Student visas from 2 October 2026: who can still apply in Australia

What changed, and when

Three changes to migration law took effect on 2 October 2026:

• The Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026. These change who can apply for a Student visa in Australia, where they have to be when the visa is granted, and who can be included as a family member.
• A new instrument listing the visas whose holders must apply offshore (LIN 26/102). It covers the Student visa and the Student Guardian visa (subclass 590).
• An amended instrument setting out which current students can still apply onshore (LIN 26/087), along with the family members who can still be included.

Separately, the Department of Education changed the rules on moving between education providers. That change is covered further down.

The timing rule is simple. The Department confirms that applications lodged before 2 October 2026 are assessed under the rules that applied when they were lodged, and that includes any family members on them. Everything lodged from 2 October onwards is assessed under the new rules.

The 17 visas that now mean applying from outside Australia

If you hold any of these visas, you must be outside Australia when you apply for a Student visa or a Student Guardian visa:

Apart from the two limits shown in the table, the rule applies whatever stream you hold and whether you are the main visa holder or a family member on someone else's visa. The Department says there are no exemptions for holders of these visas.

Applying from outside Australia is only half of it. Anyone required to apply offshore must also be outside Australia when the visa is granted. The Department's guidance: "You may return to Australia on another valid visa while your Student visa application is being processed, but you must be outside Australia when your Student visa is granted. You will not receive a Bridging visa linked to an application lodged outside Australia." The Explanatory Statement says this is aimed squarely at the old approach of flying out, lodging, coming back and waiting on a bridging visa.

Applying in Australia now needs a substantive visa

To lodge a Student visa application onshore, you now need to hold a substantive visa, and it can't be one of the 17 above. A bridging visa doesn't count.

Until 2 October there was a fallback: someone whose Student visa had expired could still apply in Australia within 28 days. That pathway has been removed. One narrow case survives. If the Administrative Review Tribunal sets aside the cancellation of your visa after its expiry date has already passed, you can apply within 28 days of being notified of the decision. That only works once.

An application that doesn't meet these rules is invalid, and the Department won't consider it. It warns that an invalid application could affect your visa status, and that if your visa has already expired you may not be able to make any further application in Australia. Before lodging anything, it is worth being certain which side of the line you are on.

Already on a Student visa?

If you hold a Student visa and you want a new one as the main student, the default is now that you apply from outside Australia. Main Student visa holders can still apply onshore if they fall into one of these groups:

• Defence students and Foreign Affairs students, sponsored by those departments.
• School students.
• Doctoral students enrolled in a course leading to a doctoral degree.
• Students completing their course. You hold a Student visa, you have started your principal course (or an alternative principal course with the same provider), you haven't finished it, and you will complete it within 12 months of the end date on your Confirmation of Enrolment.
• Students moving up a level. You have completed your principal course and you are enrolled in no more than one further course at a higher AQF level. If the course you finished was higher education, the next one must also be higher education with a higher education provider.
• Students whose provider defaulted. You apply within 12 months of the default, you were enrolled on the day it happened, and you haven't already applied because of the same default.

These exemptions only cover main Student visa holders. If you are currently on a Student visa as a partner or child and you want to apply as a student in your own right, you have to apply from outside Australia. The Department states this directly, and none of the exemptions apply.

Family members: a much shorter list

This is the change that reaches furthest. It applies to new applications made from inside or outside Australia, not just onshore ones. A student can now only include a partner or children in a Student visa application if one of these applies:

• The student is a Defence student or a Foreign Affairs student.
• The student holds a passport from a Pacific regional country or an ASEAN member country. According to the Explanatory Statement, Timor-Leste counts as a Pacific regional country for this purpose.
• The student's course is fully funded by a foreign government.
• The student is a doctoral student, is completing their course, or is affected by a provider default, as described above.
• The family member was already on a Student visa as a secondary holder on 2 October 2026, or had applied before that date and was granted afterwards.
• The family member is a child born in Australia after 2 October 2026 to a student who held, or had applied for, a Student visa on that date.

There is no matching family group for students moving up to a higher-level course. That student can still apply onshore, but their partner or children can only be included through one of the other routes, usually the transitional one.

Two further rules sit alongside the list. Family members who are eligible must apply at the same time and in the same place as the student, so nobody can be added to a visa after it is granted. And if any member of the family has to apply from outside Australia, they all do. Children born in Australia to a Student visa holder are not affected. Under section 78 of the Migration Act they are taken to hold the same visa as their parent from birth.

Family members who can't be included aren't barred from Australia. The Explanatory Statement notes they can still apply for a separate visa of their own if they meet its requirements.

Changing providers: the 12-month rule

From 2 October 2026, the Department of Education's National Code says a new provider must not knowingly enrol a transferring student unless the student has completed at least 12 months of their principal course with their current provider. From 1 July 2027 that drops to six months. The school sector keeps its existing rule, which covers the first six months of the first school course.

A transfer before the 12 months can still happen if:

• your current provider, or your course, is no longer registered
• a sanction under the ESOS framework stops you continuing
• your current provider agrees to release you and records the release in PRISMS
• a government sponsor supports the change in writing

There is no transitional carve-out. A student who is seven months into a course today is caught by the 12-month rule just like someone starting next week.

Who this hits hardest

For years, switching to a Student visa was the fallback for people already in Australia whose plans fell through. That option has now closed for most of them:

• 482 visa holders who lose their sponsor. Enrolling in a course and applying onshore is no longer available. The realistic options are another sponsor within the allowed period, a different visa you are eligible for onshore, or leaving and applying from outside.
• 485 Temporary Graduate holders nearing the end of their visa who were planning further study as a way to stay.
• Working Holiday and Work and Holiday (417 and 462) holders who wanted to move into study without leaving.
• Visitors who came to look at courses intending to apply once here.
• Current students with a partner or children who planned to add family later, or who are moving up to a higher course.

None of this stops anyone studying in Australia. It changes where you apply from, when you need to be offshore, and who can come with you. The Department's own line is that "Australia continues to welcome international students."

What to do now

• Check which visa you hold today against the table above, using the subclass on your grant letter or in VEVO.
• Don't enrol or pay fees on the assumption that you can apply onshore until you have confirmed it. An invalid application isn't considered, and if your current visa has run out you may be left without options in Australia.
• If you are a current student, work out which exemption you would rely on and check the dates. The completion and provider default groups have 12-month windows.
• If family are part of your plan, confirm they can be included before anyone applies. They have to lodge with you, at the same time and in the same place.
• Get advice that fits your circumstances from a registered migration agent before you lodge. The rules apply to the facts of each case, and the exemptions turn on detail.

Sources, all checked on 2 October 2026: Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026 (F2026L01347) and its Explanatory Statement; Migration (Student Visa Applications to Be Made from outside Australia) Instrument 2026, LIN 26/102 (F2026L01348); LIN 26/087 amending LIN 20/158 (F2026L01349); National Code of Practice amendment (F2026L01351); Department of Home Affairs, "Changes to Student visa application rules".

This is general information about how the new rules work. Whether any particular pathway is open to you depends on your own circumstances and the visa you hold on the day you apply.

General information only, current at 18 July 2026. Not immigration assistance or advice for your circumstances. Visacorp Pty Ltd — MARN 0317382 · 1799004.