You can recite the subclass numbers by now — 189, 190, 491. What stopped you is the sentence every page repeats and none explains: you must have a suitable skills assessment. Suitable to whom. Assessed by whom. You searched it, found four answers on four sites, and three wanted to book a consultation before telling you anything.
This guide covers the points-tested skilled route and the step before the visa application: the skills assessment, and who may give you one. If you are still choosing between an employer-sponsored job offer and qualifying on points, how to work in Australia from the Philippines maps every route. This one goes a level down.
What Australia asks of a skilled worker on the points-tested route
Four things, for the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), points-tested stream: an occupation on the relevant skilled occupation list, a suitable skills assessment for that occupation, an invitation to apply, and a score that satisfies the points test. That is the Australian Department of Home Affairs' own requirement list. Health, character, documents and the fee sit underneath it, as do two thresholds tested at invitation: age and English.
Your family can come. You can include members of the family unit when you lodge, or add them before the Department decides, and those who apply with you must meet the health and character requirements. The visa also lets you sponsor eligible relatives for permanent residence later.
There is no single set of requirements for a Filipino to obtain a working visa in Australia — "working visa" covers several visas with different rules. Those four are what general skilled migration asks; an employer-sponsored route starts with an employer.
The Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) adds one gate: nomination by an Australian state or territory government agency. Each agency sets its own criteria and you contact it directly — and if it withdraws the nomination after you have applied, the Department says your application becomes invalid.
The Skilled Work Regional visa (subclass 491) needs a correction, because you have probably seen it called the regional permanent residency visa. The Department calls it provisional and temporary: five years from grant, with an obligation to live, work and study in a designated regional area, nominated by a state or territory agency or sponsored by an eligible relative. Permanent residency is a separate later application — the Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa, subclass 191 — which you cannot make until you have held the 491 for three years. A real pathway, not permanent residence on day one.
Who assesses you is not your choice, and it is written down
Only one body's assessment counts, and it is not yours to pick. The Department can only accept a skills assessment issued by the relevant assessing authority — an organisation that checks that your skills meet the standards it sets to work in a relevant occupation. Not the fastest, and not the one an adviser prefers. Most occupations on the lists have their own assessing authority; the Department says most, not all.
The lookup takes an evening. The Department publishes a combined list of eligible skilled occupations, carrying for each occupation its ANZSCO code — the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations code — which lists it appears on, and the assessing authority for skills assessments. Find your occupation, read across, and that is your authority. Contacting it is your own responsibility, and each sets its own procedures, timeframes and charges.
None of that is opinion: the occupations and their assessing authorities are specified in a legislative instrument — the Migration (LIN 19/051: Specification of Occupations and Relevant Assessing Authorities) Instrument 2019, recorded as in force on Australia's Federal Register of Legislation — and different programs sit under different instruments, so read the one for yours. The authorities agree: the Australian Computer Society, which assesses ICT occupations, sends applicants outside its own lists to the Department's list to find theirs.
We see people read a skills assessment as a judgement on whether they are good enough for Australia. It is a translation. A Philippine qualification and work history are measured against a written Australian standard so a government, and later an employer, can read them without guessing. That changes the useful question — not am I good enough, but is what I have done legible to the people who read it. Where the answer is no, the gap is often in the record rather than in you: missing payslips, a duty statement nobody wrote down, a supervisor who left in 2019. But sometimes it is not the record: an authority measures your qualification and your experience against the standard it sets, and either can fall short.
Which assessment counts, and how long it lasts
Ask your authority which of its assessments is the one for permanent skilled migration, and get the answer in writing before you pay. Authorities may issue more than one type, the Department warns, and yours must meet the requirements for permanent migration. Its own example: a provisional assessment issued for a Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) is not suitable for a points-tested application. You can go to exactly the right body, pay in good faith, and still hold the wrong document.
Validity runs three years from the date of issue where no period is shown, the Department calculates. A shorter period shown on the assessment governs; a longer one is cut back to three years from assessment. Two rules sit on top: it must be valid when you are invited to apply, and you cannot rely on one obtained after you were invited — although the Department notes that, following the decision in Thapa, its delegates will now accept a suitable assessment for the nominated occupation obtained within the 60-day invitation period.
A negative result stops everything: without a positive assessment, the Department states, you cannot apply for a skilled migration visa. That is why it is organised early, and why a refusal is not a verdict on a career.
The points test, the invitation, and why nobody can promise a date
Sixty-five points is the floor, not the finish. If you do not obtain a score of 65 points you will not be invited to apply, the Department states on its subclass 189 points-tested page — and an invitation names the number of points you must actually score at assessment, which may be higher than 65 depending on the claims you made.
And the question we are asked most: can I get permanent residency in three years? No honest guide can give you a date. After you submit an expression of interest through SkillSelect, the Department says you are ranked against other intending applicants and might be invited. What produces an invitation is not elapsed time — it is your score against everyone else who nominated the same occupation, the stream you are in, and whether your occupation is still on the relevant list when the round comes. Nobody controls those, so nobody can sell you a timeline.
Two thresholds catch people who are otherwise well prepared. You must be under 45 when the Department invites you; you may still apply if you turn 45 after the invitation arrives, but turn 45 between the expression of interest and the invitation and you will not be invited at all. And at invitation you must have at least competent English — a defined Departmental term with its own page, so read it at source. Our guide to English testing is a sensible first stop.
The occupation lists change, and what that does and does not do to you
The Department uses two versions of ANZSCO at once, and which applies depends on the visa. The 2022 version covers the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) and the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), including the Core Skills Occupation List; the 2013 version covers all other skilled subclasses, including the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List, the Short-term Skilled Occupation List and the Regional Occupation List. Where an update reclassified or split an occupation, the Department says to select the code matching the tasks and responsibilities of your position.
