Student Visa Lawyer Melbourne
Subclass 500 and Subclass 485 Graduate Visa Lawyers
Amity Lawyers acts for international students in Melbourne on student visa applications, visa condition compliance, cancellations and refusals, Temporary Graduate visa applications, and the pathway from study to permanent residence.
Student visas are now one of the most actively enforced areas of Australian migration law. When something goes wrong, the time limits are short and they cannot be extended.
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Registered Immigration Lawyers - Melbourne CBD
Program in numbers
How Hard Is It to Get an Australian Student Visa Now?
Harder than it was, and the difficulty is concentrated in specific sectors and specific applicant profiles rather than spread evenly.
In the 2024-25 program year the Department received 427,131 student visa applications, a fall of 26.4 per cent on the 580,193 lodged the year before. It granted 371,564 student visas, down only 1.4 per cent. Fewer people applied, and of those who did, a smaller proportion of the difficult cases succeeded.
The grant rate tells the real story. In the quarter to 30 June 2025 the overall student visa grant rate was 83.1 per cent. Broken down by where the applicant was and what they were studying, it ranged from 92.9 per cent for offshore Higher Education applicants to 53.7 per cent for offshore Vocational Education and Training applicants. Onshore applicants overall sat at 72.7 per cent.
Student Visa Services
Student and Graduate Visa Services for Melbourne Students
Subclass 500 student visa applications New applications and further applications across all sectors: higher education, vocational education and training, ELICOS, postgraduate research and schools.
Genuine Student requirement Preparation of the Genuine Student response, which is assessed against the factors in Ministerial Direction No. 106.
Visa condition advice Work limitations, course progress and enrolment obligations, and the conditions that attach to secondary applicants and to postgraduate research students.
Cancellations and refusals Responses to a Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation, and applications for review at the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate visa Applications in the Post-Vocational Education Work, Post-Higher Education Work and Second Post-Higher Education Work streams, and planning what to do during the 485 to build a permanent residence claim.
Subclass 500 requirements
Subclass 500 Student Visa Requirements
The subclass 500 permits full-time study at an education provider registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students.
What you must establish
- A Confirmation of Enrolment from a CRICOS-registered provider
- The Genuine Student requirement, assessed against Ministerial Direction No. 106, which considers your circumstances, your immigration history and your compliance with any previous visa conditions
- Financial capacity covering tuition, living costs, travel, and school costs for any school-age dependants
- English language proficiency at the level applying to your sector and course
- Overseas Student Health Cover for the duration of your stay
- Health and character requirements
The Genuine Student criterion replaced the Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement for applications lodged on or after 23 March 2024. The distinction matters: the Genuine Student criterion is directed at whether you genuinely intend to study, and it expressly acknowledges that post-study pathways are available to those who are eligible. The old test asked a different question, and a Genuine Student response drafted as though it were still a Genuine Temporary Entrant statement is answering the wrong question.
Visa conditions
What Can You Actually Do on a Student Visa?
Most students who lose their visa did not set out to breach a condition. They worked an extra shift in a busy fortnight, dropped a subject, or changed provider without checking what it did to their enrolment. The conditions below are the ones that generate almost all student visa cancellations in practice.
Condition 8105 - Work limitation:
You may work up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and unlimited hours during scheduled course breaks. Three qualifications matter. Secondary visa holders, meaning an accompanying partner or dependant, are limited to 48 hours per fortnight at all times, including during course breaks. Students in the Postgraduate Research sector may work unlimited hours once their Masters by research or Doctoral course has commenced. Dependants of students in that sector have no work hour limitation.
Condition 8202 - Enrolment and course progress:
You must remain enrolled in a CRICOS-registered course, maintain satisfactory course progress, and maintain satisfactory attendance where attendance is assessed. This is the most common basis for student visa cancellation. Failing subjects, reducing to a part-time load without formal approval, or letting a Confirmation of Enrolment lapse will each put you in breach.
Condition 8516 - Continue to satisfy criteria:
You must continue to satisfy the criteria on which your visa was granted. In practice this is the condition the Department relies on where your circumstances have changed since grant in a way that undermines the basis of the original decision.
Condition 8532: welfare arrangements for students under 18:
If under 18, you must maintain approved accommodation, support, and general welfare arrangements.
If your visa has already been cancelled or your application refused
- If you are in Australia, you may be able to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for merits review.
- You will need lawful status while that runs, which generally means applying for a Bridging Visa E immediately.
- If you held a Bridging Visa A pending another application, cancellation of your substantive visa affects that bridging visa too.
