Professional references are needed to ensure your skills are relevant to the occupation you are choosing to migrate under. To access points for work experience under the General Skilled Migration program, your work experience must have first been assessed by ANMAC.

Our highly skilled Registered Nurses assess your references and may verify them with the issuing organisation.

Work experience will be reported on your Letter of Determination if it meets either of the following criteria:

• a minimum of 12 months paid Australian work experience (minimum 20 hours per week)
• a minimum of 36 months paid International work experience (minimum 20 hours per week)

Professional references are required if you want points recognition from the Department of Home Affairs.

If you require a specific ANZSCO code other than 254499 NEC (Not Elsewhere Classified) you will need to submit a professional reference that supports a minimum of 3 months paid work experience as a registered nurse.  

The assessment team will assess the professional reference and allocate an ANZSCO code. It is important that the referee who writes your reference provides accurate information about your clinical skills and competencies in your area of work. This will assist the team in allocating the ANZSCO code that best reflects your work experience. 

ANMAC cannot allocate a code because you want to work in a specific area or because it supports a specific ANZSCO code for your visa application. ANMAC must be satisfied that you have the minimum 3 month period of work experience in an area to allocate a specific code.

Please email skilledmigration@anmac.org.au if you have any questions in relation to ANZSCO code selection and/or allocation. 

All of your professional references MUST meet the following criteria:

• be on official letterhead
• be written by a direct supervisor who is a nurse or a midwife
• be dated
• contain an original signature
• include this contact information for each referee:
  • official hospital email address (ANMAC will not accept emails that are sent from free web-based email accounts)
  • contact telephone number for the organisation (mobile phones will not be accepted).

Please provide ANMAC's professional reference template (58 KB) to your referee. This will help your referee ensure the content of the reference meets our strict requirements.

Please note: pay slips, tax certificates and service and human resource statements are not acceptable in lieu of a professional reference.

Please review the Frequently Asked Questions relating to professional references.

If you are an agency nurse you will need to provide ANMAC with a service statement from your employer detailing dates and hours of employment AND a professional reference written by a nurse who has supervised you in your role as an agency nurse. 

ANZSCO codes

All applications must refer to an ANZSCO code, these are: