Hospital Pharmacist (251511)*
- Industrial Pharmacist (251512)*
- Retail Pharmacist (251513)*
- Orthotist or Prosthetist (251912)
- General Practitioner (253111)
- Resident Medical Officer (253112)
- Psychiatrist (253411)
- Medical Practitioners nec (253999)
- Midwife (254111)
- Registered Nurse (Aged Care) (254412)
- Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency) (254415)
- Registered Nurse (Medical) (254418)
- Registered Nurse (Mental Health) (254422)
- Registered Nurse (Perioperative) (254423)
- Registered Nurses nec (254499)
- Multimedia Specialist (261211)
- Analyst Programmer (261311)
- Developer Programmer (261312)
- Software Engineer (261313)
- Software and Applications Programmers nec (261399)
- ICT Security Specialist (262112)
- Social Worker (272511)
- Maintenance Planner (312911)
- Chef (351311)