- The Tribunal may decide on the papers, so your written material may be the only material considered.
- If you are outside Australia when the decision is made, review rights are substantially more limited.
- Bring the notice to the first consultation. The time limit and the review pathway both depend on it.
Refusal and cancellation
What to Do If Your Student Visa Is Refused or Cancelled
Act the same day you receive the notice. Review time limits for migration decisions are short, they run from the date you are taken to have received the notice, and the Administrative Review Tribunal has no power to extend them. A missed deadline ends the matter regardless of how strong your case was.
If you receive a Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation
- A Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation is not a cancellation. It is the Department inviting you to respond before it decides.
- Cancellation under section 116 is discretionary. Even where a breach is made out, the delegate is not required to cancel.
- The response window is short and runs from when you are taken to have received the notice, not when you open it.
- This is the best opportunity to keep your visa, and cheaper than review after a decision.
- An effective response addresses the specific allegation with evidence and the discretionary considerations the delegate must weigh.
- Silence is treated as acceptance.
Subclass 485
Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate Visa
The Temporary Graduate visa lets graduates of Australian institutions live, work and study in Australia after finishing their studies, with full work rights and no requirement to work in a field related to the qualification.
In 2024-25 the Department granted 126,348 Temporary Graduate visas, an increase of 14.4 per cent, while lodgements fell 30.6 per cent to 100,634. At 30 June 2025 there were 228,909 Temporary Graduate visa holders in Australia.
Post-Higher Education Work stream
- For graduates with a degree from an Australian institution
- Usually 2 to 3 years, depending on the qualification
- Up to 5 years for Hong Kong and British National Overseas passport holders
- 2 to 4 years for Indian nationals under the Australia India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement
Post-Vocational Education Work stream
- For graduates with vocational qualifications
- Up to 18 months, or up to 5 years for Hong Kong and British National Overseas passport holders
- Your qualification must be relevant to an occupation on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List
- You must hold a positive skills assessment from the relevant assessing authority
- Those last two requirements do not apply to the higher education stream, and the assessment takes months. Start it before you finish studying.
Second Post-Higher Education Work stream
- For graduates who already hold a Post-Higher Education Work, Post-Study Work or Replacement Temporary Graduate visa
- Requires a degree from an Australian institution in a regional area
- An additional 1 to 2 years, depending on the institution’s regional location and where you lived on your first visa
- Parts of greater Melbourne and much of Victoria outside the metropolitan area are designated regional
- Eligibility turns on postcode. Check it before you sign a lease, not two years later.
Student to PR pathway
Where Does a Student Visa Actually Lead?
For most students it leads to a Temporary Graduate visa, and from there the paths diverge sharply. The Home Affairs destination data for 2024-25 shows what happened to students and graduates in practice rather than in theory.
Of the 194,575 former student visa holders granted another substantive visa in 2024-25, 48.6 per cent moved to a Temporary Graduate visa, 15.4 per cent to a student visa in a different sector, and 12.5 per cent to a visitor visa.
Of the 58,409 former Temporary Graduate visa holders granted another substantive visa in 2024-25, the destinations were:
| Destination visa | Share of former TGV holders |
|---|---|
| Subclass 482 Skills in Demand | 26.5% |
| Subclass 190 Skilled Nominated | 21.2% |
| Subclass 189 Skilled Independent | 13.9% |
| Subclass 500 Student | 10.8% |
| Subclass 491 Skilled Work Regional | 8.0% |
Two things are worth reading out of that table. Employer sponsorship, not independent skilled migration, is the single largest destination for Australian graduates. And more than one in ten former graduate visa holders returned to study, which is usually a sign that a skilled migration plan did not come together in time.
The Sequence, Stage by Stage
This is one common sequence rather than a standard one. Timing depends on your course length, your occupation and whether you secure nomination or sponsorship, and a large share of students never reach the later stages.
| Stage | What you hold | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Study | Subclass 500 student visa | Full-time study, work up to 48 hours per fortnight in session. Course progress and enrolment conditions apply throughout. |
| Post-study work | Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate visa | Full work rights with no field restriction. This is where you build Australian skilled employment, which is worth points, and where sponsorship conversations usually start. |
| Skilled or sponsored | 189, 190, 491, or 482 Skills in Demand | Which one is open to you depends on your occupation list, points score and whether an employer sponsors you. These are not sequential alternatives to each other, they are competing routes chosen at the same decision point. |
| Permanent residence | Immediate on a 189 or 190. Via subclass 191 after 3 years for a 491 holder. Via subclass 186 for a 482 holder, generally after 2 years with the sponsoring employer. | The 189 and 190 are permanent visas at grant. The 491 and 482 are not, and each has its own qualifying period and conditions before permanent residence becomes available. |
| Citizenship | Australian citizenship by conferral | Four years lawful residence including the final 12 months as a permanent resident. |
Citizenship at the end of the Pathway
Whichever route you take, the citizenship residence requirement is the same. You must have been lawfully resident in Australia for four years immediately before applying, including the final 12 months as a permanent resident, with no more than 12 months total absence across the four years and no more than 90 days absence in the final 12 months.
