News: Australia's September 2026 migration changes for student families, Working Holiday and visitor visas

The Australian migration changes announced on 17 September 2026 restrict family members on most Student and Temporary Graduate visas, move second and third Working Holiday Maker visas to a capped ballot, attach a No Further Stay condition to all future visitor visas, confine student course changes to higher qualifications, and widen priority processing for skilled visas in key sectors. None of the measures has a published start date. The Department of Home Affairs says they will be rolled out progressively over the next 12 months.

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke set out the package at the National Press Club in Canberra. The stated purpose is to deliver the Budget forecasts for net overseas migration of 245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 in 2027-28. Net overseas migration currently stands at 292,000, which the government says is 47 per cent below the 2023 peak.

What follows covers what was announced, who is affected, what is not yet law, and the decisions visa holders and sponsors should be considering now.

The September 2026 migration changes at a glance

The official summaries are the Minister’s media release, the National Press Club speech and the Department’s migration policy changes page.

An announcement is not yet the law

A ministerial speech does not change a visa criterion. Visa conditions, secondary applicant rules and Working Holiday eligibility sit in the Migration Regulations 1994. Processing priorities and character guidance sit in Ministerial Directions. Each needs a legislative instrument or a signed direction before a decision-maker can apply it, and each instrument will carry its own commencement date and transitional rules.

Until those instruments are registered, applications are decided under the current rules, and a person who is eligible today remains eligible today. The detail that decides individual cases, such as whether a measure applies by reference to the date of application or the date of grant, is not yet known. We will update this post as each instrument is made. The Minister also confirmed that two measures he wanted are not part of this package because they require legislation that has not passed the Parliament: an expression of interest system for temporary visas, and changes to deal with unmeritorious protection claims.

Student visas: family members and course progression

Two separate student visa changes were announced, and they affect different people.

The first concerns family members. At present a student visa applicant can include a partner and dependent children as secondary applicants. The Minister said the government “will no longer be allowing the attaching of family members for international students or for graduate visas”. The second limb extends the restriction to the Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa, which many graduate visa applicants use to bring a partner after finishing study.

Three groups fall outside the restriction on the Minister’s account. Family members who already hold a visa and are in Australia keep it. Students from Pacific and ASEAN nations will remain able to include family under special arrangements. Students in certain courses, with PhDs given as the example, will also be able to bring family. The media release describes the measure as applying to “most” student visas, so the final list of exempt courses will be set by the instrument.

The second change targets what the Minister called visa hopping. Extensions for illness or a provider closure are unchanged. Transfers between courses at the same level will need a new visa application but remain available. What ends is progression down the qualification scale: a student who has finished a bachelor degree will be able to apply for a further student visa for a masters degree, but not for a lower-level vocational course. Students part way through a packaged pathway should check how their remaining courses rank against the one they have completed.

Working Holiday Maker visas: a ballot for years two and three

The Working Holiday (subclass 417) and Work and Holiday (subclass 462) programs keep their specified work rules: 88 days of regional work to qualify for a second visa and six months for a third. What changes is the consequence of qualifying. Completing the work will earn a place in a ballot rather than a visa.

The announced caps are 45,000 places a year for second visas and 5,000 for third visas. The Minister said about 57,000 people qualified for a second year and 31,000 for a third year last year. On those figures roughly one in five qualified second-year applicants, and more than four in five qualified third-year applicants, would miss out. In exchange, the government says processing times for Working Holiday visa and Work and Holiday visa applications subject to the regional requirement will be stabilised at three months.

United Kingdom passport holders do not have a regional work requirement under the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement. The Minister indicated that UK applications will continue to be processed at the slower pace of recent years while discussions with the UK continue.

For a Working Holiday Maker who wants to remain in Australia, the third year can no longer be treated as a dependable step. Employers who rely on backpacker labour, and workers who have a skilled occupation, should look at employer sponsored visas and other substantive pathways earlier than they otherwise would.

