Student Visas

The Australian student visa is one of the few in the world that gives both the student and the second (adult) visa holder working rights during the studying process. Moreover, the sooner you start working and gaining local experience in your occupation, the more favourable could be your future career and migration process.

Typically, employment rights depend on the type of visa and the educational course: from part-time for college/VET students (48 hours a fortnight during the semester and unlimited rights during holidays) to full unlimited work rights for masters (secondary applicants) and graduate students.

Read more about student working rights in my blog post.

Any applicant can become a student in Australia without restrictions on age, gender, religion, etc.

The main criteria for visa consideration by Department will be assessing you under Genuine Student requirement criteria that include assessment of your initial personal data (for example, education, age, level of English and previous work experience) with the course you are planning to attend as well as the country of your passport statistical data. Sometimes GS could be necessary to provide education providers for enrollment. 

Starting 1 July 2024, holders of certain visas will no longer be able to apply for Student visas while in Australia. These are the specific visa subclasses that are impacted:

• Subclass 485 (Temporary Graduate) 
• Subclass 600 (Visitor)
• Subclass 601 (Electronic Travel Authority)
• Subclass 602 (Medical Treatment)
• Subclass 651 (eVisitor)
• Subclass 988 (Maritime Crew)
• Subclass 403 (Temporary Work) International Relations)) – Domestic Worker (Diplomatic or Consular) stream
• Subclass 426 (Domestic Worker (Temporary) – Diplomatic or Consular)
• Subclass 771 (Transit)
• Subclass 995 (Diplomatic Temporary) – primary visa holders only

To reduce future potential issues please read my blog post about the Top 10 international students’ mistakes.

• A written statement from the student describing a genuine student statement (GS) and documentation to confirm the temporary stay (your connections to your home country, reasons to return).
• A document confirming the level of language proficiency required by the education provider (at least 6.0 overall IELTS for all levels of education, at least 5.0 overall IELTS if applicant will have additional English course)
• Financial support (bank statements from students and / or parents are accepted).
• Confirmation of enrollment (COE).
• Health insurance covered the full studying period.
• Health check.
• Biometric data collection (if the applicant is outside Australia, for certain countries).

• When preparing documents, you should be very accurate, genuine and logical in your arguments and statements.

• One of the primary documents for assessment will be a written statement (GS) that future students will write in the English language. This document will contain all your arguments about your temporary stay in Australia and your intention to leave after completion of the course of study.

• Please be coherent in your argumentations and try to avoid silly mistakes such as GS written in ideal English at the moment you are asking visa for ELICOS courses.

• Checking documents the migration officers look at some non-obvious details, such as the country of your residence and your passport, the rating of the education provider and the kind of course, you are enrolled in. For example, if a provider has a high rating, an applicant could have a loyal assessment.

• One of the main requirements for a Student visa is financial sufficient funds for living and studying in Australia, where you will need to provide evidence of financial viability. The amount of money required for confirmation changes almost every year (usually in July). You can always find the current required amount on the Department website.

• The funds should be enough to cover the expenses of the student and, if necessary, of family members for 1 year of education. The estimated amount of money for international students in Australia you can find in my exclusive guide “Student visa costs“.