Check where you must apply and whether family can be included
New Home Affairs rules require most affected temporary visa holders to be outside Australia when lodging a Student 500 or Guardian 590 application and when it is granted. Current Student holders can lodge a further Student application inside Australia only under limited exemptions; a dependent Student holder moving to primary Student status must apply offshore. Most new Student applications cannot include family, and a granted Student visa cannot receive new subsequent entrants. Applications lodged before 2 October are assessed under the earlier rules. Check the exact current route before paying a provider or lodging; an invalid application can affect your status.
Official location rules and exemptions · Official family rules · Validity and earlier applications
Check the course and provider
Student visa 500 is the main route for international students enrolled in an eligible full-time course. Search the official CRICOS register to confirm that your education provider and course are registered. Most applicants need a valid Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) for every intended course when they apply. The official document tool lists limited special categories, including government-sponsored students, secondary exchange students and some postgraduate research students awaiting thesis marking, with different evidence. Check whether one actually applies to you.
A letter of offer alone is not the same as a CoE for a standard course application. If you are changing courses or packaging several courses, check the exact evidence requirements before applying.
Search CRICOS · Check CoE exceptions in the official document tool · Read Student visa 500 requirements
BSB80120 course notice, checked 5 October: The 5 October 2026 restriction on new enrolment and commencement now applies to this exact course code. Education and ASQA say students who already commenced may continue. If your course or package includes this code, read the dated GDML notice and check with your provider →
Workplace training instead of a course? If the trip is occupational training or professional development with an organisation, compare the Training 407 starting checks before treating an offer as a Student 500 pathway. Follow the exact route's current criteria; this comparison does not establish eligibility.
Your passport and provider affect the evidence
Enter your passport country and education provider into Home Affairs’ Student visa document checklist tool. Recheck it just before you lodge. Your ImmiAccount application may request further documents based on your answers. If the official checklist asks for evidence of English ability or financial capacity, attach it before submission.
- Passport and identity evidence, plus family documents if relevant.
- Valid CoE for each intended course, or the specified alternative for an official special category, and required Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC).
- Financial-capacity and English-language evidence if required for your application.
- Any health, character, translation or biometrics documents requested.
OSHC generally needs to cover your intended stay, including the period from arrival if you travel before classes begin. Check the official exceptions and exact dates for your case. Plan OSHC dates, family cover and application evidence →
Use the official Student document tool · Check OSHC and eligibility
Keep your preparation in one place: choose a free student worksheet for your document-tool result, course plan, funding, English evidence, health cover or document tracking. No email is required. Keep completed worksheets on your own device; they are planning aids, not an official attachment list.
Run the checklist for your own passport and provider
Home Affairs says its Student document tool is routinely updated on 31 March and 30 September. On 30 September, the tool's visible page was dated 16 September; that date alone does not show whether its underlying results changed. Run it again just before submitting. A general document list without your selected inputs is not your personal result.
- Choose the country of the passport you will use. Select your education provider or its CRICOS code and only the special category that actually applies. Complete the official reCAPTCHA and select Display evidence; a list shown before your inputs are accepted is not your result. For a package of courses, use the provider of the principal, final course.
- Read the result and note the date, chosen inputs and every evidence category shown. The list is an indication: Home Affairs may request more evidence.
- Compare the result with the attachment list in your own ImmiAccount application. If English or financial-capacity evidence appears in the tool, the disclaimer says to attach it before submission.
- Check again if your passport, provider, principal course or application details change, and immediately before you lodge.
Provider missing or not chosen?
The official disclaimer says a newly CRICOS-registered provider can take up to a month to appear. If it is registered but missing, select “My provider is not listed”. If you have not decided on a provider, you may leave the field blank or choose that option; rerun the tool after choosing your actual provider.
Download a private result record ↓ · Read the official disclaimer · Open the live document tool · Check CRICOS registration
When must you attach financial evidence?
Use the Home Affairs document checklist for your passport country and education provider, then check the attachment list in ImmiAccount. If financial-capacity evidence appears, attach it before submitting. Home Affairs says it may refuse an application without asking for missing evidence. A checklist that does not ask for it at lodgement does not prevent Home Affairs from requesting it later. Since 2 October 2026, most new Student applications cannot include family and no new subsequent entrants can be added after grant; check the current family exemption before calculating family costs.
