Your assessing authority, your fees, your timeline.

Every skilled migration visa (189, 190, 491, 482, 186 and others using the points test?) requires a positive skills assessment? before you can lodge an Expression of Interest?. Home Affairs accepts the assessment from your designated authority as proof that your qualifications and experience meet the Australian standard for your nominated occupation.

Search above by your ANZSCO? code or occupation name. The Migration Act and LIN 19/051 list one designated authority per ANZSCO? occupation. ICT occupations route to ACS?, civil and mechanical engineering to Engineers Australia?, registered nurses to ANMAC?, primary and secondary teachers to AITSL, trades to TRA?, medical practitioners to MedBA via AMC, and most other professional occupations to VETASSESS?.

The same one for all of them. The assessing authority is locked to your ANZSCO? occupation, not to your visa. A Software Engineer (261313) goes through ACS? whether the target is a 189, a 190, or a 491. A Civil Engineer (233211) goes through Engineers Australia? for any of them. The visa subclass changes the points threshold, the sponsorship requirement, and the regional commitment. The assessment does not. The Skills in Demand visa (482, replacing TSS) is the partial exception: some trade occupations have a streamlined TSS Skills Assessment? path through TRA? instead of the full migration route.

Between AUD $255 and around AUD $9,500, depending on the authority and pathway. AITSL's Skilled Employment Statement sits at $255 (the cheapest standalone product on the list). VETASSESS? Full Skills Assessment? is $1,096 offshore. Engineers Australia?'s Standard Competency Demonstration Report is $910. The medical pathway costs the most: AMC's Standard Pathway adds up to around $6,562 across the portfolio, MCQ exam, and Clinical Exam, with MedBA registration fees on top. Each card shows the headline fee in AUD; the detail page shows the full schedule.

Expect 4 weeks at the fast end and 7 weeks for most professional assessments. AITSL completes most applications within 4 to 6 weeks. VETASSESS? publishes 7 weeks for Professional Occupations and 10 business days for Priority. Engineers Australia? takes 15 weeks just to assign an assessor (not to outcome). AMC's Standard Pathway is the slowest because MCQ and Clinical exams sit in the way; industry commentary puts it at 18 to 24 months. ACS? and ANMAC? publish no number at all, which we surface honestly rather than guess.

Home Affairs treats most assessments as valid for three years from the date of issue. VETASSESS? and ACS? issue two-year outcomes for some pathways. The authority page shows the validity per authority. If your assessment expires before you lodge, you re-apply, usually at the full fee.

We check each authority's official site daily for fee and processing-time changes (and, for trade fees, the LIN 23/002 legislative instrument on legislation.gov.au). The 'Last checked' date at the bottom of every authority page is the freshest source we have.

Either your occupation is on the Short-Term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL?) or Regional Occupation List (ROL) rather than the Medium and Long-Term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL?), or its assessing authority has not been added to this directory yet. Cross-check on the official Home Affairs Skill Occupation List at immi?.homeaffairs.gov.au and search again by ANZSCO? code.