The subclass 485 Temporary Graduate visa.

International students who have recently finished study in Australia.

For a first 485 you need to have completed an Australian qualification within the six months before you apply, and that study has to meet the study requirement set out further down this page. You also need to hold, or have recently held, a student visa. Beyond that the requirements depend on the stream: a degree for the Post-Higher Education Work stream, or a diploma or trade qualification plus a skills assessment for the Post-Vocational Education Work stream.

Schedule 1 item 1229(3)(j)-(m), (4) · cl 485.221, 485.231

35 or younger when you apply.

There are two exceptions. If you hold a Hong Kong or British National (Overseas) passport, or you have completed a masters degree by research or a doctoral degree, the limit is under 50.

Age is a validity requirement, fixed on the day you lodge. An application made the day after your 36th birthday is not a valid application, and there is nothing for the Department to decide.

Schedule 1 item 1229(4)(b)

Usually, but not always. Any one of these will do:

• you hold an eligible student visa;
• you hold a Bridging A or Bridging B visa, and you held an eligible student visa at some point in the six months before applying;
• you hold another substantive visa, and you held an eligible student visa at some point in the six months before applying.

Holding a Bridging C or Bridging E visa is not on that list.

For the Post-Higher Education Work stream you must also hold, or have held, a student visa.

Schedule 1 item 1229(3)(l), (4)(a)

For a first 485, yes. You must be in Australia, and not in immigration clearance, when you lodge. The same applies to a second Post-Higher Education Work visa.

The visa itself can be granted while you are overseas. Family members applying to join someone who already holds the 485 can apply from outside Australia.

Schedule 1 item 1229(3)(f)-(g) · cl 485.411

Only in limited cases.

If you held a 485 in the Graduate Work or Post-Vocational Education Work stream, you cannot hold another one as the main applicant. If you held a 485 in the Post-Study Work or Post-Higher Education Work stream, the only way to another is a second Post-Higher Education Work visa on the regional basis explained below. The same bar applies if you previously held a subclass 476 as the main applicant.

There is also a ceiling: no more than four 485 visas in total, and only one of them granted on the regional basis.

cl 485.211 · Schedule 1 item 1229(4)(aa)

Yes. Condition 8534 stops the holder being granted most substantive visas in Australia, but it expressly carves out the subclass 485. You do not need a waiver first.

Condition 8535 is different. It has no exception for the 485, so the condition has to be waived before you can apply.

Schedule 8, conditions 8534 and 8535 · see our No Further Stay section

The kind of qualification you hold.

The Post-Higher Education Work stream is for graduates with a bachelor, honours, masters or doctoral degree, or a graduate diploma of the kind the Regulations describe. The field you studied does not matter, and there is no skills assessment.

The Post-Vocational Education Work stream is for graduates with an associate degree, diploma or trade qualification. You nominate a skilled occupation, your qualification has to be closely related to it, and you need a skills assessment.

Before 1 July 2024 these were called the Post-Study Work stream and the Graduate Work stream. The Regulations still use the old names when they talk about visas granted under them.

cl 485.2 (note), 485.22, 485.23

A bachelor degree, a masters degree, a doctoral degree, or a graduate diploma, awarded by an Australian educational institution under the Australian Qualifications Framework.

A graduate diploma only counts if it followed an Australian bachelor, masters or doctoral degree in a related field, and you started it in the same academic year you finished that degree or the next one.

The institution must be a CRICOS-registered university or other provider that offers courses at bachelor level or above.

cl 485.111 (degree), 485.231(2) · LIN 23/021 educational institutions

Yes, for the Post-Vocational Education Work stream. Each qualification you rely on must be closely related to the skilled occupation you nominate.

This is read strictly. A certificate in furniture making might fit a carpenter; a masters in information technology alongside it would not help that nomination. You also cannot change the nominated occupation after you apply.

cl 485.222 · Schedule 1 item 1229(3)(k)

No. The application nominates one stream and there is nothing in the Regulations that lets you switch once it is lodged. If the stream is wrong the application will be decided, and usually refused, against the one you chose.

