Australia’s student visa changes took effect on 2 October 2026. Most temporary visa holders can no longer apply for a Student visa (subclass 500) while they are in Australia, current students can only apply onshore if an exemption fits, and anyone who has to lodge offshore must also be offshore when the visa is granted.
Status: in force from 2 October 2026 under the Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026 and two instruments made on the same day. The visa rule changes apply to applications lodged on or after 2 October 2026. The Student visa “transfer stream” planned for 1 July 2027 is announced only and is not yet law.
If study was part of how you planned to stay in Australia, this is the change that matters to you, and much of what is online was written before the rules were made.
The student visa changes in Australia at a glance
| Change | Status | Applies from |
|---|---|---|
| Holders of 17 listed classes of temporary visa must apply for a Student or Student Guardian visa from outside Australia | In force | 2 October 2026 |
| Student visa holders can only apply for another Student visa in Australia if an exemption applies | In force | 2 October 2026 |
| If you had to lodge offshore, you must also be offshore when the Student visa is granted | In force | 2 October 2026 |
| Onshore course progression must move up the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) | In force | 2 October 2026 |
| Partners and children can only be included under limited exemptions, and family can no longer be added after grant | In force | 2 October 2026 |
| Providers generally cannot enrol a non-school student transferring in during the first 12 months of their principal course | In force | 2 October 2026 to 30 June 2027 |
| Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning) specified for automatic suspension and cancellation | In force | Instrument commenced 5 September 2026 |
| A new Student visa transfer stream | Announced only, not law | Planned for 1 July 2027 |
The Department’s fact sheet on the new rules puts the centre of it in one sentence: “Most temporary visa holders in Australia will no longer be able to lodge a Student or Student Guardian visa application while in Australia.”
Which visa holders must now apply from outside Australia
The list sits in a legislative instrument, LIN 26/102. If you are in Australia and hold any of these visas, you cannot make a valid application for a Student visa or a Student Guardian visa (subclass 590):
- Subclass 400 Temporary Work (Short Stay Specialist)
- Subclass 403 Temporary Work (International Relations), Domestic Worker (Diplomatic or Consular) stream only
- Subclass 407 Training
- Subclass 408 Temporary Activity
- Subclass 417 Working Holiday
- Subclass 457 Temporary Work (Skilled)
- Subclass 462 Work and Holiday
- Subclass 482 Skills in Demand
- Subclass 482 Temporary Skill Shortage
- Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate
- Subclass 600 Visitor
- Subclass 601 Electronic Travel Authority
- Subclass 602 Medical Treatment
- Subclass 651 eVisitor
- Subclass 771 Transit
- Subclass 988 Maritime Crew
- Subclass 995 Diplomatic (Temporary), primary holders only
For 15 of these classes, neither your stream nor being a family member on someone else’s visa makes any difference. The explanatory statement says they apply “regardless of the stream in which that visa was granted or whether the persons satisfied primary or secondary criteria”. There is no exemption. An application lodged in Australia from one of these visas is not a valid application, and the Department will not consider it.
What is new, and what was already barred
Nine of the 17 were already barred before 2 October: the 403 Domestic Worker stream, 485, 600, 601, 602, 651, 771, 988 and primary 995 holders. Several arrived on 1 July 2024, when LIN 24/051 added the Temporary Graduate, Electronic Travel Authority, Medical Treatment, eVisitor and Maritime Crew visas and extended the bar to every Visitor visa stream.
The eight new ones are the 400, 407, 408, 417, 457, 462 and both versions of the 482. For working holiday makers and employer-sponsored workers, that is the real change. Until 1 October 2026 they could move onto a Student visa without leaving the country.
Lodge offshore, and be offshore at grant
Under new clause 500.411, if a rule required you to be outside Australia when you applied, you must also be outside Australia when the visa is granted. The explanatory statement to the Regulations is candid about the gap this closes. Before the change, a person required to apply offshore “may depart Australia for a very short period to make their application while offshore, then returning to Australia and apply for a Bridging Visa while they await a decision”. That route is gone.
A quieter change will catch people too. Until 1 October, someone whose Student visa had ended within the previous 28 days could still apply for a new one in Australia without holding a substantive visa (under the Migration Act, any visa other than a bridging, criminal justice or enforcement visa). That provision has been repealed, and the explanatory statement says “The effect is that such an applicant needs to apply from outside Australia.” A narrow carve-out remains where the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) has set aside a Student visa cancellation after the visa’s original expiry date had passed.
