Student Visa Changes Are Now Law: What the New Rules Say

For two weeks, everyone has been asking us the same question: are the student visa changes real yet? As of this week, the answer is yes. The changes announced in September became law on 2 October 2026, and they are now in force.

The main change is made by a regulation called the Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026, supported by three further legal instruments published on the Federal Register of Legislation. That detail matters, because for two weeks social media has been full of guesses. Now there is an actual law, with actual words in it. We have read all of them, and this is what they say in plain English.

 

The biggest change: family members

From 2 October 2026, most new Student visa applications can no longer include family members. In visa language, a family member (your partner or your dependent child) is called a secondary applicant, and until yesterday they could be included in a student’s application. Not anymore, as of today.

There are exemptions. You can still include your partner and children if:

 

• you are studying a PhD,
• if you are sponsored by DFAT or Defence,
• if you hold a foreign government scholarship, or
• if you are an eligible student from a Pacific country or an ASEAN member country.

One part of the change is stricter than everything else. A current Student visa holder can no longer add family members after the visa has been granted. That process, called a subsequent entrant application, has closed, and the Department’s own fact sheet says there are no exemptions to this rule. If your partner or children were planning to join you later on your current visa, get advice now, because that pathway has changed.

 

The second change: applying from inside Australia

The new rules also change where you apply from. From 2 October, most people who hold a temporary visa in Australia can no longer lodge a Student visa application while they are in the country. The list of affected visas is long. It includes visitor visas, working holiday visas, most temporary work visas including the 482 Skills in Demand Visa, and the 485 Graduate Visa.

Students already in Australia on a Student visa can still apply for their next Student visa onshore in defined situations:

 

• when you need up to 12 more months to finish your current course with the same provider,
• when you are moving up to a higher-level qualification,
• when you are starting a PhD,
• when you are at school, or
• when your education provider has closed.

Outside situations like these, the application now has to be made from outside Australia.

In simple terms: the days of arriving on one visa and switching to a Student visa from inside Australia are mostly over. Study plans now need to be made before you travel, not after.

 

The third change: moving between education providers

The rules for changing education providers have also been rewritten, through an update to the National Code, the rulebook that all registered education providers must follow. The change is aimed at providers, but it affects students directly, because it controls when a new provider is allowed to enrol you.

Until 30 June 2027, a new provider cannot enrol you as a transferring student unless you have completed at least twelve months of your main course with your current provider. From 1 July 2027, that period drops to six months. For school students, the rule stays at six months of the first school course. Before this change, the restricted period was only the first six months of your main course, so for the next nine months the bar is twice as high as students are used to.

If you have not reached the twelve-month mark, a transfer is still possible, but only in specific situations. The main one: your current provider formally agrees to release you, and records the release, with the date and the reason, in PRISMS, the government’s enrolment system. A friendly email from your provider is not enough. The release has to be in the system, because that is what your new provider must check before enrolling you. The other situations are narrower: your provider or your course has lost its registration (which is what happened to students in the cancelled Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning)), a government sanction stops you from continuing your course, or your government sponsor supports the move in writing.

Two practical points. First, if you want to move, start with your current provider’s formal transfer-request process and ask for the release in writing; every provider is required to have a documented policy for assessing these requests. Second, think about your visa before you commit to a new course. If the course you are moving to would need a new Student visa, for example because the level of study changes, the new application rules in this article apply to that visa application too. A transfer decision and a visa decision are now more connected than they used to be.

 

What has not changed

Your current visa is not affected; these rules are about new applications. Applications lodged before 2 October 2026, including applications with family members, will be assessed under the rules that applied when they were lodged.

 

What about the 485 Graduate Visa?

Many readers will remember that the September speech also mentioned extending the family-member restriction to the 485 Graduate Visa. So we checked every instrument published this week, specifically, for the 485.

So far, nothing has changed for the 485 Graduate Visa itself. Who can apply, the ability to include your partner and children, the visa length and the age limit are all the same today as they were last month. The idea of restricting family members on the 485 is still only a statement of intention. There is no law behind it and no start date.

If the law on 485 family members ever changes, there will be an instrument, and we will tell you about it the day it appears.

 

What to do now

 

• If you lodged before 2 October: your application is assessed under the old rules. You do not need to do anything.
• If you were planning to include your partner or children in a new Student visa application: check the exemptions above before you pay for anything, and get advice if your situation is not clearly covered.
• If you are in Australia on a visitor, working holiday, work or 485 visa and planning to study: your Student visa application will now likely need to be lodged from outside Australia. Build that into your course dates and travel plans.
• If you are thinking of changing education providers: ask your current provider about release first, before you enrol anywhere new.

Rules that arrive this quickly are easier on people who plan than on people who guess. If any of this touches your situation, get advice that is based on the law, from someone who has read it.

 

Where to get help

These changes are new, and the details matter. If your question is about your visa, your family, or what the new law means for your situation, book a consultation with a Registered Migration Agent at Bravo Migration.