A multilingual advisory from SBS Urdu highlights a hard new reality for international students who want to change courses or institutions less than 12 months into their principal program. Under Department of Home Affairs reforms that took effect this week, those students must leave Australia and apply offshore for a fresh Student (subclass 500) visa; on-shore extensions are now limited to a narrow set of exceptions. Registered migration agent Aneel Khowaja explains that even a downgrade to a lower-level qualification can trigger the offshore requirement, and refused offshore applicants have no merits-review rights and are left without a bridging visa. Students continuing concurrent enrolments are also caught until they have passed the 12-month mark in their principal course. The change aims to stop ‘visa-shopping’ but will create logistical headaches for corporate dependants and sponsored employees studying part-time. HR teams should warn affected staff of the need to budget for international flights and possible visa gaps. Universities are racing to update orientation materials and have begun setting up offshore application support desks in key source markets. Education agents say the rule could push more students towards competitor destinations such as Canada and the United Kingdom, where in-country course changes remain simpler.
Source: SBS Urdu
