Signwriter
Designs, fabricates and paints signs for displays, buildings, hoardings, boats and structures. Registration or licensing may be required.
ANZSCO 2013, the edition the department applies to the points tested visas (189, 190 and 491).
Specialisations within it
- Sign Manufacturer
Duties
Published for unit group 3996 Signwriters
- conferring with clients and responding to proposals, sketches and written instructions to determine composition of signs
- designing and creating signs and graphics using computer software and signmaking machines
- designing and creating signs by measuring and calculating letter size, preparing the surface, applying background paint using brushes, sprays and rollers, and creating the letters using brushes, stencils, enamel paint and decals
- designing and creating wall murals, screen prints, gold leaf work and custom vehicle art
- painting signs and lettering using lacquers, varnishes, paints and other materials
- painting signs on brick, metal, timber, glass, plastic and other surfaces
- making and erecting three dimensional signs
- preparing cost estimates for labour and materials
- may erect and work on scaffolding
- may install signs on-site
- Occupation:
- 399611 Signwriter
This is what the occupation is, not what a skills assessment requires. The assessing body applies its own criteria on top of this, and those criteria are not published here. Check them with the body itself.
Who assesses this occupation
Last confirmed against the department's list on 30 July 2026.
This occupation reads differently for the 186 and 482
Two editions of ANZSCO are current at once, and the department applies ANZSCO 2022 to the employer sponsored visas while everything above follows ANZSCO 2013.
The definition is identical in both editions, but the published duties are not:
- conferring with clients and responding to proposals, sketches and written instructions to determine composition of signs
- designing and creating signs and graphics using computer software and signmaking machines
- designing and creating signs by measuring and calculating letter size, preparing the surface, applying background paint using brushes, sprays and rollers, and creating the letters using brushes, stencils, enamel paint and decals
- designing and creating wall murals, screen prints, gold leaf work and custom vehicle art
- painting signs and lettering using lacquers, varnishes, paints and other materials
- painting signs on brick, metal, timber, glass, plastic and other surfaces
- making and erecting three dimensional signs
- preparing cost estimates for labour and materials
- may erect and work on scaffolding
- may install signs on-site
If you are going for a 186 or a 482, this is the wording that governs you. Everything above governs the points tested routes.
Where Signwriter stands right now
There is no expression of interest queue for this occupation: it is not on the points tested lists, so the route runs through an employer instead. Vizard maps that route step by step.
See where you standWhere this comes from
Definition and duties: Australian Bureau of Statistics, ANZSCO
Assessing authorities and skilled lists: Department of Home Affairs skilled occupation list
Vizard is not a registered migration agent and nothing here is migration advice. It is published government information, organised. For advice on your own situation, speak to a registered migration agent.