Letting a Student visa lapse no longer leaves a 28 day window to apply onshore.
Where you stand, visa by visa
This is the part most people are searching for.
| If you are in Australia and hold | Can you apply for a Student visa onshore from 2 October 2026? |
|---|---|
| Working Holiday (417) or Work and Holiday (462) | No. New from 2 October 2026. |
| Skills in Demand or Temporary Skill Shortage (482), or a 457, as the worker or a family member | No. New from 2 October 2026. |
| Training (407), Temporary Activity (408) or Short Stay Specialist (400) | No. New from 2 October 2026. |
| Temporary Graduate (485) | No. Barred since 1 July 2024, unchanged. |
| Visitor (600), ETA (601) or eVisitor (651) | No. Barred since 1 July 2024 at the latest, unchanged. |
| Student visa (500), as the main student | Only if one of the onshore exemptions below applies. |
| Student visa (500), as a partner or child who now wants to be the main student | No. The application must be made offshore. |
| Student Guardian (590), applying for a further 590 | Generally yes. The fact sheet says current 590 holders “can continue to lodge a further Student Guardian visa application while in Australia.” |
| A substantive visa that is not on the list and is not a Student visa | The 17 class bar does not apply, but every other validity requirement still does. |
Working holiday makers feel this most. In 2025-26, 8,718 Student visas were granted to primary applicants who lodged in Australia and whose last visa was a working holiday maker visa, according to the Department’s BP0015 Student visa granted report (data to 31 August 2026). That pathway is now closed from inside Australia. If a second or third working holiday year is the alternative you are weighing, our guide to the 417 and 462 visas covers how those work.
Current students are the biggest group. The same report shows 109,364 Student visas granted in 2025-26 to primary applicants who lodged in Australia, and for 96,686 of them the last visa held was a Student visa. That student to student move now needs an exemption.
485 holders have been barred since 1 July 2024, so the onshore rule is not new for you. The government has separately announced that graduate visa applicants will no longer be able to attach family members, but as at 2 October 2026 that is an announcement only, with no instrument and no start date. Our post on post-study work visas covers the 485 itself.
Families. New Student visa applicants generally cannot include a partner or children, and no student can add family members after grant. The exemptions cover PhD students, students sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) or Defence, foreign government scholarship holders and eligible Pacific and ASEAN students.
For the wider background on switching visas inside Australia, see our visa hopping ban guide.
If you already hold a Student visa: the onshore exemptions
For a current student, the starting point is now an offshore application. The Department’s Subclass 500 page says “Most Student visa holders can no longer apply for a further Student visa in Australia.”
If you hold your Student visa as the main student, you may be able to apply in Australia if:
- you need up to 12 more months from the original end date of your main course to finish it, with the same education provider
- you are sponsored by DFAT or the Department of Defence
- you are applying for a doctoral degree (the Department says a Master’s by Research does not count)
- you are applying for primary or secondary school studies
- you have completed your main course and are progressing to a higher-level course (next section)
- you cannot continue because your education provider has defaulted.
Using an exemption generally means one further course only. The Department says “In all other scenarios, you can only apply in Australia for one further course”, the exceptions being school studies and provider default. Partners and children on a Student visa cannot use these exemptions at all: “Dependent or secondary student visa holders cannot apply for a student visa as the primary applicant while in Australia.”
Then the warning we would most want every student to read before lodging: “An invalid application outcome could affect your visa status and you may not be eligible to apply for a further visa if your visa has already expired. Invalid decisions cannot be merits reviewed at the ART.”
Course progression: up the AQF, and higher education stays higher education
The AQF ranks Australian qualifications from level 1 to level 10. Under LIN 26/087, if your completed course had an AQF level, the next course must “have a higher AQF level than the course” you completed. If the completed course was a higher education course, the next one “must be a higher education course delivered by a higher education provider.”
The Department’s examples:
- English language (ELICOS) course to a Bachelor’s degree: may apply onshore.
- ELICOS to another ELICOS course: cannot apply onshore.
- Secondary school to a foundation course: may apply onshore.
- Bachelor’s degree at a higher education provider to a Graduate Diploma at a vocational education and training (VET) provider: cannot apply onshore.
A second qualification at the same level is not progression. Unless another exemption fits, that application now goes offshore, and a fresh application means meeting every criterion again, including the financial capacity requirement.