People ask for a list of the most in-demand jobs for Filipinos in Australia, and we do not publish one. A list of in-demand occupations published by anyone other than the destination is a promise nobody can keep. The only such list that decides anything is Australia's own; it is dated, it is versioned, and appearing on it is not an offer of work — it is permission to be considered. If you are a nurse, countries hiring Filipino nurses is the wider picture; in a trade, start with the skilled trades path.
One protection here is narrower than it sounds. Pending nomination and visa applications are not adversely impacted by the later removal of an occupation, the Department states, and existing holders are unaffected unless their circumstances change and a new nomination is needed. Read the bound: that protects an application already lodged, not an expression of interest waiting for an invitation.
Before you pay anyone, check the register
Three kinds of people may legally help you, and no others: a registered migration agent, a legal practitioner, or an exempt person. That is the Department's rule for what it calls immigration assistance — preparing or helping prepare a visa application or document, advising on a visa matter, or representing you before a court or review authority.
Checking takes a minute. Australia's regulator, the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, runs a public search of registered agents by given name, family name, MARN, business name or location:
https://portal.mara.gov.au/search-the-register-of-migration-agents/
Two facts from that office protect your money. An exempt person — a close family member helping you, for instance — must not charge you. And you do not have to use a registered agent at all, though the regulator says you may want one if your case is complex. Set those together and the conclusion about someone who is neither registered nor a lawyer, and is asking for a fee, writes itself. The same office publishes its consumer factsheet on who may lawfully give immigration assistance in many languages, Filipino among them.
One cost trap to close on. The Department publishes no plain-text price here — it publishes a Visa Pricing Estimator and tells applicants to use it, noting the estimate might not include a second instalment payable on some visas. Be careful, too, with any suggestion that you will pay less: on the skilled visa pages, the lower cost the Department names applies to eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens, so a reduced charge is not something a Filipino applicant should plan around here. Your authority's fee is separate again, and these fees move — VETASSESS announced on 7 August 2026 that its professional skills assessment fees would rise from 9 September 2026, and that the increase does not apply to trade occupations. Check both at source.
What a skills assessment is really building
The useful work starts before any of this. Build the record your assessment will be read from: an employment history with dates, duties and payslips that agree; qualifications and transcripts held as issued; referees still reachable; and English started early, because it is tested at invitation and not afterwards.
A skills assessment is a rung, not a finish line — the first time a Philippine qualification is measured against a foreign standard and comes back with an answer in writing. That question returns at professional registration, at licensing, at the promotion above the role you are hired into, and again in a third country. Learning how recognition works is a career skill that keeps paying. Credential recognition abroad is where that thread continues, and where Filipinos work abroad is the map if a next country becomes the question.
Before You Submit an EOI: Your Checklist
- Find your occupation on the Department's combined list; write down its ANZSCO code.
- Read across to your assessing authority — the only one the Department accepts.
- Ask it, in writing, which assessment is the one for permanent skilled migration.
- Check the validity period printed on any assessment you hold; diary the expiry.
- Confirm you will be under 45 at the point of invitation, not merely today.
- Sit your English test early — it is tested at invitation, not afterwards.
- Before you pay anyone, search the OMARA register for their name or MARN.
- Budget the authority's fee and the visa charge separately, at source.
The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most
Do I need a job offer to apply for Australia's points-tested skilled visa? No. The Department's four requirements for the subclass 189 points-tested stream do not include one: an occupation on the relevant skilled occupation list, a suitable skills assessment, an invitation to apply, and satisfying the points test. Employer-sponsored visas are different visas with different requirements, covered in our Australia guide.
Can I get permanent residency in Australia in three years? No guide can honestly give you a date. What determines it is the stream, whether your occupation is on the relevant list, your score relative to other applicants for the same occupation, and whether you are invited. One dated fact exists, for one route only: a subclass 491 holder cannot make the separate subclass 191 application until they have held the 491 for three years — a minimum wait on one visa, not a timeline to permanent residency.
Which body will assess my skills? The one listed against your occupation on the Department of Home Affairs' combined list of eligible skilled occupations, and no other — an assessment from a different body, however reputable, does not substitute.
Is it safe to pay someone to handle my Australian visa application? Only if they are a registered migration agent or a legal practitioner. Those two, plus an exempt person who must not charge you, are the only people who may give immigration assistance — and you need not use an agent at all. Search the regulator's register first: https://portal.mara.gov.au/search-the-register-of-migration-agents/
Sources
Subclass 189, points-tested — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-independent-189/points-tested
Subclass 190 — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-nominated-190
Subclass 491 — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-work-regional-provisional-491/application
Skills assessment — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skills-assessment
Skilled occupation list — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skill-occupation-list
Immigration assistance — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/who-can-help-with-your-application/overview
Visa pricing — Department of Home Affairs: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/fees-and-charges/current-visa-pricing
Instrument LIN 19/051 — Federal Register of Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2019L00278/latest/text
Register search — Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority: https://portal.mara.gov.au/search-the-register-of-migration-agents/
Exempt persons — Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority: https://www.mara.gov.au/get-help-with-a-visa/helpers-not-registered
Using an agent — Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority: https://www.mara.gov.au/get-help-with-a-visa/help-from-registered-agents/how-registered-agents-can-help
Consumer factsheet, in Filipino — Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority: https://www.mara.gov.au/notices-and-reports/guides-and-factsheets/factsheet-giving-immigration-assistance-in-australia
Correct assessing authority — Australian Computer Society: https://www.acs.org.au/msa.html
Fee change, 9 September 2026 — VETASSESS: https://www.vetassess.com.au/news/change-in-assessment-fees-for-professional-skills-assessments