Visitor visas: No Further Stay on every future grant

This change has the widest effect on families. A No Further Stay condition prevents the holder from applying for most other visas while in Australia. Some visitor visas already carry one, most commonly condition 8503. The government will now attach a No Further Stay condition to all visitor visas. The Minister did not name the condition number, and the instrument will settle whether the existing condition or a new one is used.

The Minister’s example was partner visas. A person who arrives on a visitor visa without the condition can currently lodge an onshore partner visa application and remain on a bridging visa while it is processed, while a couple who apply from overseas wait offshore. He described that as a double standard and said the change would bring consistency to family migration. The visitor-to-onshore-partner pathway will therefore close for visitor visas granted after commencement, and those couples will need to use the offshore subclass 309/100 pathway or hold a different substantive visa onshore.

Three qualifications apply. The condition will apply to future grants, and the Minister said it will have no impact on anyone already here. It cannot prevent a protection visa application. And the stated trade-off is that visitor visas for weddings, funerals and family visits should become easier to obtain, because the risk that a visitor will stay on is removed from the genuine temporary stay assessment. Partners waiting on an offshore application should also find visits easier to secure.

A No Further Stay condition can be waived only in narrow circumstances that are compelling, compassionate and beyond the visa holder’s control. Our guide to the No Further Stay waiver for condition 8503 explains how high that bar is. A new relationship does not generally meet it.

Skilled migration: priority sectors and a new points test

Employer sponsored and skilled applicants are the group least disturbed by the package. Ministerial Direction 119, which sets the order in which skilled visa applications are processed, will be updated. The media release lists healthcare, construction, education, law enforcement, defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing as priority sectors. In the speech the Minister identified construction, agriculture, fisheries, resources and teaching as the additions, and said the single priority order that currently governs both permanent and temporary visas will be separated.

The Minister also confirmed that the points test for skilled visas has been reworked with Treasury. One feature was disclosed: selected skills will receive an uplift, and on implementation a person qualified in a housing trade will receive the same points as a university graduate. No points table has been released. Our current points test guide remains accurate until it is.

Compliance, migration agents and character

The remaining measures go to enforcement. The government will fund 100 additional compliance officers and 250 additional detention beds, returning to the pre-2015 practice of detaining people who overstay and do not depart. The code of conduct for registered migration agents will be changed so that agents who encourage applications without merit can be sanctioned or deregistered. Ministerial Direction 110, which guides character decisions, will be updated to better protect children who are victims of crime and victims of domestic and family violence, and to address hate-motivated conduct.

For anyone whose visa has expired or is close to expiring, remaining unlawfully will carry more risk than it has in recent years. Status should be resolved before a visa ends. Where a visa has been refused or cancelled, review rights run on strict time limits that these changes do not extend.

What visa holders and sponsors should do now

• Couples planning a partner visa should decide between the onshore and offshore pathways with the visitor visa change in mind. A visitor visa granted after commencement is unlikely to support an onshore application.
• Prospective students with a partner or children should confirm whether their nationality or course level falls within an exception before accepting an offer, and should not assume family can follow later on a subclass 485 visa.
• Current students should map any further study against the qualification they have completed. A move to a lower-level course is unlikely to support another student visa once the rule commences.
• Working Holiday Makers in their first or second year should treat a further year as uncertain and assess skilled or sponsored options now.
• Employers in the named priority sectors should expect faster processing once the new Direction 119 is signed, and should plan for less certainty in the backpacker workforce.

How Visa Plan Lawyers can help

Each of these measures will turn on commencement dates and transitional provisions that have not been published, and for many people the right decision depends on acting before or after a particular date. Visa Plan Lawyers advises on partner visas, employer sponsored visas, skilled visas and visa appeals, and we are tracking each instrument as it is made. Contact our team to discuss how the September 2026 migration changes affect your circumstances.

General information only, current at the date shown. It is not legal advice on your situation. To get advice on your matter, book a consultation.