Secretary (General)
Performs secretarial, clerical and other administrative tasks in support of Managers and Professionals.
ANZSCO 2013, the edition the department applies to the points tested visas (189, 190 and 491).
Duties
Published for unit group 5212 Secretaries
- liaising with other staff to arrange meetings, and to gain and provide information
- preparing reports, briefing notes and correspondence, and proofreading work for typographical and grammatical errors
- maintaining appointment diaries and making travel arrangements
- processing incoming and outgoing mail, filing correspondence and maintaining records
- answering telephone calls, responding to inquiries and redirecting callers
- taking and transcribing dictation of letters and other documents
- greeting visitors, ascertaining nature of business and directing visitors to appropriate persons
- may implement management decisions and maintain records of meetings
- may handle bookkeeping and petty cash functions
- Occupation:
- 521211 Secretary (General)
- 521212 Legal Secretary
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:
- liaising with other staff to arrange meetings, and to gain and provide information
- preparing reports, briefing notes and correspondence, and proofreading work for typographical and grammatical errors
- maintaining appointment diaries and making travel arrangements
- processing incoming and outgoing mail, filing correspondence and maintaining records
- answering telephone calls, responding to inquiries and redirecting callers
- taking and transcribing dictation of letters and other documents
- greeting visitors, ascertaining nature of business and directing visitors to appropriate persons
- may implement management decisions and maintain records of meetings
- may handle bookkeeping and petty cash functions
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 Secretary (General) 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.