For the funds route, the official calculation includes travel, course fees, living costs for the student and accompanying family, and school costs for any school-age children. Home Affairs gives current amounts and pro-rata instructions on its live Student 500 page. It also describes an alternative based on a parent’s or partner’s annual income, with a separate current threshold and official government income records. Bank statements or employer letters do not count as proof of annual income for that alternative, though bank deposits may be relevant to the funds route. Check which route you actually use.
Visa minimums are not a personal living budget. Research costs in the city where you plan to live, and keep the evidence genuine and consistent with your course and family plans. Our worksheet helps you organise the questions privately; it does not decide whether you meet the requirement.
If you must provide financial evidence, Home Affairs also asks you to show genuine access to the money. Explain who provides it, your relationship and how deposits accumulated. Transaction history can help; a one-day balance certificate alone does not show how funds grew. For a loan, check its terms and evidence of disbursement. Follow the live instructions for your case.
Current Student 500 financial-capacity rules · Official document checklist · Checklist disclaimer · Private funding planner ↓
Arrange consent and welfare before travel
For a Student 500 applicant under 18, Home Affairs asks for consent from each parent or legal guardian using Form 1229 or a statutory declaration; if one person has sole custody, provide evidence of that. The student must also show adequate welfare arrangements. Check the official options for your situation, such as an education provider’s Confirmation of Appropriate Accommodation and Welfare (CAAW) or a nominated guardian using Form 157N. Secondary exchange and government-sponsored students have separate options.
If the student will still be under 18 on arrival, check the approved welfare start date before booking: Home Affairs says the student must not enter Australia before those arrangements begin. It also describes a specific Form 157N process for an applicant who will turn 18 before arriving. Match the dates and documents to the student’s own case and the live ImmiAccount prompts.
If a parent or relative needs a separate visa to care for the student, read our Student Guardian 590 guide. The guardian's health-cover and work rules differ from the student's.
Official under-18 consent and welfare rules · Student document checklist tool · Private under-18 planner ↓
Explain why this course makes sense
The application asks Genuine Student questions about your current circumstances, why you chose the course and provider and understand study and life in Australia, how the course will benefit you, and anything else relevant. Some applicants receive an extra question about their past visa history. Give specific, truthful answers and upload evidence that supports them.
Home Affairs asks for answers in English, with a 150-word limit for each response, and prefers answers in the online form over a separate statement. Read the live form and official guidance before drafting. A vague copied statement or inconsistent documents can make your circumstances harder to assess.
Prepare answers and evidence → · Official GS requirement · Download the answer planner ↓
Check your current visa if you are in Australia
From 2 October 2026, most affected temporary visa holders must apply for Student 500 or Guardian 590 outside Australia and be outside Australia at grant. The affected list includes Visitor 600, ETA 601 and eVisitor 651; check the full current list, including other temporary visas, and any limited current-Student exemption. A Student dependant seeking their own primary Student visa must apply offshore. An offshore Student application does not provide a linked Bridging visa.
Check the possible further-Student onshore exemptions → · Read the Visitor-to-Student location guide → · Check who can apply and where · Compare visa options
Submit through ImmiAccount
- Confirm the course, CoE, visa eligibility and document list.
- Prepare genuine answers, clear scans and any required translations.
- Complete the application online, attach the requested evidence and check the current charge before payment.
- Watch ImmiAccount for requests, and arrange biometrics or health examinations if instructed.
- Read the written decision and all visa conditions before travel, study or work.
Fees and processing estimates change. A processing estimate is not a promise for your application. After lodgement, use our guide to requests, updates and decisions. If you plan to enter Australia while the Student visa is still pending, check the travel-while-waiting rules; Home Affairs advises against travelling on a Visitor visa to commence studies.
Open ImmiAccount · Current fee estimator · Processing estimates
Check the temporary 12-month transfer rule
Education's National Code now generally restricts non-school overseas students from moving to another provider until they have completed 12 months of their principal course, with exceptions and possible early release. The period is scheduled to return to six months on 1 July 2027; school students retain their separate six-month first-school-course rule. This is a provider-transfer rule, separate from visa condition 8202. Check your course dates and the official student fact sheet before withdrawing →
Can you change course on a Student 500 visa?
