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October 9, 2026 Pace Migration Education, Student Visa
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Published 5 October 2026. Last updated 5 October 2026.
The rules for lodging a student visa (subclass 500) changed on 2 October 2026. Most applicants, including many current students, must now be outside Australia when they apply. Most students have also lost the option of bringing a partner or children with them.
Your current Student visa isn’t affected. The new rules apply to applications lodged on or after 2 October 2026. Anything lodged before that date, including applications that included family members, will be decided under the old rules.
The changes come from the Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026 and two legislative instruments that started on the same day, LIN 26/102 and LIN 26/087. In its explanatory statement, the Government says the aim is to stop the student visa being used to extend a stay in Australia and to limit people lodging one onshore temporary visa after another.
The table below compares the position before and after 2 October 2026.
| Situation | Before 2 October 2026 | From 2 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Holder of a 400, 407, 408, 417, 457, 462 or 482 visa applying for a Student visa | Could apply in Australia | Must apply from outside Australia, with no exemptions |
| Student visa holder applying for another Student visa | Could generally apply in Australia | Must apply from outside Australia unless one of six exemptions applies |
| Family member on a student visa applying as the main student | Could apply in Australia | Must apply from outside Australia |
| Former Student visa holder applying within 28 days of that visa ending | Could apply in Australia | Must apply from outside Australia, apart from one narrow Tribunal case |
| Including a partner or children in a new application | Generally allowed | Only allowed if an exemption applies |
| Adding family after the student visa is granted | Allowed as a subsequent entrant | Not allowed, with no exemptions |
One more rule sits behind the table. If you were required to apply from outside Australia, you must also be outside Australia when the visa is granted.
The chart below is a quick first check. The sections that follow explain each step.
Applications lodged on or after 2 October 2026
* 403: Domestic Worker (Diplomatic or Consular) stream only. 995: main visa holders only.
General guide only. Other Student visa criteria still apply. pacemigration.com.au
If you hold any of the visas below, as the main visa holder or as a family member on someone else’s visa, you can’t lodge a Student visa application while you’re in Australia. Home Affairs says there are no exemptions to this rule.
Holders of the 485, visitor and several other visas on this list were already barred before 2 October. The new additions are the 400, 407, 408, 417, 457, 462 and 482. Family members of a subclass 995 visa holder can still apply in Australia.
The working holiday and 482 additions will catch a lot of people. A backpacker on a 417 who planned to start a diploma in Sydney now has to leave Australia to lodge. So does the partner of a 482 worker who wants to enrol in a degree while the rest of the family stays here. If someone on one of these visas lodges in Australia anyway, the application is invalid.
If the rules required you to apply from outside Australia, you also need to be outside Australia at the time the visa is granted. Some people will be tempted to fly out, lodge, come back on another visa and leave again once a decision looks close. We’d advise against it. There’s no guarantee Home Affairs will tell you a decision is coming, and an applicant who is in Australia when the decision is made can be refused. If you lodge offshore, plan on waiting offshore.
Student visas don’t appear on the list above, but most current students are now in a similar position. If you want another Student visa as the main applicant, you have to apply from outside Australia unless one of six exemptions applies to you.
This also affects people who hold a Student visa as a partner or child and now want to study in their own right. They can’t make that switch in Australia.
The extra time is counted from the original end date of your main course. You must still be with the education provider your current visa was granted for. Changing courses with that provider is fine as long as the new course is at the same AQF level or higher. If your visa covers a package of courses, the extra time has to be for the main course.
This is the exemption for students who have fallen behind, for example after failing a subject or taking time off because of illness. It doesn’t help a student who has moved to a different provider, so anyone thinking about switching should weigh that up first.
Students sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Department of Defence can still apply onshore.
The course must lead to a doctoral degree. A Master’s by Research does not qualify, even though it is a research degree.
School students can continue to apply for a further Student visa in Australia.
For most university and college students, this is the exemption that matters. You must have completed the main course your visa was granted for, or a course at the same or a higher AQF level, and the next course must be at a higher AQF level. If the course you finished was a higher education course, the next one must also be a higher education course delivered by a higher education provider.
Two other cases are covered. If the course you finished had no AQF level, such as an ELICOS (English language) course, you can move onshore into a course that has one. Students who have finished school can also move into a course without an AQF level, such as a foundation program.
The examples below show how the rule works.
| Course you’ve completed | Next course | Apply in Australia? |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree at a university (AQF 7) | Master’s by coursework at a university (AQF 9) | Yes |
| ELICOS course | Bachelor degree | Yes |
| ELICOS course | Another ELICOS course | No |
| Secondary school | Foundation program | Yes |
| Bachelor degree at a higher education provider | Graduate Diploma at a VET provider | No |
| Master’s by coursework (AQF 9) | Master’s by Research (AQF 9) | No, both are AQF level 9 |
If you can’t continue because your provider has defaulted, you can apply onshore for a visa to finish in an alternative course. Provider default now expressly includes a provider being sanctioned or having its registration suspended or cancelled. You must have been enrolled on the day of the default, you must apply within 12 months of it, and you can’t have already made a visa application because of the same default.
