Work rights on a bridging visa: who has them, who must apply, the financial hardship evidence, and why working before the grant ends the bridging visa

MARN 1576536

Which bridging visa, granted on what

A bridging visa A is granted to a person who applies for a substantive visa in Australia while holding a substantive visa, and it is granted with the conditions the regulations set for the application it supports, which in most cases means the work conditions of the visa the applicant held at the time, carried across: a 482 holder's bridging visa A permits work, a student's permits the hours the student visa permitted, and a visitor's permits none. A bridging visa C is granted to a person who applies for a substantive visa in Australia while not holding a substantive visa, and it is granted with condition 8101, no work, unless the Department is satisfied of a compelling need; a bridging visa E is granted to a person who is unlawful or whose bridging visa has ended, to make arrangements to depart or to await an application or a review, and it carries 8101 in the same way. The letter granting the bridging visa and VEVO state the conditions, and the holder reads them rather than assuming. The bridging visas guide compares the classes.

Work rights that come automatically

• A bridging visa A granted on an application for a partner visa, the 820, which the regulations grant without a work condition regardless of the visa held before.
• A bridging visa A granted on an application made while holding a visa with full work rights, which carries them across.
• A bridging visa A granted on some skilled, employer-sponsored and other onshore applications where the regulations specify no work condition for that application, which the consultation checks for the subclass.
• A bridging visa B, which carries the conditions of the bridging visa A it replaces for travel.
• A bridging visa granted after a refusal for the purpose of review at the Tribunal, which generally carries the conditions of the bridging visa held before the refusal, so that a holder who had work rights keeps them through the review and one who did not does not.

A bridging visa A holder whose earlier visa had the student hours limit, condition 8104 or 8105, keeps the limit on the bridging visa, and applies for a further bridging visa without it on the hardship ground in the same way as a holder with no rights at all.

Conditions 8101 and 8104

Condition 8101 is the prohibition: the holder must not engage in work in Australia, where work means an activity that in Australia normally attracts remuneration, whether or not the holder is paid for it, so that unpaid work in a business, work for a relative's business, and work for cash are all work; genuine volunteering for a charity or community organisation in a role that is not normally paid is not. Condition 8104 is the limit: the holder must not work more than the hours the condition sets in a fortnight, which for a bridging visa carrying it from a student visa is the student limit. A bridging visa granted with neither carries no restriction on work, though some carry 8107 or 8607-type conditions restricting the employer. The breach guide covers what a breach does.

The compelling need to work

The regulations permit the Department to grant a bridging visa C or E, and a further bridging visa A, without the no-work condition where the applicant satisfies it that they have a compelling need to work, and the Department's policy reads a compelling need as financial hardship: that the applicant is unable to meet their reasonable living expenses, food, accommodation, utilities, transport, medical costs and the costs of dependants, from their own resources and those of the household they live in, without working. The test is about the gap between the resources and the reasonable costs, not about the wish to work, the availability of a job, the employer's need or the applicant's qualifications; an applicant with a job offer and savings is refused, and an applicant with no job offer and no savings is granted. The Department also weighs, for bridging visa E holders, the reasons for their status and the merits of their pending matter, and for some bridging visa A holders the regulations provide work rights after a period without the hardship test, which the consultation checks.

The financial hardship evidence

1. Bank statements for every account held by the applicant, for the last three months at least, showing the balances and the transactions; the Department reads them for undisclosed income and for the real level of spending.
2. The lease or the mortgage statement, and the rent or repayment amount and frequency.
3. Utilities, phone, insurance, transport and medical bills for the period.
4. The dependants: who they are, their ages, their costs, and whether they have income.
5. Debts, with the statements and the repayment amounts.
6. Evidence of support received from family or friends, how much, and that it has ended or cannot continue, with a statement from the person who gave it.
7. A statement by the applicant setting out monthly income from every source, monthly outgoings itemised, the savings, and the gap, signed and dated.
8. Any evidence of the circumstances behind the hardship: a job lost, an illness, a relationship ended, a sponsor who stopped paying.

