News: Student visa applications move offshore from 2 October 2026

From 2 October 2026, a person who holds a student visa must generally be outside Australia to apply for a further student visa. Eight more temporary visas have been added to the list of visas whose holders cannot apply for a student visa in Australia, and family members can no longer be added after a student visa has been granted. The changes were made by the Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026 and two legislative instruments. They apply to every visa application made on or after 2 October 2026. Applications made before that date are not affected.

These are the first of the measures the government announced on 17 September 2026 to become law. Our earlier report on the September 2026 migration changes described the student measures as announced without a start date. They now have one.

The explanatory statement to the Regulations gives the purpose as reducing the use of the student visa as a means of extending a stay in Australia, and limiting successive temporary visa applications made in Australia.

The student visa changes at a glance

Student visa holders must apply from outside Australia

New paragraph 1222(3)(aa) of Schedule 1 to the Migration Regulations 1994 applies to a person who holds a subclass 500 student visa and seeks a further student visa as the student. That person must be outside Australia when the application is made.

The paragraph applies whether the person holds the current visa as the student or as a family member. The exceptions, however, are available only to a person who holds the visa as the student. A partner or child who holds a student visa as a family member, and who now wishes to study in their own right, must apply from outside Australia.

An application that does not meet a Schedule 1 requirement is not a valid application. It is not considered, and it does not result in a decision to refuse the visa.

Who may still apply in Australia

Under new subitem 1222(3A), a student who holds the visa in their own right may still apply in Australia if the student is:

• a Defence student;
• a Foreign Affairs student;
• a school student; or
• in a class of persons specified by legislative instrument.

The Migration (LIN 20/158: Class of Persons for Student (Temporary) (Class TU) Visa Applications) Amendment Instrument 2026, LIN 26/087, specifies four classes.

Doctoral students. At the time of application, the student is enrolled in a course of study leading to the award of a doctoral degree.

Provider default. The student could not complete a registered course because the provider defaulted, was enrolled in that course on the provider default day, needs a further visa to complete an alternative registered course, applies within 12 months of the provider default day, and has not made an earlier application because of the same default. The instrument now defines provider default to include a course that does not start or ceases because of a sanction on the provider, or the suspension or cancellation of its registration, under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000.

Completion of studies. The student holds a student visa, has started but not completed the principal course for which it was granted (or an alternative principal course with the same provider that is not inconsistent with the visa conditions), and will complete that course within 12 months of the end date on the confirmation of enrolment.

Course progression. The student holds a student visa, has completed the principal course, and is enrolled in no more than one further course. Where the completed course has an Australian Qualifications Framework level, the further course must be at a higher level. Where the completed course was a higher education course, the further course must also be a higher education course delivered by a higher education provider. Where the completed course has no framework level, the further course must have one, unless the student was a school student when undertaking the earlier course.

The principal course is the course with the highest framework level among those for which the visa was granted. Each class has its own conditions, and the other requirements for a valid application continue to apply. A student who moves sideways, or to a lower qualification, does not fall within the course progression class.

More temporary visa holders must apply offshore

The Migration (Student Visa Applications to Be Made from outside Australia) Instrument 2026, LIN 26/102, lists the visas whose holders must apply for a student visa or a student guardian visa from outside Australia. It replaces an earlier instrument and adds the following:

• subclass 400 Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist)
• subclass 407 Training
• subclass 408 Temporary Activity
• subclass 417 Working Holiday
• subclass 457 Temporary Work (Skilled)
• subclass 462 Work and Holiday
• subclass 482, in both its Skills in Demand and Temporary Skill Shortage forms

These join the visas that were already listed: subclass 403 in the Domestic Worker (Diplomatic or Consular) stream, 485 Temporary Graduate, 600 Visitor, 601 Electronic Travel Authority, 602 Medical Treatment, 651 eVisitor, 771 Transit, 988 Maritime Crew, and 995 Diplomatic (Temporary) for primary visa holders. The list now covers 16 subclasses.

