Poultry Farmer 121321: assessment and visa pathways

Key considerations

• VETASSESS assesses Poultry Farmer as a Group B occupation, requiring a comparable bachelor degree or higher.
• The STSOL entry can support state-nominated 190 or 491 consideration, but not independent 189 or family-sponsored 491.
• The 482 and 186 Direct Entry entries exclude positions predominantly involving low-skilled tasks.

The role needs to be skilled poultry farming

The occupation includes Poultry Farm Manager. It concerns organising and running poultry production for meat, eggs or breeding stock, with responsibility for flock welfare, production planning, farm operations and business records.

A job on a poultry property is not automatically employment as Poultry Farmer. Explain who decides production targets, manages flock health and resources, supervises operations and evaluates results. Routine feeding, catching or packing may form part of a working day, but the overall role and level of responsibility need to support the nominated occupation.

When preparing a duties summary, use actual examples. A useful account describes the farm’s operation, your reporting line and decisions you personally make. Do not rewrite an employer’s basic farm-hand role as a management position merely to match an occupation title.

VETASSESS Group B: choose the correct pathway

All four published pathways retain the bachelor-level qualification requirement. The employment must be highly relevant, at the required skill level and at least twenty hours weekly. The usual post-qualification options require employment within the last five years.

• Relevant bachelor degree or higher: one year of post-qualification work.
• Unrelated bachelor degree plus an additional relevant diploma-level qualification: two years of post-qualification work.
• Unrelated bachelor degree without that additional qualification: three years of post-qualification work.
• The alternative pathway requires six years of relevant employment, including at least one year within the last five years.

Connect your studies to the work

Relevant study fields include animal or livestock science, veterinary science and agricultural science. VETASSESS assesses the qualification’s level and content, so a degree title alone is not enough.

Collect the academic transcript and enough course information to explain the relationship between your training and poultry production. If your qualification is in another field, identify which published pathway you propose to use instead of assuming that extensive experience removes the degree requirement. Record the exact completion dates of each qualification and the dates of your subsequent work.

Evidence for employed and self-employed farmers

For employment, prepare a statement of service with dates, hours, salary, duties and an appropriate employer contact, supported by payment records. If you own or operate the farm, follow VETASSESS’s self-employment instructions, including independent business and financial evidence.

Your supporting explanation should make the business understandable: the production type, scale, staffing and your authority within it. Farm ownership documents alone do not demonstrate that you performed the claimed skilled duties. Likewise, photographs may add context but do not replace the required qualification, employment and payment evidence.

For family-operated businesses, make the relationship clear and establish how work and income can be verified. Resolve unexplained gaps or conflicting dates before lodging. Evidence should describe genuine activities rather than repeat a standard occupation description.

Occupation lists and the important sponsorship caveat

Poultry Farmer 121321 is on the STSOL under LIN 19/051, with VETASSESS as assessor. State-nominated subclass 190 or 491 may therefore be considered, subject to federal requirements and the state’s current criteria and selection. This is not an occupation-list route to points-tested 189 or family-sponsored 491.

It also appears in the current 482 Core Skills and 186 Direct Entry instruments. Both apply the low-skilled-task caveat: a position predominantly involving low-skilled activities, such as routine animal feeding, packing or truck driving, is excluded. Assess the actual position rather than its advertised title.

The separate subclass 494 list also includes the occupation. Employer-sponsored pathways require their own sponsor, nomination and visa checks; a positive assessment or a rural job offer does not complete those checks.

Keep assessment and points claims separate

VETASSESS identifies a qualifying employment period and a Date Deemed Skilled. Its points advice excludes employment used for that qualifying period. Do not copy the whole length of your farming career into an EOI as skilled employment without reviewing the assessment and applicable visa rules.

Before committing to relocation or further study, check the intended state program or sponsor opportunity and your current visa position. Qualification recognition, nomination selection and visa grant are separate decisions, each with its own evidence requirements.

How we can help

Ausdirect can examine the farming role and evidence, identify the appropriate assessment pathway and review state-nominated or employer-sponsored options without assuming that every farm job qualifies.

Questions to consider

Your next step

Bring your qualification transcript, farm duties, employment dates and any proposed Australian position to a consultation.