Status & refusals · Section 48
The section 48 bar: what you can still lodge in Australia after a refusal or cancellation
A refusal letter rarely explains the second problem it creates. If you are in Australia without a substantive visa and a visa has been refused or cancelled since you last arrived, section 48 of the Migration Act limits what you can apply for from here to a short list. Most people learn this when the next application comes back as invalid. This guide sets out when the bar applies, the exceptions, the trap in leaving on a bridging visa, and the three real routes out.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - Trigger
- Onshore refusal or cancellation, no substantive visa
- Not triggered by
- Overstaying alone, or a bridging visa refusal
- Main exceptions
- Partner, protection, 190, 491, 494, child, bridging
- Leaving on a BVB
- Does not lift the bar
- Protection claims
- s48A is a separate, stricter bar
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Thirty minutes to know which of the three routes is open to you before a deadline closes one of them.
In the consultation I read the refusal or cancellation notice and your bridging visa grant, confirm whether s48 applies and which exceptions you can use, check the review deadline against the letter, and tell you which route to run and in what order. If the honest answer is to leave and apply from outside, you hear that too, with the exclusion-period arithmetic done.
What it costs. $330 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video with Keshab Chapagain (MARN 1576536), credited in full against our professional fee if you engage WIDEN. Advice confirmed in writing after the session.
When the bar applies
Section 48 applies to a person who meets all three of these at the same time: they are in Australia; they do not hold a substantive visa (a bridging visa is not one); and, since they last entered Australia, either a visa application they made while here was refused, or a visa they held was cancelled. Two things that people assume trigger it do not. A refusal of a bridging visa is excluded. Overstaying on its own, with no refusal and no cancellation, is not a trigger either; that person can still apply onshore, subject to Schedule 3.
The words since last entering Australia matter. A refusal from an earlier stay, before you left and came back on a new substantive visa, does not count against this stay. A refusal of an application you made from outside Australia does not count either, because the application was not made here.
What it does
While the bar applies, you may only apply for a visa of a class prescribed in regulation 2.12 of the Migration Regulations. An application for any other visa is not a valid application. It does not create a bridging visa, it is not refused on its merits, and it carries no review rights, because in law nothing was applied for. People find this out weeks later, often after a bridging visa they assumed they held has not been granted and they have become unlawful in the meantime.
The bar does not stop a review of the refusal itself, and it does not stop an application from outside Australia. It is an onshore bar on new applications, nothing more and nothing less.
The exceptions
The classes that can still be applied for onshore despite s48, in the order people actually use them:
- Partner (820/801). The most used exception. Because the applicant holds no substantive visa, Schedule 3 applies in full, and the application turns on meeting its criteria or having them waived for compelling reasons. See partner visa and Schedule 3.
- Protection (866). Open under s48, but only for a person with a genuine claim, and subject to the separate and stricter s48A bar below. Lodging a protection claim to buy time is the most damaging thing a person in this position can do to a later application.
- Skilled Nominated (190), Skilled Work Regional (491) and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (494). Added to the list from 13 November 2021. Each needs the nomination first: a state or territory for the 190 and 491, an approved regional employer for the 494. The nomination is the hard part and takes time; the s48 exception only means the visa application can then be made from here.
- Child (802), Medical Treatment (602), bridging visas, and a handful of classes that rarely arise in practice (territorial asylum, border, special category for New Zealand citizens, resolution of status).
What is not on the list is the point: no 482, no 186 Direct Entry, no 189, no student visa, no visitor visa, no 485. For those, the only way back is from outside Australia.
The bridging-visa travel trap
The bar lasts while you are in Australia, so the question everyone asks is whether a short trip resets it. It does not. Section 48 provides that a person who leaves and re-enters Australia while holding a bridging visa is taken to have been in Australia continuously. A Bridging Visa B trip to New Zealand and back changes nothing. The bar is only left behind by applying from outside Australia, or by being granted a new substantive visa while away and re-entering on it.
Leaving also brings the exclusion periods into play. A person who has been unlawful for more than 28 days faces a three-year exclusion from most temporary visas under PIC 4014; a person whose visa was cancelled faces the same under PIC 4013. Neither applies to permanent visas such as a partner visa, which is why the choice of the next visa decides whether leaving costs you three years or nothing. The arithmetic is in unlawful in Australia: what now.
Section 48A and protection visas
Section 48A is a different provision with a different reach. Once a protection visa application has been refused, or a protection visa cancelled, no further protection visa application can be made from inside Australia at all, whether or not the person holds a substantive visa and whether or not they have left and returned in the meantime. The only way through is the Minister personally deciding under s48B that it is in the public interest to allow another application, which is rare and cannot be applied for as of right. A person who was refused a protection visa and now has a genuine new claim, or a partner, needs advice before anything is lodged, because the partner route may be the only one left and it must be done properly the first time.
Character refusals: a different bar
A refusal or cancellation on character grounds under section 501 is carved out of s48 and governed instead by section 501E, which bars most applications onshore with a narrower set of exceptions, chiefly protection visas. If your letter cites s501, the analysis on this page is not the one that applies to you; see character refusal and cancellation.
The three routes
- Review the refusal. Where the Administrative Review Tribunal can review the decision, lodging in time keeps you on a bridging visa and, if the refusal is set aside, the original application is decided again. This is a continuation of the application you made, not a new one, so s48 does not arise. The deadline is on the letter and is not extended. See ART review.
- Lodge an exempt visa onshore. A partner visa where the relationship is genuine, or a 190, 491 or 494 where a nomination can be obtained in time. Each has its own criteria, and the fact that s48 allows the application says nothing about whether it will succeed.
- Leave and apply from outside. For every visa not on the list, this is the only route. