Visitor Visa and Temporary Graduate 485 Visa holders no longer able to apply Study Visa Onshore

The following two changes are being made effective 1 July 2024:

1. Visitor Visa holders will not be able to apply for Student Visas onshore. The visitor to student pathway has become increasingly prevalent, with over 36,000 applications since 1 July 2023 to the end of May 2024. This measure closes a pathway that has been used to attempt to subvert the Government’s strengthened offshore student visa integrity measures.

2. Temporary Graduate Visa holders will not be able to apply for Student Visas onshore. In their recent Graduates in Limbo report, the Grattan Institute found that 32 per cent of Temporary Graduate Visa holders are returning to study when their visa expires in order to prolong their stay in Australia.

This change makes it clear that graduates should be finding skilled jobs and becoming permanent residents, or departing the country when they are more likely to become permanently temporary.

These changes support a range of other changes that are being implemented for Temporary Graduate visa holders on 1 July. These include:

• significantly shorter post-study work rights,
• reduced age limits from 50 to 35 years of age, and
• increased English language requirements which were implemented in March 2024.

Together, these changes will continue to reduce net overseas migration, with the Government on-track to halve net overseas migration by next financial year.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O’Neil:

The migration system we inherited was completely broken, and our goal is to build a smaller, better planned, more strategic migration system that works for Australia. Our Migration Strategy outlines a clear plan to close the loopholes in international education and this is the next step in delivering that plan. We need a migration system which delivers the skills we need, but doesn’t trade in rorts, loopholes and exploitation.

• Read the full media release here