For employers, the practical effect is that a sponsored worker on a subclass 482 visa can no longer move to a student visa without leaving Australia. For Working Holiday Makers, a period of study after the working holiday now requires an offshore application.

The applicant must be offshore when the visa is granted

Clause 500.411 of Schedule 2 has been replaced. Where an applicant was outside Australia when applying because paragraph 1222(3)(aa) required it, or because the applicant did not meet the requirements for applying in Australia, the applicant must also be outside Australia when the visa is granted.

The explanatory statement records that the rule is directed at a particular practice: leaving Australia briefly to lodge the application, then returning and seeking a bridging visa while the application is decided. A person in that position should plan to remain outside Australia until the decision.

The 28-day pathway has closed

Before 2 October 2026, a person who no longer held a substantive visa could apply for a student or student guardian visa in Australia if their last substantive visa was a student visa that had ceased within the previous 28 days. That provision has been repealed. A person in that position must now apply from outside Australia.

One narrower pathway has been added in subitem 1222(4B). It applies where a student visa was cancelled, the Administrative Review Tribunal set the cancellation aside, and the Tribunal’s decision was made after the visa had ceased to be in effect. The person may apply in Australia within 28 days of being notified of the decision, provided they have not previously been granted a visa on an application made while they held no substantive visa. Our page on student visa cancellations covers the review process.

Family members: no more subsequent entrants

Until 2 October 2026, a partner or child could apply for a student visa as a family member after the student’s own visa had been granted. That was known as a subsequent entrant application. It is no longer available.

Two rules replace it. First, paragraph 1222(3)(e) now requires an eligible family member to apply at the same time and place as the student, in a combined application. Where one applicant is outside Australia, or must apply from outside Australia, the whole family applies from outside Australia.

Second, new paragraph 1222(3)(da) allows a family member to apply only where:

• the student is a Defence student or a Foreign Affairs student;
• the student holds a passport from a Pacific regional country, or from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam;
• the family member is in Australia and held a student visa as a family member on 2 October 2026, or had applied for one before that date that was later granted;
• the family member is a child born in Australia on or after 2 October 2026 to a student who held a student visa on that date, or had applied for one that was later granted; or
• the family member is in a class specified by instrument.

LIN 26/087 specifies four such classes: the family of a student whose course or courses are fully funded by a foreign government, the family of a doctoral student, and, where the family member already holds a student visa as that student’s family member, the family of a student applying under the provider default or completion of studies classes. There is no family class for course progression.

Our page on family members of student visa holders sets out each circumstance in more detail.

Student guardian visas

A person who holds a student guardian visa can still apply for a further student guardian visa in Australia. The explanatory statement confirms that the location rules for guardian applications are otherwise unchanged. Two of the changes do reach guardian applications: the LIN 26/102 list applies to them, and the 28-day pathway has closed for them as well.

What students, families and employers should do now

• Students with a visa expiring soon should identify, before the visa ends, whether they fall within an exception. A student who does not will need to apply from outside Australia and remain there until the decision.
• Students planning further study should compare the framework level of the completed course with the next one. Only a move to a higher level supports an application in Australia.
• Students with a partner or children should settle the family position before lodging. A family member left out of the application cannot be added afterwards.
• Working Holiday Makers and other temporary visa holders who intended to move to a student visa should plan for an offshore application.
• Employers whose sponsored workers are considering study should take the same point into account in workforce planning.

Every student visa application must still meet the Genuine Student requirement, which these changes do not alter.

Also from 1 October 2026: no card surcharge on visa application charges

One further change affects every visa applicant who pays by card. From 1 October 2026 the Department of Home Affairs no longer adds a surcharge to card payments of the visa application charge. The change follows the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to end surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit card payments across the eftpos, Mastercard and Visa networks from that date. The visa application charges themselves have not changed.

How Visa Plan Lawyers can help

Whether a person can apply in Australia now depends on the visa held, the course completed, the course proposed and the date of each step. Visa Plan Lawyers advises students and their families on student visa applications, and employers and visa holders on employer sponsored visas and visa appeals. Contact our team to discuss how the 2 October 2026 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.