The Albanese Government’s Migration Amendment (Training Visas—Application Requirements) Regulations 2026 came into force at midnight on 12 November 2026. The instrument removes the ability to lodge or receive a Subclass 407 Training visa while in Australia, except for a handful of narrow exemptions that will be defined in a separate legislative instrument. In practice, prospective trainees, graduates and sponsoring employers must now build overseas travel into their hiring timelines and budgets, because an applicant must be outside Australia both when the visa is lodged and when it is granted. The Subclass 407 visa was originally designed to allow structured, workplace-based training for up-skilling, but Department of Home Affairs statistics show that roughly 40 per cent of recent onshore applicants were using the visa to extend their stay while seeking other migration pathways. The Explanatory Statement notes that the offshore requirement is intended to "strengthen the integrity" of the programme and to curb the practice of successive temporary visa hopping. For businesses, the most immediate impact will be on start dates and workforce planning. Employers must secure sponsorship and nomination approvals first and then factor in the applicant’s exit from Australia, possible biometrics appointments overseas and visa processing times that currently average 15–19 months. Companies with trainees already in-country have been advised by major immigration firms to file before the deadline or pivot to alternative visas such as the Temporary Skill Shortage (Subclass 482). Mobility managers should update their immigration policies quickly. Flight costs, travel insurance and per diem allowances for departing trainees will become a reimbursable expense, while talent acquisition teams will need to adjust recruitment lead-times. Organisations with critical training programmes for graduate engineers, health professionals and IT specialists are urged to map cohorts at risk and communicate early with trainees about offshore lodgement logistics. In the medium term the measure could also tighten Australia’s labour market. Training visas feed skills pipelines for regulated professions; requiring applicants to leave the country may deter some candidates altogether. The Government has hinted at additional 407 reforms in the 2027 Budget cycle, including tighter sponsorship thresholds and a new monitoring regime, signalling that compliance expectations will continue to rise.
Source: Federal Register of Legislation