Even if you qualify for an exemption, you can generally only apply in Australia for one further course. Packaging courses together is only allowed if you’re applying for school studies or because your provider defaulted.
Don’t lodge in Australia and hope for the best. Home Affairs has said it won’t accept an application from someone who isn’t eligible to apply onshore. An invalid application can’t be reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal and won’t give you a bridging visa. If your current visa expires while this is being worked out, you may not be able to apply for another visa in Australia.
Before 2 October, a person whose Student visa had ended in the previous 28 days could still apply for a new one in Australia, even without holding a visa. That pathway has been removed for most people. What remains is a narrow exception for someone whose Student visa cancellation was set aside by the Administrative Review Tribunal after the visa had already ended. That person has 28 days from being notified of the Tribunal’s decision, and other conditions apply.
If your Student visa is close to its expiry date, sort out your next step well before it ends.
From 2 October 2026, a Student visa application can’t include a partner or dependent children unless an exemption applies. That covers first-time applicants as well as students applying for a further Student visa.
Until now, a student could get their visa first and bring a partner or child over later as a subsequent entrant. That option has been removed for every student and there are no exemptions. If your family is eligible to come at all, they have to be part of the original application.
You may be able to include your partner and dependent children when you apply if you are:
The Pacific Island countries are the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The ASEAN countries are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
Scholarship holders and Pacific or ASEAN nationals have an extra condition when they apply from inside Australia. They can only include family if they also need up to 12 more months to finish their main course, are moving up the AQF after completing it, or are applying because their provider defaulted.
The Government has said it won’t split up families who are already here, and there is a transitional rule for them. It is narrower than that statement suggests.
If your partner or children are in Australia and held a Student visa as your family members on 2 October 2026, or had applied before that date and were later granted, they can be included in your next Student visa application. You still have to qualify to apply yourself, which in practice means one of these applies to you:
You must have held or applied for your Student visa before 2 October 2026. A child born in Australia to a student who held, or had applied for, a Student visa on that date can also be included. PhD students and DFAT or Defence sponsored students are already covered by the general family exemptions.
Where family can be included, they must apply at the same time as the student, from the same location, in one combined application. If the student has to apply from outside Australia, the whole family has to as well. Family members applying with you in Australia also need to hold a visa that allows them to apply onshore.
If you’re applying from your home country for the first time, the process itself hasn’t changed much. The family rules are the big difference. Unless you fit one of the family exemptions, plan on coming to Australia on your own, because there’s no longer a way to bring your partner or children over once you’ve settled in.
Your first course choice also carries further than it used to. If you might want to keep studying afterwards, the next course will need to be at a higher AQF level for you to apply in Australia. Otherwise you’ll be applying from overseas again. Staying with your original provider keeps the 12-month extension exemption open if things don’t go to plan. The Genuine Student requirement still applies to every application.
If you’re already in Australia on a working holiday, 482 or other listed visa and want to study, budget for the trip. You’ll need to leave Australia to lodge and be outside Australia when the visa is granted, which may mean a longer stay overseas than you expected. Check when your current visa ends and how long Student visa processing is taking before you lock in a course start date.
Your current visa and its conditions stay as they are. The changes start to matter when you need your next visa, so start planning well before your CoE end date. These are the questions to answer before you enrol in another course or lodge anything:
If your answers point to an offshore application, plan the timing around your visa expiry date and your next course start date.
No. Your current Student visa and its conditions are not affected. The new rules apply to applications lodged on or after 2 October 2026.
The old rules. Applications lodged before 2 October 2026, including those that included family members, are assessed under the rules in place when they were lodged.
No. Subclass 417 and 462 holders must now apply from outside Australia, and they must also be outside Australia when the visa is granted. There are no exemptions.
No. Adding family members after the visa is granted is no longer possible for any student. If your family is eligible, they must be included when you first apply.
Yes, for new applicants. Holders of the visas listed above must also apply from outside Australia for a Student Guardian visa. Current Student Guardian visa holders can still apply for a further Student Guardian visa in Australia.
Whether you can still apply in Australia comes down to details that are easy to get wrong: your exact visa, the AQF level of the course you’ve finished and the next one, whether you’ve stayed with your provider, and when your family members were granted. An invalid application can’t be fixed through review, so check before you lodge.
PACE’s principal migration agent, Syed Rahman, has been a registered migration agent for more than 15 years and has a long background advising international students. Contact PACE Migration to book a consultation, or read more about our student visa services in Sydney.
This article is general information based on the law and Home Affairs guidance as at 5 October 2026. It isn’t migration advice for your circumstances.
Need more help? Contact the team at Pace Migration to get started.
Syed Rahman
Mr. Rahman is a knowledgeable professional with expertise in academia, corporate management, and migration law. He holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Australian Migration Law from ANU, an MBA in International Business from UTS, and a BBA from Baruch College. With 5 years of corporate management experience, 4 years of teaching experience in Australia, and over 15 years as a registered Migration Agent, Mr. Rahman has a strong background in helping international students and skilled migrants with Australian migration law.
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