Time on a student visa and time on a graduate visa both count toward the four years of lawful residence. Only the final 12 months must be as a permanent resident. This is why students who have been in Australia throughout often become eligible sooner after permanent residence than they expect.
What changed since 2024
What Changed in the Student Visa Program, and Does It Affect You?
If your plan was built on advice that predates March 2024, it is probably out of date. The reforms below were implemented as a package and they interact.
- The Genuine Student requirement replaced the Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement for applications lodged on or after 23 March 2024
- English language requirements for both student visas and Temporary Graduate visas increased for applications lodged on or after 23 March 2024
- Increased financial capacity requirements took effect on 10 May 2024
- From 1 July 2024, Temporary Graduate, Visitor and Maritime Crew visa holders who are in Australia cannot apply for a student visa or student guardian visa onshore
- The maximum eligible age for a Temporary Graduate visa was reduced from 50 to 35
- The extension of post-study work rights was removed, and the Replacement stream, a COVID-19 concession, was abolished
- Offshore student visa applications are processed in an order set by Ministerial Direction, replaced more than once since December 2023
The single most consequential change for students already in Australia is the onshore restriction. A graduate visa holder who intends to return to study can no longer simply apply onshore, and a plan that assumed they could needs rebuilding.
Fixed-fee packages
How Much Does a Student Visa Lawyer Cost in Melbourne?
Amity Lawyers charges fixed legal fees for student and graduate visa matters. You receive a written costs disclosure and costs agreement before work begins, as required under the Legal Profession Uniform Law.
Department of Home Affairs visa application charges are separate from legal fees, and they are substantial. The subclass 500 and subclass 485 charges have both increased more than once since 2024, so budget against the current published figure rather than a figure you were quoted earlier in your course.
Subclass 500 Student Visa Package
- Genuine Student assessment and response preparation
- Financial capacity evidence review
- Document preparation and lodgement
- Post-grant visa condition advice
Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate Visa Package
- Stream selection and eligibility assessment against course, duration, age and the six month window
- Skills assessment advice where the Post-Vocational Education Work stream applies
- Document preparation and lodgement
- Post-grant pathway planning
Cancellation, NOICC Response and ART Review
- Same-day case assessment
- Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation response
- Administrative Review Tribunal application and submissions where a decision has already been made
Why a law firm
Why Instruct a Law Firm on a Student Visa?
Because the student visa program is now enforced rather than merely administered, and the consequences of a refusal or cancellation are legal consequences that follow you into every later application.
The Genuine Student response is a legal document
It is assessed against the factors in a Ministerial Direction, and it is read alongside your immigration history and your compliance record. A response that reads as a personal statement rather than an answer to those factors is the most common weakness we see in refused applications.
Condition compliance is easier to fix before it breaks
Work hour breaches, reduced study loads and provider changes are all manageable in advance and expensive to manage afterwards. Students commonly do not know they are in breach until a notice arrives.
A cancellation notice is a deadline, not a letter
The response period is short and cannot be extended. The quality of what you file in that window largely determines the outcome, because the Administrative Review Tribunal may decide a migration matter on the papers.
The 485 has to be planned before the course ends, not after
The study requirement, the age limit, the stream requirements and the six month window all have to line up. A vocational graduate who has not started a skills assessment by the time they finish studying has usually already lost the stream.
Client Reviews
Real Clients. Real Results.
Amity Lawyers acts for international students across Melbourne’s universities and vocational providers. The reviews below are published from our Google Business Profile and are not edited.
Student Visa Lawyers Serving Melbourne and Greater Victoria
Amity Lawyers is at Level 24, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, at the western end of the CBD and walking distance from Southern Cross Station.
We act for students enrolled at Melbourne’s universities and vocational providers, including the University of Melbourne, Monash University, RMIT, Deakin University, La Trobe University, Swinburne University of Technology and Victoria University, and for students at the many CRICOS-registered vocational providers across the CBD and inner suburbs.
