Graduates · Second 485
The second 485 visa for regional graduates: who qualifies, and the two-year rule
A graduate whose degree was completed at a regional campus can earn a second Temporary Graduate visa by spending the first one in regional Australia. The second visa is one or two years, depending on how regional the area was, and it exists to give regional graduates the time that the 491 and employer-sponsored routes need. It is also the most commonly mistimed application in the graduate space, because the two regional years must be complete before the first visa ends and must be the two years immediately before applying. This guide sets out who qualifies, how the length is set, the residence rule, the timing, and what the second visa does and does not do.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - Stream
- Second Post-Higher Education Work
- Needs
- Regional campus degree, first 485 held
- Regional period
- 2 years living, working, studying, immediately before
- Length
- 1 year (category 2) or 2 years (category 3)
- Lodged
- In Australia, before the first 485 ends
- Condition
- Stay regional for the whole visa
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What it is for
The second Temporary Graduate visa was introduced to reward graduates who study and then stay in regional Australia, and it is the regional policy in its purest form: the reward is more time, and the price is staying regional. It is not an extension of the first visa, and it is not the pandemic-era replacement visa that closed in 2024. It is a separate application, in its own stream, with its own criteria, decided on what the graduate did during the first visa.
Who qualifies
- You hold, at the time of application, a first 485 in the Post-Higher Education Work stream, or the former Post-Study Work stream. Holders of the Post-Vocational Education Work stream, or the former Graduate Work stream, are not eligible.
- The qualification that supported the first visa was completed at a campus located in a designated regional area, shown on the completion letter and the campus address.
- For at least two years immediately before applying, while holding the first 485, you lived in a designated regional area, and any work and study you did was in a designated regional area.
- You are in Australia when you apply and when the visa is granted.
- You meet the ordinary health, character and health insurance requirements, and the age rule for the stream at the time of application.
Category 2 and category 3
The regional instrument divides Australia outside Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane into two categories by postcode. Category 2 is the cities and major regional centres: Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Wollongong, Geelong, Hobart and their surrounds. Category 3 is the regional centres and other regional areas: everywhere else. A graduate whose campus and regional residence were in category 2 is granted one further year; in category 3, two. Where the degree was completed in one category and the residence spent in another, or the two years were split between categories, the shorter grant applies. The category of a specific postcode is on the regional city check.
The two-year rule
The two years are counted back from the date of application and must be continuous, in a designated regional area, and spent while holding the first 485. Living means your residential address; working means every employer's location, including remote work, which is assessed on where you were when you did it; studying means the campus. Time in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane during the period breaks it, and the clock restarts on the return to a regional address. A holiday is not residence elsewhere, but a job in a capital city taken for six months is. The Department reads the period from your address and employer notifications, tax records and the evidence you lodge, and gaps in the record are read as time elsewhere unless explained.
Evidence
- The completion letter and transcript naming the campus, and the campus address.
- Leases, utility accounts and bank statements showing the residential address through the two years.
- Payslips, employment contracts and the employer's address for every job in the period, and a statement of where remote work was performed.
- Enrolment and campus details for any further study.
- Tax records and single-touch payroll summaries, which the Department will match in any case.
- Movement records showing you remained in Australia, or explaining short absences.
Timing
The application must be lodged while the first 485 is in effect and after the two regional years are complete. For a first visa of two years that leaves a window of weeks at the end, and only if the regional residence began at grant. For a first visa of three years there is a year of margin. Lodging early, before the two years are up, fails the criterion and loses the charge; lodging late, after the first visa has ended, is not possible at all. The date the first visa ends and the date the regional period began are the two numbers every regional graduate should know, and the consultation puts them on a calendar with the 491 and sponsorship timelines alongside.
The second visa itself
The second 485 is granted for one or two years from the end of the first, with full work rights, the right to include the family members who were on the first visa, and a condition to live, work and study only in a designated regional area for its whole duration. It carries the usual health insurance condition. It cannot be followed by a third; the stream is a single further grant. Its value is the time it buys: two more years of regional residence for a 491 nomination, or two more years in a regional job that an employer can convert into a 494 or 482 nomination.
What it does for the next step
State and territory nomination for the 491 commonly requires a period of residence and work in the nominating state's regional areas, and the two years on the first visa plus the second visa are exactly that period. Regional employers who want to keep a graduate can nominate for the 494 or the 482, and the second visa keeps the graduate lawfully in the job while the nomination is prepared and decided. Points for regional study are earned by the degree itself, not by the second visa, but the time to accumulate the rest, experience, English, a professional year, is what the second visa provides. The routes and their order are in 485 visa ending: the routes that remain.
What it does not do
- It does not lead to permanent residence by itself. It is time, not a pathway.
- It does not let you move to a capital city. The regional condition applies throughout.
- It is not available to vocational graduates, or to graduates of metropolitan campuses who moved regional later.
- It cannot be applied for after the first visa has ended, or from outside Australia.
- It does not reset the age rule for the stream, which is assessed again at the second application.
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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Subclass 485, Second Post-Higher Education Work stream, Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994, and the designated regional area instrument, as in force at the date above. 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.
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Who can apply for a second 485?
A holder of a first 485 in the Post-Higher Education Work stream, or its predecessor the Post-Study Work stream, whose qualifying degree was completed at a campus in a designated regional area, and who has lived, worked and studied only in regional Australia for at least two years immediately before applying, while holding that first visa. The Post-Vocational Education Work stream does not lead to a second visa.
How long is the second visa?
One year where the campus and the regional residence were in a category 2 area (the cities and major regional centres such as Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong, Hobart and Canberra), and two years where they were in a category 3 area (regional centres and other regional areas). The category is set by the postcode list in the regional instrument, and the lower category applies if the two years were split.
Can I apply if I moved to Sydney after my first 485?
No. The two years must be spent living, working and studying in designated regional areas only, and the two years must be the period immediately before the application. Time in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane breaks it. Where part of the period was spent in a non-regional area, the clock restarts from the return to a regional area.
When do I apply?
Before the first 485 ends, and after the two regional years are complete. A first 485 of two years leaves almost no margin: the regional period has to start at grant and the application is lodged in the final weeks. A first 485 of three years, or one with a longer grant, leaves time. The application is lodged in Australia and you must hold the first 485 when you lodge.
What does the second 485 require me to do?
To live, work and study in a designated regional area for the whole of the second visa. The condition is monitored through address and employer notifications, and a move to a major city is a breach that is weighed on the next application. Full work rights apply, and family members on the first visa can be included.
What does the consultation cost?
A$330 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video with Keshab Chapagain (MARN 1576536), credited in full if you engage WIDEN. For a graduate on a first 485 the session is about whether the two regional years can be completed in time, and what to run alongside them.
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