Section 48 Bar: Applying Onshore After a Visa Refusal

If your visa application was refused while you were in Australia and you no longer hold a substantive visa, section 48 of the Migration Act 1958 stops you from lodging most further visa applications while you remain onshore. You are not, however, blocked from every visa. A limited set of visa classes is carved out, and since 2023 that set includes two skilled permanent options. This article explains when the bar applies, what you can still apply for, and the practical choices open to you in 2026.

What the section 48 bar actually is

Section 48 of the Migration Act 1958 restricts a non-citizen who is in the migration zone, does not hold a substantive visa, and who since last entering Australia has either had a visa application refused or held a visa that was cancelled. A person in that position may only apply for a visa of a class prescribed by the regulations. Every other class is barred while they stay onshore.

Two elements do the work here. First, “substantive visa” means a visa that is not a bridging visa, a criminal justice visa, or an enforcement visa. So being on a bridging visa does not save you: a bridging visa is not substantive, which is exactly why the bar bites. Second, the trigger event must have happened since you last entered Australia. A refusal that occurred before your most recent arrival does not count.

The prescribed classes that escape the bar are set out in regulation 2.12 of the Migration Regulations 1994. This is the provision you and your adviser need to read closely, because it defines the entire universe of what you can lodge onshore.

Which refusals count, and which do not

Not every adverse outcome triggers section 48. The bar is directed at a refusal of a visa application or a cancellation of a visa. There are important qualifications.

A refusal on certain narrow grounds does not activate the bar. Broadly, a refusal that turned only on a failure to meet health criteria, or that rested on a specific character-related public interest criterion in defined circumstances, may be excluded from the operation of section 48. These exclusions are technical, and whether your particular refusal falls inside or outside them is a legal question that turns on the precise ground the delegate relied on. Do not assume your refusal is exempt; have the decision record checked.

A common point of confusion is timing. The bar operates from the moment the trigger event occurs. If your visa application is refused and you then lodge for merits review at the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), the refusal has still happened for section 48 purposes. Review does not undo the refusal while it is pending. What review does is keep you lawful on a bridging visa and preserve the chance of the decision being set aside. If the ART sets the refusal aside, the position changes; while it stands, the bar remains.

What you can still apply for onshore

Regulation 2.12 prescribes the classes that a section 48 barred person may lodge in Australia. In practice, the most frequently relevant are the following.

The partner visa (subclass 820/801) is available onshore to a person who is section 48 barred, which is why it is often the realistic path for someone in a genuine and continuing relationship with an Australian partner. The first instalment of the Commonwealth charge for the partner visa is $11,710 (as at 5 July 2026, Department of Home Affairs), and the relationship and other criteria still have to be satisfied in full.

A protection visa can generally be applied for onshore despite section 48, subject to the separate and stricter bar in section 48A that limits repeat protection applications. Certain other humanitarian, medical treatment, and specific bridging arrangements also sit within the prescribed classes.

Since a 2023 amendment to regulation 2.12, a section 48 barred person may also apply onshore for the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190) and the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491). This was a meaningful change, because before it these skilled permanent and provisional options were only available to applicants who could leave and apply offshore. The Commonwealth charge for a subclass 190 primary applicant is $6,140, and for a subclass 491 primary applicant is $6,140 (both as at 5 July 2026, Department of Home Affairs).

There is a critical condition attached to the skilled route. The concession lets you lodge onshore, but it does not create the underlying eligibility. For a subclass 190 or 491 application you must first have received an invitation to apply following a valid expression of interest, and for the 491 a state or territory or eligible family nomination. Without that invitation, the ability to lodge onshore is of no use. In other words, the section 48 concession removes one obstacle but leaves the ordinary skilled criteria fully in place.

Why the employer sponsored route is usually not the answer onshore

A frequent question is whether an employer can sponsor a section 48 barred worker onshore. The nomination and sponsorship steps are lodged by the business, not the visa applicant, so those can proceed. The difficulty is the visa application itself. The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186), and the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) are not among the prescribed classes in regulation 2.12. A section 48 barred person therefore cannot validly lodge the visa application for those subclasses while onshore.

The practical consequence is that an employer sponsored applicant who is section 48 barred usually has to depart Australia and lodge the visa application offshore, once the nomination is approved. That is a significant logistical and personal decision, and it needs to be planned around the nomination approval and any regional or occupation requirements. If this is your situation, our team can map the sequence before anyone commits to leaving.

Leaving Australia removes the bar

The section 48 bar is geographic. It only operates while you are in the migration zone. If you depart and lodge a visa application from outside Australia, section 48 does not apply to that application. This is why “leave and apply offshore” is so often the answer for barred applicants who want an employer sponsored or other non-prescribed visa.

Departure is not free of risk. Leaving while a bridging visa is your only status can end that status, and any re-entry depends on the offshore application and on any exclusion period or condition that attaches to your history. A person who has had a visa refused or cancelled may also face a bar on being granted a further temporary visa for a period, depending on the circumstances. The decision to leave should be made with the offshore pathway already confirmed as viable, not on the assumption that departure alone solves the problem.

Practical steps if you are section 48 barred

Start by obtaining the exact refusal or cancellation decision and identifying the ground it was based on. That determines whether the bar is triggered at all and whether any narrow exclusion applies. Then work through regulation 2.12 to see which prescribed classes you genuinely qualify for, rather than assuming the door is shut.

If a partner, protection, or skilled prescribed pathway fits your circumstances, the onshore route may be open now. If your realistic option is employer sponsored, the planning centres on an offshore application and the timing of departure. If merits review of the original refusal is still available and the decision looks reviewable, that avenue can preserve both your lawful status and the chance of removing the trigger event entirely.

Section 48 is one of the most misunderstood provisions in the Act, and a wrong assumption about it can cost an applicant a valid application or an unnecessary departure. If you have had an onshore refusal or cancellation and want to know exactly what you can lodge, our team advises on the fastest lawful pathway for your situation. Speak with us through our skilled visas or partner visas pages, or about an offshore employer sponsored option.