485 Visa / Graduate Visa

The Subclass 485 Graduate Visa is a temporary visa available to certain International Students who have recently graduated from certain courses in Australia. The minimum requirement is that the student must have completed at least 2 years of study in Australia and the 485 visa application must be lodged within 6 months of the course completion.

The temporary 485 Graduate Visa has 2 streams with different durations:

 

1. The Post Study Work Rights Stream (also known as the Post Study Visa in Australia) – once approved, is valid for 24 months (or up to 48 months depending on where and what you studied)
2. Temporary Graduate Work Stream – valid for 18 months only.

Its conditions are unlimited work rights for the holder, but there is also an obligation to maintain private health cover.

Is it possible to extend the 485 Graduate visa?

This is one very common question we are commonly asked, and the answer is no: it is not possible to obtain a 485 Graduate Visa extension.

Common requirements for both streams:

• Applicants must be aged under 50.
• As we mentioned above, it is necessary to have completed a 2-year course and apply for the visa within 6 months of course completion.
• This is an onshore visa, and the visa applicant should be onshore at the time of application and at the time of visa grant.*
• The 485 visa English Requirement is to score 6 overall in the IELTS General Module exam, ensuring you don’t score anything below 5 in any component. Applicants can also undertake the PTE, TOEFL and other exams. Check our article on English exams and equivalent scores here.

 

Requirements unique to each stream of the 485 Graduate Visa:

 

Post Study Work Visa Stream

• Applicants must have completed a Higher Education course – a Bachelor, a Master or a PhD in any There are no occupation lists in relation to this stream.
• Applicants must have applied for their Student Visas after 05 November 2011. Any students who held student visas before this date are not eligible for this stream.

 

Temporary Graduate Work Stream

• Applicants must nominate an occupation on the MLTSSL (Medium and Long Term Skills Shortage List) and obtain a positive skills assessment in such occupation to be able to apply;.
• Applicants must have completed a trade certificate, a diploma, a Bachelor, a Master or a PhD in an occupation closely related to the occupation they nominated.

 

Graduate 485 Visa Processing Times

In our experience and taking into consideration the published processing times, the 485 Graduate Visa can range from 3 to 6 months, depending on the case.

485 Visa Application Fee

The primary person must pay a visa application fee of $1650.00 while a spouse included in the same application must pay $825.00

Any dependent children aged under 18 included in the application must pay $415.00

All applicants must undergo health checks and applicants over 16 years of age must also undergo police checks.

Our expert advice

There are a few risks involved in getting the 485 Graduate Temporary Visa and we see a lot of people who had visa refusals for reasons that could have been avoided.

It is important to check your eligibility before you apply with a Registered Agent to avoid wasting time and money and in a lot of cases, compromising your ability to remain in the country.

• We see a lot of people who had their application refused due to failure to provide documents at the right stage of the application, so be careful with these steps: many visas allow you to provide certain documents after you have lodged the application but the 485 Graduate Visa has some very strict requirements to do with police checks and skills assessment, so please consult with a Registered Migration Agent before you prepare and lodge your application, and ideally, hire an experienced agent to take care of the application for you.
  
  
• We also see a lot of people who had refusals because they received a negative result in their Skills Assessment, especially when using skills and studies from overseas to meet this requirement.
  If you are applying for the Temporary Graduate Work Stream your 485 Graduate Visa application will be refused if your Skills Assessment is negative, so check in you can obtain a positive Skills Assessment before lodging your 485 Graduate Visa application.
  As always, we recommend you check your eligibility for that with a Registered Migration Agent and ideally, hire them to prepare and lodge your skills assessment for you, to increase your chances of approval.
  
  
• Lastly, we see a lot of people who come to ask for our advice too late, after the 485 visa has been refused, because the course their chose in Australia was considered not closely related to the nominated occupation by the case officer.

 

We also see a lot of people who think their course is not related to their occupation, when in fact, we could establish close relation, and then when they come to see us it’s too late. So if you’re applying under the Temporary Graduate Work stream, please check with us if your course is closely related with your nominated occupation before applying for the 485 Graduate Visa.

The requirement is not transferable to real life in a lot of cases and you need to consult an expert who knows how immigration applies this requirement for the 485 Graduate Visa within policy.

485 Visa to Permanent Residency

 

A very common question we get at Bravo Migration is if at the end of a 485 Graduate Visa the holder would be granted permanent residence and be allowed to stay automatically in the country.

No temporary visa in Australia leads into “automatic” permanent residence but if you plan strategically, you can use your 485 Graduate Visa to apply for a permanent residence visa before your visa ends.

There are options within General Skilled Migration (Points-Tested Visas) or Employer Sponsored Migration, that most likely would require candidates to apply for another temporary visa before they can get PR, but it is not impossible to get permanent residence right after the 485 Graduate Visa.

As with everything to do with Australian Visas, it is necessary to check if you qualify and create a strategy to speed up your PR in a safe way.

Get in touch with us and request our Visa Action Plan to do exactly that.

We have worked on over 5,000 visa applications so we have the experience you are looking for. We make immigration and visa applications easy and cost-effective.

 

*485 Visa New Rules due to COVID

In 2020 the Department of Home Affairs announced changes that allow certain students, who were out of Australia when the borders closed in March 2020, to be able to complete their courses offshore and/or apply for the 485 Graduate Visa while outside Australia.

As International Students cannot return to Australia due to the border closure, there are new rules to assist people in this situation to still be able to apply for and obtain a 485 Graduate Visa outside of the country.

Not everyone can do that so please contact us to check if this would be a possibility for you.