Australian migration law applies uniformly nationwide, so we act for students across Australia and offshore. What a Melbourne office adds is practical: in-person consultation when a notice arrives, identity document sighting and certification, and face-to-face preparation of a cancellation response on short notice.
Our People
The Lawyers Acting on Your Matter
Every practitioner at Amity Lawyers holds a current Australian practising certificate and is regulated by the Victoria Legal Services Board and Commissioner. The firm holds professional indemnity insurance under the Legal Profession Uniform Law. You deal with the same lawyer from first consultation to outcome.
NAVID K.BAGHI
DIRECTOR & PRINCIPAL SOLICITOR
JENNIFER ORTEGA CAMARGO
PRACTICE MANAGER
JENNIFER ORTEGA CAMARGO
PRACTICE MANAGER
NATHALIA BONILLA
LEGAL ASSISTANT
NATHALIA BONILLA
LEGAL ASSISTANT
Download Our Student Visa Conditions Checklist
A practical guide to the conditions attached to a subclass 500 visa, what counts as a breach, what to do in the first 24 hours after a Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation, and the eligibility checkpoints for each subclass 485 stream.
Resources
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Read More »Frequently Asked Questions
Student Visa Lawyer Melbourne
Can I work while on a student visa in Australia?
Yes, up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session, and unlimited hours during scheduled course breaks. Three exceptions matter. An accompanying partner or dependant is limited to 48 hours per fortnight at all times, including course breaks. Students in the Postgraduate Research sector may work unlimited hours once their Masters by research or Doctoral course has commenced, and their dependants have no limit at all. Check the conditions on your own grant letter before starting work, because the limit is enforced against you, not your employer.
What happens if my student visa application is refused?
If you are in Australia you may be able to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for merits review, within a period that is short and cannot be extended. If you are offshore your options are generally to reapply addressing the reasons for refusal, or to consider a different visa. The visa application charge is not refunded on refusal, and a refusal becomes part of the immigration history assessed in every later application, which is why the reasons for refusal need to be addressed rather than worked around.
How long can I stay in Australia after my student visa expires?
You cannot stay. You must lodge a further application before your current visa ceases. If you do not, you become an unlawful non-citizen, which exposes you to detention and removal and can trigger exclusion periods under the public interest criteria in later applications. Note that since 1 July 2024, Temporary Graduate, Visitor and Maritime Crew visa holders in Australia cannot apply for a student visa onshore, so a plan that relies on switching back to study needs checking well before your visa ceases.
Can I change my course or education provider on a student visa?
Sometimes, but not freely. You must remain enrolled in a CRICOS-registered course and continue to meet the requirements of your visa. Moving from a higher education course to a vocational course changes your sector, and depending on when you do it and what your original Confirmation of Enrolment said, it can put you in breach of condition 8202 and affect later applications. Get advice before you accept a new offer, not after.
What is the Genuine Student (GS) requirement?
The Genuine Student criterion replaced the Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement for applications lodged on or after 23 March 2024. It assesses whether you genuinely intend to study in Australia, applying the factors set out in Ministerial Direction No. 106, which include your circumstances, your immigration history and your compliance with previous visa conditions. It expressly acknowledges that post-study pathways exist for those who are eligible, which is a meaningful change from the test it replaced.
How do I apply for a Temporary Graduate (485) visa?
You must have met the study requirement in the 6 months before you apply, meaning at least 2 academic years or 92 weeks in a CRICOS-registered course, conducted in English and completed in no less than 16 calendar months. You must be 35 or under and meet the English requirement. Which stream you apply in depends on your qualification, and the Post-Vocational Education Work stream additionally requires an occupation on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and a positive skills assessment. Applications are lodged online through ImmiAccount.
Can I include my partner in my student visa application?
Yes. A spouse or de facto partner and dependent children under 18 can be included as secondary applicants. Secondary visa holders may work, but they are limited to 48 hours per fortnight at all times, including during your course breaks, which is stricter than the limit applying to you. The exception is dependants of students in the Postgraduate Research sector, who have no work hour limitation.
Ready to Speak to a Student Visa Lawyer in Melbourne?
If you have received a notice, the clock is already running and the deadline cannot be extended. If you are planning an application, the decisions that determine the outcome are made before you lodge, not after.
Amity Lawyers offers a 10 minute consultation at no cost to work out where you stand.
Last updated: July 2026
Student visa policy, fees, and conditions change frequently. This page is reviewed and updated quarterly. For the most current advice, speak directly with an Amity Lawyers immigration lawyer.