Software and Applications Programmers (ANZSCO 2613): your code, your degree, and what ACS actually checks

You trained as a software developer somewhere else, and now your whole migration case rests on two things: which ANZSCO code you nominate, and whether the Australian Computer Society accepts your degree against it. People lose years, sometimes literally, by getting either one wrong. This is the long version, so you can get both right.

The eight software codes, and the real difference between them

Software roles sit in ANZSCO unit group Software and Applications Programmers (2613), all at skill level 1. The ABS notes that this level usually expects a bachelor degree or higher, and adds that “at least five years of relevant experience and/or relevant vendor certification may substitute for the formal qualification.”

The group splits into eight codes, and the difference between the main four is in the exact verbs the ABS uses:

• Analyst Programmer (261311) “analyses user needs, produces requirements documentation and system plans, and encodes, tests, debugs, maintains and documents programs.” It is the one that owns the analysis step and the coding step.
• Developer Programmer (261312) “interprets specifications, technical designs and flow charts, builds, maintains and modifies the code.” It receives someone else’s design and writes the code to it. It does not analyse user needs.
• Software Engineer (261313) “designs, develops, modifies, documents, tests, implements, installs and supports software applications and systems.” It is the broadest, owning the work from design to deployment and support.
• Software Tester (261314) “specifies, develops and writes test plans and test scripts, produces test cases, carries out regression testing.” It is the quality specialist, and writes no production code.

Four more sit in the group: the three roles new to the 2022 edition, Cyber Security Engineer (261315), DevOps Engineer (261316) and Penetration Tester (261317), plus the catch-all Software and Applications Programmers nec (261399).

This matters because the code you pick has to match the work you actually did, and ACS checks that match closely (more below). Picking “Software Engineer” because it sounds senior, when your job was writing code to a given spec, is a Developer Programmer (261312) in ANZSCO’s eyes.

The same job has a different name where you trained

If you are placing your own background, the international labels help:

• Europe (ISCO-08 / ESCO): software developers sit in ISCO-08 group 2512, Software Developers, under ICT Professionals; the European ESCO database uses “software developer” for the same role.
• United States (SOC / O*NET): Software Developers, 15-1252; testing is 15-1253.
• United Kingdom (SOC 2020): 2134, Programmers and software development professionals.

The catch: “engineer”, “developer” and “programmer” are used loosely and differently from country to country. ANZSCO treats them as separate codes, so describe the work, not the word on your old contract.

What ACS actually checks in your qualification

ACS is the assessing authority for all of these codes. Its assessment turns on three numbers, and they are worth knowing before you apply.

Is your degree an “ICT major”? ACS counts a bachelor degree as having an ICT major if at least 33% of it is ICT. For a two-year postgraduate degree the bar is 50%. Below the major line but above two-thirds of it, it is an “ICT minor”. Below that, ACS treats the degree as non-ICT and sends you to the experience-only pathway.

Is it “closely related” to your code? Separate test. ACS requires that “at least 65% of the IT content must be closely related” to your nominated ANZSCO occupation. A degree can be a clear ICT major and still be ruled not closely related to Software Engineer if its core is networking, hardware or information systems rather than software.

How many years of experience does that leave you needing? This is the General Skills table, and the answer drives everything:

• Bachelor or higher, ICT major, closely related: 2 years in the last 10, or 4 years any time.
• Bachelor or higher, ICT major, not closely related: 4 years any time.
• Bachelor or higher, ICT minor: 5 years in the last 10, or 6 years any time.
• Diploma or associate degree, ICT major: 5 years in the last 10, or 6 years any time.
• No qualifying ICT qualification: the RPL pathway, a flat 6 years (if you have read “8 years” elsewhere, that rule is out of date).

Here is the part most people miss. Those years are not a threshold you simply clear. ACS uses them up. It sets a “Skill Level Requirement Met Date”, and only experience after that date counts as skilled employment, which is the experience Home Affairs awards points for. ACS’s own worked example: a bachelor with a closely related ICT major and four years of experience has two years consumed to meet the criteria, so the skilled date falls two years in. A “not closely related” finding consumes four years instead of two. That single word, “closely”, can cost you two years of points.

What this means if you trained in…

India. The wall is usually not 3-year versus 4-year. ACS will accept a 3-year bachelor as an ICT major if it clears the 33% line, so a focused BCA or B.Sc can qualify as a major. The two real failure modes are the 65% “closely related” test, which a generalist or maths-heavy degree often fails and so loses four to six years of counted experience, and institution validity: a degree from a body not recognised through AICTE or the UGC can be rejected at verification. The clean case is a four-year B.E. or B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering from an AICTE-approved institution: bachelor level, dense core computing, clearly closely related to 2613.

Philippines. The four-year, CHED-regulated degree is rarely the problem. Picking the matching code is. A BS Computer Science maps cleanly to the software codes. A BS Information Technology skews to infrastructure and support, so it is a better fit for networking or support codes than for Software Engineer (261313), and nominating a programming code with it risks a “not closely related” downgrade. BS Computer Engineering is hardware-heavy, so part of it may be judged outside the software core. Match the code to what your degree actually taught.

China. A four-year bachelor in computer science or software engineering is normally a clean ICT major. The step that trips people is procedural: your academic records must be verified through CHSI / CSSD, the body the Ministry of Education authorises for this, before an Australian assessor will look at them. No verification report, no assessment. This is a check that the documents are genuine and on the official record, not a re-grading of your degree.

Wherever you trained, one warning. If you have a WES report, or someone is selling you one, know that WES is the North American route, used for Canada and the United States. It is not the Australian path. Australia recognises ICT qualifications through ACS, and qualification recognition policy sits with the Department of Education’s national centre in the ENIC-NARIC network. Bringing a WES report to an Australian ICT case is bringing the wrong document.

On the lists, but is it in shortage?

Two different questions, and worth separating. Most 2613 codes appear on Australia’s migration lists, which is what opens a pathway. That is not the same as being in current shortage. Australia’s 2025 shortage list rates Software Engineer (261313) as no shortage, while the tester is in shortage. Check both, for your exact code, on its own page, where each fact carries its source and date.

Start with the code

Get the code right, then the degree question, then the experience maths. If you are sure of the work but not the code, search it. If your overseas background does not map neatly, the matcher will show you the closest codes and the reasoning behind each. Information only, never visa advice. For advice on a visa, talk to a registered migration agent.