Changing education provider: 12 months until 30 June 2027
From 2 October 2026, a new provider generally cannot enrol a non-school international student transferring from another provider until the student has completed 12 months of their principal course. It was six months. Standard 7.1.2 of the National Code, as amended by the Overseas Student Transfers instrument, now requires that “the student has completed at least twelve months of their principal course with the releasing provider” for transfers on or before 30 June 2027. From 1 July 2027 it reverts to six months. School students keep the existing six month rule.
Earlier transfers remain possible in limited cases under new Standard 7.1A: your provider or course stops being registered, a regulator’s sanction stops you continuing, a government sponsor supports the move in writing, or “the releasing provider has agreed to the overseas student’s release” and recorded it. Whether a provider agrees depends on its own documented transfer policy.
The 2027 transfer stream: announced, not law
On 2 October 2026, Assistant Minister Julian Hill announced that “From mid-2027, international students seeking to change providers after arriving in Australia will need to apply through a new Student visa transfer stream.” From 1 July 2027, the release says, students “will have to have received their new visa before they can commence study at a new provider”, the new visa’s end date “will remain the same”, and transfers will only be allowed “at level or up the Australian Qualification Framework”.
No regulations creating that stream had been made as at 2 October 2026. Fees, criteria and evidence are unknown. Until the law exists, it is a stated plan.
Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning): being shut to international students
An instrument under the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act, in force from 5 September 2026, specifies the BSB80120 Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning), or GDML, for automatic suspension and cancellation when delivered by registered VET providers. The explanatory statement cites “high non-commencement rates, comparatively low completion rates, significant onshore transfer activity” and “extensive use in packaged course arrangements”.
If a provider still has overseas students in the course 30 days after the instrument commenced, its registration for the course “is automatically suspended at all registered locations”, and it cannot recruit or enrol new overseas students into it. By our count that point falls in early October 2026. Students already enrolled in and undertaking the course “may continue their studies until they complete or withdraw from the course.” If the GDML was part of a planned onshore package, that plan needs rethinking now.
Applications lodged before 2 October 2026
The transitional provision added to Schedule 13 of the Migration Regulations says the amendments “apply in relation to an application for a visa made on or after the commencement of that Schedule.” The fact sheet puts it practically: “Student visa applications lodged before the new rules started, including applications that included family members, will continue to be assessed under the rules that were in place when they were lodged.”
That protection attaches to the application, not to you. If a pending application is withdrawn or refused, any new application is made after 2 October and the new rules apply.
Frequently asked questions
What are the new student visa rules in Australia in 2026?
From 2 October 2026, holders of 17 listed classes of temporary visa must apply for a Student visa from outside Australia, current students need an exemption to apply onshore, progression must move up the AQF, and most new applicants cannot include family members. A 12-month provider transfer restriction runs until 30 June 2027.
Can I still apply for a student visa onshore in Australia?
It depends on the visa you hold. From one of the 17 listed visas, no. On a Student visa as the main student, only under an exemption. On another substantive visa that is not on the list, the onshore bar does not apply, but every other requirement does.
Can I switch from a working holiday visa to a student visa in Australia?
Not from inside Australia. Since 2 October 2026, 417 and 462 holders must apply from outside Australia and be outside Australia when the visa is granted.
Can I change education provider on a student visa?
Yes, but until 30 June 2027 a new provider generally cannot enrol a non-school student until they have completed 12 months of their principal course, unless a National Code exception such as a release from the current provider applies.
Do the changes affect my current student visa?
The Department says “The changes do not affect your current Student visa.” They affect what you can apply for next, and from where.
A realistic next step
If you are onshore on a working holiday, 482 or Student visa and study was part of the plan, the question is which exemption, if any, fits your facts, and what happens to your status if you have to leave to apply. An invalid onshore application cannot go to the Tribunal for merits review. Our team advises on student visas, and you can book a consultation with our migration lawyers to work out where you stand.
About the author: Tina Nematian is the Principal Lawyer at One Planet Migration Law. She is an Australian Legal Practitioner and a Registered Migration Agent (MARN), and has guided clients through partner, skilled, employer-sponsored, student, and humanitarian visa applications across Australia.
This article is general information only and does not constitute legal or migration advice. Visa rules change frequently and outcomes depend on individual circumstances. Speak with a registered migration lawyer or agent before making any application. Figures were current as of October 2026; always check immi.homeaffairs.gov.au before lodging.