Schedule 1 item 1229(3)(j)

The course or courses must, together:

• be registered (CRICOS) courses;
• have been completed in a total of at least 16 calendar months;
• add up to at least two academic years of study;
• have been taught entirely in English; and
• have been studied while you were in Australia on a visa that let you study.

You can combine more than one course to get there. Study done offshore or online from outside Australia does not count towards it.

cl 485.221, 485.231(1B)

From the day you completed the course, which means the day you were told you had met all the academic requirements. In practice that is when your final results, or a completion letter, were issued.

It is not your graduation date. Degree certificates usually show the date of conferral, and the Department does not use it. Provide us with the results notice or the university’s completion letter and we can work out the date.

If your thesis was part of the course, completion is when the thesis was accepted and you were told you had met the requirements, not when you submitted it.

cl 485.111 (completed), 485.221, 485.231(1B)

No. If your results were withheld over unpaid fees or a library fine, the Department generally treats completion as the date you met the academic requirements. Paying the debt later does not restart the six months.

cl 485.111 (completed)

Not for a first 485. The six months is written into the criteria for both streams, and the concession that once extended it for students caught outside Australia by COVID-19 border closures is no longer in the Regulations.

Another visa may suit you better. The skilled visas are the usual next step.

cl 485.221, 485.231(1B)

For IELTS Academic or General Training, an overall band of at least 6.5, with at least 5.5 in each of the four components.

The other accepted tests and their minimum overall scores are PTE Academic 55, TOEFL iBT 81, OET 1310, CELPIP General 8, LANGUAGECERT Academic 67 and the Michigan English Test 58. Each also sets a minimum for every component. Cambridge C1 Advanced is not accepted.

The test must have been taken within one year before the day you apply, and the result has to be with the application. Hong Kong and British National (Overseas) passport holders have lower minimum scores, for example IELTS 6.0 with 5.0 in each component.

cl 485.212 · English requirements for subclass 485

No. Holding a passport of a type the Minister specifies satisfies the requirement, and the specified passports are those of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland.

Applicants for a second Post-Higher Education Work visa on the regional basis do not need to show English at all.

cl 485.212(1)(b), (2) · the passport list

Three things have to be with the application when it is made. They cannot be supplied later:

• evidence that you, and every family member in the application aged 16 or over, applied for an Australian Federal Police check in the 12 months before you lodge;
• evidence of adequate health insurance;
• for the Post-Vocational Education Work stream, evidence that you applied for a skills assessment in your nominated occupation.

Your English test result or eligible passport also has to accompany the application.

A missing item here is not something a request for further information can fix. The criterion is about what the application contained on the day it was made, so the result is a refusal.

cl 485.212, 485.213, 485.215, 485.223

An Australian Federal Police check. The Department accepts the National Police Certificate for immigration purposes, the Australia-wide name check. A State or Territory police check does not meet the requirement.

What the Regulations require at lodgement is evidence that you applied for it, within the 12 months before the application. You do not need the certificate itself in hand to lodge.

cl 485.213

Adequate health insurance, evidenced when you apply and held continuously from then on. Most applicants use Overseas Student Health Cover or Overseas Visitor Health Cover. If you are covered by a reciprocal health care agreement you may not need private cover.

After grant, condition 8501 requires you to keep it for as long as you are in Australia on the visa.

cl 485.215, 485.611 · Schedule 8, condition 8501

Only for the Post-Vocational Education Work stream.

You must have applied for the assessment before you lodge. By the time the visa is decided, the relevant assessing authority must have assessed your skills as suitable for your nominated occupation, within the last three years and within any validity period stated on the assessment. Membership of a professional body is not a skills assessment.

A skills assessment obtained for a 485 cannot later be used for a skilled visa.

cl 485.223, 485.224 · occupations and assessing authorities

It depends on the stream and what you studied.

• Post-Vocational Education Work stream: up to 18 months.
• Post-Higher Education Work stream, bachelor degree (including honours) or masters by coursework: up to 2 years.
• Masters by research or a doctoral degree: up to 3 years.
• Graduate diploma: 2 years, or longer if your earlier study would have attracted a longer period.
• A second Post-Higher Education Work visa: 1 or 2 years, depending on where you studied and have lived.

