Fact Sheet 50 - Overseas Students in Australia

The student visa program of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship enables overseas students to come to Australia to undertake full-time study in registered courses.

The program streamlines the processing of applicants and ensures:

• transparency in the requirements that need to be met to be granted a visa
• consistency in decision-making
• the integrity of the student visa program is maintained by using objective measures of risk to determine visa requirements.

These visa arrangements are designed to assist growth in the number of genuine full-time students coming to Australia and the overall quality of Australia's student visa program.

Eligibility

Before applying for a student visa, students must have been accepted for full-time study in a registered course in Australia.

A registered course is an education or training course offered by an Australian education provider registered to offer courses to overseas students on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).
See: CRICOS

Applying for a student visa

Students must apply for a visa in the sector that relates to their principal or main course of study:

• Independent English Language Intensive Course for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector (subclass 570)
• Schools sector (subclass 571)
• Vocational Education and Training sector (subclass 572)
• Higher Education sector (subclass 573)
• Postgraduate Research sector (subclass 574)
• Non-award sector (subclass 575)
• AusAID and Defence sector (subclass 576).

All overseas students should apply for their first student visa outside Australia. Generally only ‘Assessment Level’ (AL) 1 students would be eligible for visa grant if they apply in Australia. Other students would only be eligible for their first student visa in Australia in exceptional cases.

Students who already have a student visa to study in Australia but want to change their principal course of study must apply for a new visa in the education sector appropriate to their new principal course, if the new course is in a different education sector.

Assessment factors

Students must provide evidence that satisfies the assessment criteria applicable to them before they can be granted a student visa. This includes evidence that they have sufficient financial capacity to cover living costs in Australia, tuition fees and travel costs as well as the ability to support any family members. Applicants must also satisfy criteria in respect of English proficiency, potential to breach visa conditions and other matters such as level of education.

The evidentiary requirements for these criteria differ according to the AL assigned to each sector and nationality. AL1 represents the lowest immigration risk and AL5 the highest.

All students and accompanying family members must be of good character and sound health and hold Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC). Students from Norway and Sweden may not need OSHC if they have acceptable health cover offered by those countries.

‘Packaging’ courses

Students may ‘package’ their studies so they combine a preliminary course with their principal course of study on the one visa subclass. The subclass that applies to the package would be the one that corresponds to the principle or main course.
Example: Students may take a short English language course before their main course. If the main course is a bachelor degree, the student would apply to study the package under a subclass 573 (higher education) visa.

Visa conditions

Permission to work

Permission to work arrangements for student visa holders changed on 26 April 2008. Student visas granted to students and their dependent family members on or after 26 April 2008 already have Permission to Work automatically included with their visa.
See: New permission to work arrangement for student visa holders (58KB PDF file)

Students and dependent family members who were granted a student visa before 26 April 2008 and have not yet applied for Permission to Work may only apply for Permission to Work after they have started their course in Australia.
See: How to Apply for Permission to Work

Students with permission to work are limited to 20 hours work per week while their course is in session and may not undertake work until they have started their course in Australia. They may work full–time during formal holiday periods.

Student visa holders found to be working in excess of their limited work rights are subject to mandatory visa cancellation.

Family members' permission to work

Family members of students who have permission to work may work up to 20 hours per week. They cannot undertake work until the student has started their course in Australia.

Family members of students who have commenced a Masters or Doctorate degree may work unlimited hours if they have permission to work.

No extension of stay

Most AL3 and all AL4 students (except those in the Schools sector) undertaking a course, or courses, of 10 months duration or less, are subject to a ‘no further stay’ condition. This generally prevents them from extending their stay in Australia, although they may apply for a subclass 497 (Graduate-Skilled) visa or a student visa with permission to work.

If an AL3 student provides evidence of funds to cover a further 12-month stay, the ‘no further stay’ condition is no longer mandatory.

