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Migration updates

Student and visitor visa updates.

Changes to Australian migration law and policy affecting student and visitor visas, newest first. Each update names the instrument or official source it comes from.

Last update  ·  6 updates

Full guide: Students and visitors All migration updates

October 2026

Student visa reform from 2 October 2026: further student visas, family members and onshore applications

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.

Who this affects: Student visa holders planning a further student visa, students who want to bring or add family members, and holders of a subclass 400, 403, 407, 408, 417, 457, 462, 482, 485, 600, 601, 602, 651, 771, 988 or 995 visa who are considering study. Applications made before 2 October 2026 are not affected.

Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning) closed to new international students from 5 October 2026

From 5 October 2026, VET providers and education agents can no longer recruit or enrol new international students into the Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning), after the Assistant Minister for International Education used the new course cancellation powers for the first time.

Who this affects: International students enrolled in, or offered a place in, the Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning), and student visa holders considering a change of course or a second course.

September 2026

eVisitor form, ADS travel agents, health-referral countries and ESOS agencies remade

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.

Who this affects: eVisitor applicants, Chinese group tourists applying through an Approved Destination Status travel agent, permanent visa applicants going through the health criteria, and ELICOS and Foundation Program providers.

Home Affairs has published guidance on adequate health insurance, and it names a minimum benefit of AUD 1,000,000

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.

Who this affects: Holders of a visa carrying condition 8501, which includes every student on a subclass 500 and holders of bridging visas A, B, C and E. The condition requires health insurance to be maintained for the whole time the holder is in Australia, so it bites after grant, not only at application.

The list of visas that stop a student visa application being made in Australia has been remade

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.

Who this affects: Anyone in Australia on a subclass 485, a visitor visa, an eVisitor or an Electronic Travel Authority who is considering a student visa. A person holding one of the listed visas cannot make the application onshore, so the application has to be made outside Australia.

Announced, not law: a no further stay condition on future visitor visas, and a limit on course changes

The Minister announced two changes at the National Press Club on 17 September 2026. Neither is in force, neither has a commencement date, and no instrument has been made.

Who this affects: Nobody yet. In particular, a visitor visa held today is unaffected: the Minister said the change concerns the issuing of future visas. Anyone planning a course change or an onshore application over the next year should keep the announcement in view without treating it as the present law.

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