Changes to Australian migration law and policy, dated, each one naming the legislative instrument or official source it comes from.
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Students and visitors
From 2 October 2026 a student visa holder applying for a further student visa must generally apply from outside Australia, family members can be included only in limited cases, and seventeen visas now stop a student visa application being made in Australia.
Refusal and review
The Department has released the number of Ministerial intervention requests received and finalised, and visas granted, for 2022-23 to 2025-26.
Students and visitors
Four instruments commenced on 28 September 2026: the eVisitor application form and manner, the Approved Destination Status travel agent list, the countries used for health referrals, and the ESOS agencies for ELICOS and Foundation Programs.
Students and visitors
A Departmental page and two fact sheets set out what counts as adequate health insurance for condition 8501, which visas carry the condition, and the minimum benefit a policy must pay.
Students and visitors
A new instrument specifies the nine substantive temporary visas whose holders cannot make a valid student visa application while in Australia, replacing the 2016 instrument before it sunsets.
Skilled
Registrations of interest for Queensland’s State Nominated Migration Program are closed, and Migration Queensland has published no opening date or allocation for 2026–27.
Skilled
Two instruments commenced on 22 September 2026. One remakes the designated areas for condition 8549 before the old instrument sunsets; the other corrects a postal address that had been wrong since it was made.
These remain current unless a later update on this page says otherwise. The date shown is the date the change took effect.
Send us the visa you hold or have applied for, the date it was lodged and any notice you have received. A change in the law does not always reach back to an application already on foot.