The household's resources

The hardship is the household's, not the individual's, where the applicant lives with a partner or a family who share the costs: a partner's income and savings are disclosed and counted, and an applicant whose partner earns enough to meet the household's reasonable costs is not in hardship whatever their own balance. An applicant living with parents who support them, an applicant whose family abroad sends money, and an applicant sharing a house with friends who cover the rent are each assessed on what the household actually provides; the Department reads the bank statements for the transfers in. A partner visa applicant whose Australian partner is the sponsor and earns a good income is the commonest refused applicant on this ground, and the commonest applicant who did not need to apply, because the partner visa's bridging visa A carries work rights already.

The application

The application is for a further bridging visa of the same class, lodged in ImmiAccount against the pending substantive application, with the request for the visa to be granted without condition 8101 or 8104 and the hardship evidence attached; there is no charge for a bridging visa A or C application, and the bridging visa E application has none in the usual case. The current bridging visa continues until the new one is granted, and the applicant does not need to be told the old one has ended; the grant of the new bridging visa, with the conditions it states, is the moment work becomes lawful. An application that is refused for want of hardship can be made again when the circumstances have changed, with the new evidence, and there is no review of a bridging visa refusal of this kind. The applicant keeps the grant letter, because employers check VEVO and VEVO shows the new conditions.

The bridging visa E holder

A bridging visa E is granted to a person who has become unlawful or whose bridging visa has ended, and the Department's starting position is no work; the holder who has a pending application for a substantive visa or a review, and who shows hardship, is granted work rights in many cases, and the Department also considers how the holder came to be unlawful, whether they came forward voluntarily, and whether their pending matter has substance. A holder with no application on foot, who holds the bridging visa E only to make arrangements to depart, is rarely granted work rights, because the purpose of the visa is departure. A protection visa applicant on a bridging visa E must also show that they applied for the protection visa within the period the regulations set after arriving or becoming unlawful, or that the delay was for an acceptable reason, before the hardship test is reached. The bridging visa E guide covers the visa, and the unlawful guide how a person comes to hold it.

The time it takes

The Department decides a bridging visa application with a work rights request in weeks in the ordinary case, and longer where the evidence is thin and a request for more issues; an application lodged with every statement attached is the one decided quickly. An applicant whose hardship is immediate tells the Department so in the statement, and the Department's practice is to prioritise genuine urgency within the bridging visa caseload. The time is not shortened by telephoning, and the applicant who works in the meantime has made the worst decision in this guide.

Working before the grant

A bridging visa holder who works while condition 8101 is on the visa, or beyond the hours of 8104, breaches the condition, and a breach of a bridging visa condition is a ground on which the Department cancels the bridging visa, after a notice and a response; cancellation leaves the holder unlawful with the substantive application still pending, requires a bridging visa E with its own conditions, carries the cancellation onto every later form, and bears on the substantive application's assessment of the holder's compliance. The Department learns of the work through the employer's payroll and the Tax Office, through the substantive application's own evidence where it shows income, and through the compliance activity that follows a tip; a holder who worked for cash and did not declare it has the Tax Office as well as the Department. A worker who has already worked before reading this stops, and the consultation advises on what the record shows and how to treat it in the pending application.

The sponsored worker's separate route

A 482 holder whose visa has expired while a new nomination and visa application are pending holds a bridging visa A with the 482's work rights, restricted to the nominating employer in the usual way, and does not need the hardship application; a 482 holder whose visa was refused and who is at the Tribunal holds the bridging visa with the conditions it had, which may restrict work to the sponsor who no longer employs them, and applies for a further bridging visa on the hardship ground to work for anyone. A worker whose sponsor has failed is on the 482 itself, with the 180-day allowance, not on a bridging visa. The bridging visa A guide and the bridging visa C guide set out each visa's conditions.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The Bridging A, B, C and E visa criteria in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, including the provisions on the compelling need to work, conditions 8101 and 8104 in Schedule 8, and the Department’s policy on financial hardship for bridging visa work rights, as in force at the date above; the Department’s practice on bridging visa E holders and on priority is a matter of its policy and the current position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.