Students who are sponsored by the Commonwealth of Australia or the government of their home country may also be subject to a ‘no further stay’ condition. They will only be able to extend their studies in Australia if the sponsoring government gives written consent.

Change of address

Students must inform their education provider of their current residential address within seven days of arrival and of any change of address in Australia within seven days of the change. Students must also notify their current provider of any change of enrolment to a new provider.

Family members

Family members aged 18 years or over may only study for up to three months. If they want to undertake a course of study that exceeds three months, they must apply for a student visa in their own right.

School age family members (aged 5 -18 years) who join the student in Australia for more than three months must attend school. The student must meet any associated education or tuition costs.

A student’s child aged 18 years or over cannot apply for a student visa as a family member. If they want to study in Australia, they must apply for a student visa in their own right.

Student Guardian visa

If a student is under 18 years of age, it is possible for one of their parents or relatives to apply for a Student Guardian visa to accompany them to Australia. The Student Guardian visa allows that person to stay in Australia to care for the student until they turn 18. It is not possible for a student guardian to access work rights while in Australia.

Online applications

The Australian Government now offers a flexible visa application alternative called eVisa. It allows convenient electronic lodgement of applications 24 hours a day.

Applicants must hold a valid passport, a confirmation of enrolment from a registered Australian education provider and be able to pay the visa application charge by an acceptable credit card. If a visa is granted, a confirmation email will be sent detailing applicable visa conditions.

AL1 students outside Australia can apply for a student visa using eVisa providing they are at least six years of age and are applying no more than four months (124 days) before the commencement of their course.

AL2-4 students outside Australia cannot currently apply via eVisa unless they hold a passport from a country participating in the AL 2-4 eVisa trial and are resident in that country.

The department is currently running an eVisa trial for AL 2-4 students and accompanying family members who hold an India, People's Republic of China (PRC), Indonesian or Thailand passport and are in those countries.

Direct online lodgement by AL 2-4 students is not available. Access to the new facility is restricted to education agents in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, Indonesia and Thailand who are party to a valid Facility Access Agreement with the department.

In Australia, some temporary resident visa holders who are AL1 can apply for a student visa using eVisa. Student visa holders who are in Australia may apply for permission to work using eVisa, as well as another student visa to extend their stay.
See: Students

Statistics

A total of 320 368 Student visas were granted in 2008-09. This represents a significant increase of 15.2 per cent over the 2007-08 figure of 278 184 visas and continues the trend of strong growth in Australia's international education sector.

The number of offshore Student visa grants went up from 198 417 in 2007-08 to 227 924 in 2008-09, reflecting an increase of 14.9 per cent. During the same period, the number of onshore student visas grants increased by  15.9 per cent from 79 767 to 92 444.

The following table outlines major source countries for overseas students:

Citizenship	2007-08	2008-09
India	47 639	65 503
China, People's Republic of	49 763	54 015
Korea, Republic of	19 350	17 594
Nepal	10 247	14 355
Thailand	10 661	13 612
Brazil	9 969	12 609
Malaysia	11 096	11 567
United States of America	11 576	9 598
Vietnam	6 878	9 389
Indonesia	8 246	8 756

Further information for students

The Education Services for Overseas Student Act 2000 (the ESOS Act) provides important safeguards for overseas students in Australia. The ESOS Act regulates the activities of education providers who deliver education and training to international students by setting standards and providing for tuition and financial assurance.
See: Australian Education International

If students choose to work part time while studying in Australia, they are entitled to the same work rights as Australian permanent residents and citizens. For more information and advice about conditions of employment in Australia students can contact the Fair Work Ombudsman.
See: Fair Work Ombudsman

Further information is available on the department's web site.
See: www.immi.gov.au

The department also operates a national telephone service inquiry line.
Telephone: 131 881
Hours of operation: Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm (recorded information available outside these hours) for the cost of a local call anywhere in Australia.

Fact Sheet 50. Produced by the National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Canberra.
Last reviewed 22 October 2009.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2009.