Hong Kong and British National (Overseas) passport holders can be granted up to 5 years. The Regulations leave the end date to the Minister, and these are the periods the Department publishes on its Temporary Graduate changes page.

cl 485.513

It can be. Under the Australia–India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, Indian nationals in the Post-Higher Education Work stream keep the longer periods:

• bachelor degree, including honours: up to 2 years;
• bachelor degree with first class honours in a STEM field, including ICT: up to 3 years;
• masters, whether coursework, extended or research: up to 3 years;
• doctoral degree: up to 4 years.

These are the periods published on the Department’s Temporary Graduate changes page.

cl 485.513

Yes, if the regional requirements are met. You must:

• hold your first Post-Study Work or Post-Higher Education Work visa when you apply;
• have been granted that first visa on the basis of study at an institution in a regional area, while living in a regional area;
• have lived only in a regional area for at least two years immediately before applying, and if you worked or studied in that time, done so only in a regional area; and
• declare that you, and any family member in the application, intend to live and work or study only in a regional area.

You must still live, and work or study, only in a regional area when the decision is made.

cl 485.232–485.235

The Department works with two categories. Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, Wollongong and Illawarra, Geelong and Hobart are the cities and major regional centres. Everywhere outside those and outside Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane is the other regional area.

Study and residence entirely in the second category generally leads to a longer second visa than a mix of the two, or the first category alone. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane do not count at all.

cl 485.232–485.235 · designated regional areas

Anything that shows your home address over the two years. Leases, rental agreements and utility bills are the usual evidence.

For work or study, the test is where you physically are. Working from home in a regional area for an employer based in a capital city can count.

cl 485.232(2), 485.233(2)

The condition on a second Post-Higher Education Work visa granted on the regional basis, and on the family members who come with it. It keeps you to the regional areas.

You are not obliged to work or study. If you do either, it must be in a permitted area.

cl 485.613 · Schedule 8, condition 8610

Yes. Members of your family unit can be included in your application, or can apply separately later to join you once you hold the visa.

They must meet the health and character requirements and hold adequate health insurance from the time they apply. Anyone 16 or over who is included in your application also needs an AFP check applied for within the 12 months before you lodge.

cl 485.213(1), 485.311–485.314 · Schedule 1 item 1229(3)(f), (h)

Part 485 imposes no condition limiting work, for you or for your family members. The conditions it does impose are about health insurance and, on a regional second visa, where you live and work.

cl 485.611–485.613

Family members are generally granted a visa that ends on the same date as the main applicant’s.

cl 485.513

From 1 July 2026, the base charge for most applicants is $5,750. Each family member in the application adds $2,875 if they are 18 or over, or $1,450 if under 18.

The charge is lower if you hold a Pacific-regional passport, or already hold a Post-Study or Post-Higher Education Work 485 and are applying for a second:

The charge is paid when you apply and there is no second instalment. The amounts are indexed, usually each 1 July. Our visa fee calculator gets the current figure for your application from the Department’s estimator. It does not include the cost of health checks, police checks or English tests.

Schedule 1 item 1229(2)

Online, through ImmiAccount. The Regulations leave the form, place and manner to a legislative instrument, and a paper application is only possible in narrow circumstances the Department authorises by email.

Choose your stream carefully, and make sure the AFP evidence, the health insurance evidence, your English evidence and, for the vocational stream, the skills assessment application are attached before you submit.

Schedule 1 item 1229(1), (3)(c) · reg 2.07(5)

If you held a substantive visa, such as your student visa, when you made a valid 485 application in Australia, you can be granted a Bridging A visa that keeps you lawful until the application is decided. It only comes into effect when your current visa ends. Check what its grant notice says about work.

See our bridging visa section.

cl 010.211(2)

Not directly. The 485 has no permanent stage of its own.

It gives you time to work and gain experience, and many graduates then apply for a skilled visa such as the 189, 190 or 491, or are sponsored by an employer on a 482 or 186. Remember that the skills assessment for those visas has to be a fresh one.

cl 189.222, 190.212, 491.214

Read the decision record for the review deadline first. A refusal of a 485 lodged in Australia is usually reviewable by the Administrative Review Tribunal, and the time limit cannot be extended.

Our refusals and ART review guide explains who may apply and how the deadline is worked out.

Migration Act 1958 s.338, s.347