The Albanese Labor Government is strengthening the student visa program to curtail visa hopping, protect Australia's premium international education sector, and ensure the migration system operates in the national interest.
International education is a national asset, supporting jobs and the education of domestic students, funding research, growing the economy, enriching communities and building lifelong human connections between Australia and the world.
Ensuring the quality and integrity of Australia's international education sector is essential to maintain the nation's reputation as a global leader in international education.
New measures will target misuse while reinforcing the Student visa's core purpose: temporary stay for study.
The reforms will:
- limit onshore Student visa applications
- remove the ability of most students to bring family members, with only limited exceptions in the national interest
- extend transfer restrictions between education providers,
- remove the ability of students to come to Australia for Higher Education and transfer onshore to VET, and
- introduce a new Student visa transfer stream in 2027.
Stopping visa hopping
Onshore Student visa applications will be limited to genuine cases:
- Most temporary visa holders, including Working Holiday Maker and Skills in Demand visa holders, will no longer be able to apply for a Student visa in Australia.
- Student visa holders seeking another onshore Student visa must demonstrate genuine course progression.
- Limited exemptions will apply, including for school and PhD students, and students affected by provider default or course deferral.
Keeping family settings focused
Student visa applicants will face tighter rules on including partners and children, helping ensure student visas are mainly granted to people who are coming to Australia to study. Limited exemptions will apply to: PhD students; nationals of Pacific and ASEAN member countries; and students sponsored by Australian or foreign governments.
Families already together in Australia will not be separated so eligible Student visa holders applying for a new onshore visa may include only family members already here.
In these limited circumstances where family members are able to accompany a student, applicants will need to apply at the time the primary student applies, as the ability of any students to add 'subsequent entrants' has now been removed for all students.
Similar restrictions will apply to Temporary Graduate visas. The changes will not separate families already in Australia where family members hold Student or Temporary Graduate visas as secondary applicants.
Closing transfer loopholes
From mid-2027, international students seeking to change providers after arriving in Australia will need to apply through a new Student visa transfer stream.
The new stream will prevent transfers to lower-level courses that bypass evidence requirements and disrupt the business models of providers targeting students with low-cost or lower-quality courses after they arrive in Australia.
From today, as a transition measure until 30 June 2027 when the new transfer visa takes effect, the Government has amended the rules restricting overseas student transfers between providers, so that non-school students must remain in their principal course for 12 months before seeking a transfer, up from six months.
School students will remain subject to the existing six-month restriction for their first registered school course.
Transfers will still be allowed in exceptional circumstances or where a provider or course ceases to be registered.
From 1 July 2027, students applying for a new Student visa in the transfer stream will have to have received their new visa before they can commence study at a new provider, the end date of their new visa will remain the same.
The reforms only allow transfers at level or up the Australian Qualification Framework and Students will no longer be able to come to Australia to study Higher Education and transfer onshore to VET.
A firm, balanced approach
These reforms protect a strong, sustainable international education sector while ensuring visa programs are used as intended.
Australia continues to welcome genuine students, support quality education, and maintain a migration system that is fair, trusted and in the national interest.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister for International Education, Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural affairs, Hon. Julian Hill MP:
"Australia's international education sector is a national asset, and continued success depends on a ruthless focus on quality, integrity and a great student experience for those who seek value in a premium Australian education.
"This is a sweeping package of reforms that gets the balance right to tighten integrity, manage numbers in a sensible way without trashing one of our nation's largest and proudest export sectors as some loud, ill-informed voices seek to do.
"Having inherited a mess from the Liberals in 2022, the Albanese Government won't take a backwards step in managing the size and the shape of the onshore student market in the national interest.
"Extending the transfer restriction to 12 months as an interim measure until the new student transfer visa comes in on 1 July 2027 delivers immediate action on unacceptably high onshore transfer activity, while preserving transfers for legitimate reasons."