Home Affairs says visa condition 8202 requires Student visa holders to remain enrolled in a CRICOS-registered course and maintain satisfactory attendance and course progress under their provider's requirements. It also generally requires continued enrolment at the same or a higher Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level than the course for which the visa was granted. A move from a doctoral degree (AQF 10) to a master's degree (AQF 9) is a stated exception.
If you want to move to a lower AQF level or from an AQF course to a non-award course, Home Affairs says you must apply for and be granted a new Student visa before making that change. Do not assume a new offer letter, CoE or provider acceptance by itself changes your visa condition. Ask the provider about enrolment and reporting, check your own grant and VEVO, and read the Department's study-situation instructions before withdrawing or transferring. Some visas also carry separate study-change conditions, including 8203, 8204 or 8208, which may require another step.
Plan any gap between courses before leaving your current enrolment. Home Affairs says a course gap should generally be no more than two months, with exceptions for an end-of-academic-year break, education-provider default, or completion of a course while applying for a new visa. These are case-specific exceptions, not permission to stop studying without checking your own dates and visa. If your provider closes or cannot deliver your course, ask it and the Tuition Protection Service about a replacement or refund and follow the current Home Affairs provider-default steps.
Official condition 8202 wording · Home Affairs changing-course rule · Tell Home Affairs about a study change · Provider default and replacement course · Check your own visa conditions · Full course-change guide and private checklist →
Read your own grant before taking a job
Home Affairs says the usual Student 500 work limit while a course is in session is 48 hours per fortnight. Under condition 8105, a fortnight is 14 days starting on a Monday, and hours from more than one job count together. Semester time includes exams; a scheduled course break is generally outside session. Do not treat the limit as a weekly allowance that can be reset each Sunday. Check your own grant letter and VEVO for the conditions actually attached to your visa.
Condition 8105 generally prevents work before the course starts, with an exception for a person who held a visa permitting work when they applied for the Student visa. A student in a master's degree by research or doctorate may work beyond 48 hours after that course starts; a mandatory registered placement can also be treated differently. These are specific rules, not a general exception for every master's course or internship. See the official condition text before accepting extra shifts.
Family members have separate condition 8104 rules. They usually cannot work before the student's course starts and ordinarily have a 48-hour fortnight limit while it is in session. Family members of a student undertaking a master's by research, doctorate, master's by coursework or extended master's may have more work rights under the stated conditions; a coursework master's student still has the ordinary in-session limit. Student holders can generally work unlimited hours when their course is not in session, while family members still have limits. Read each family member's own grant and VEVO record.
Australian workplace rights, including lawful pay and protections, also apply to international students. Fair Work says an employer cannot cancel a visa, and a worker can ask it for help about pay or conditions. Keep payslips and a record of hours, and use the Fair Work Ombudsman for workplace questions.
Condition 8105 for students · Condition 8104 for family members · Check your current visa in VEVO · Fair Work international student rights
Check overlapping Monday-to-Sunday fortnights
A payroll cycle is not the visa rule. If Monday-to-Sunday weeks contain 8, 32, 24 and 10 hours, the first two weeks total 40 and the last two total 34. But the middle two total 56 hours. That middle fortnight exceeds the ordinary 48-hour in-session reference.
Add hours across all jobs. Home Affairs says paid or unpaid work experience generally counts; the mandatory placement exception depends on the registered course requirement. A term-break course that counts towards the main course can also be in session. Check the official condition and provider records before excluding hours.
Home Affairs fortnight, work-experience and course-session rules
Enter four consecutive Monday-to-Sunday weekly totals, in decimal hours (45 minutes = 0.75 hours). Use 0 for a week with no hours; leave unknown weeks blank. This adds adjacent weeks against a 48-hour reference. It does not decide your work rights, course status, exemptions or compliance.
Enter hours, then choose “Add adjacent fortnights”.
The calculator has no submit form and does not save its entries. Reloading clears them. Sitewide analytics and tracking described in our privacy policy still run. Continue the log beyond these four weeks; hours before and after the entered period are not checked.
Download a private hours log .txt ↓
Keep actual shift records and payslips as well as planned hours. If a fortnight crosses a course start, break or another visa change, get the exact rule checked before relying on a simple total. The ordinary student limit and the family-member condition are different checks.
Plan the course and evidence
Print a two-page course and document worksheet, then choose your citizenship and residence for a route-specific checklist. The official tool controls the evidence you need.