Designated areas for condition 8549 remade, and a child visa postal address corrected

Designated areas for condition 8549

The Migration (Designated Areas) Instrument 2026 (LIN 26/004) repeals the 2016 instrument, which was due to sunset on 1 October 2026, and specifies the designated areas afresh. The areas themselves are remade in substantially the same form.

Condition 8549 in Schedule 8 to the Migration Regulations 1994 provides that while the holder is in Australia, the holder must live, study and work only in a designated area. The wording that matters is what follows it: the list that binds a holder is the one in force when the visa was granted, or, where the holder has held more than one visa carrying the condition, when the first of them was granted. A holder is therefore fixed to the list as it stood at grant, and a later remake does not move them onto the new one.

The Queensland entry excludes the Brisbane metropolitan area and lists postcodes 4019 to 4028, 4037 to 4050, 4079 to 4100, 4114, 4118, 4124 to 4150, 4158 to 4168 and 4180 to 4899. South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia are each listed as the entire State. The Gold Coast sits inside the Queensland range.

Child visa postal address

The Migration Legislation Amendment (Arrangements for Child Visa Applications) Instrument 2026 (LIN 26/100) amends the address in column 4 of the child visa instrument, repealing GPO Box 241 Port Melbourne Vic 3008 Australia and substituting GPO Box 241 Melbourne Vic 3001 Australia.

The amendment applies to an application for a visa made on or after commencement. An application already posted to the earlier address was made under the instrument as it then stood.