A legislative instrument registered on 1 October—the Migration (Student Visa Applications to Be Made from outside Australia) Instrument 2026—will force holders of more than a dozen temporary visa subclasses, including Working Holiday, Training and Temporary Skill Shortage visas, to leave Australia before applying for a Student (subclass 500) visa. The measure will commence the day after registration, once companion ‘Student Visa Reform’ regulations take effect. Officials say the change is designed to curb on-shore “visa hopping”, where individuals use successive student visas to extend their stay rather than undertake bona-fide study. The instrument also repeals an earlier rule that listed visas which merely precluded on-shore lodgement, replacing it with a broader class-of-persons approach. Education agents report that offshore application requirements could lengthen processing times by several weeks and increase costs for prospective students who must now factor in international travel. Institutions dependent on last-minute on-shore transfers—such as English-language colleges—may see enrolments dip in the short term. Employers sponsoring staff on temporary visas should alert dependants planning to study that they will need to apply from abroad.
Source: Federal Register of Legislation
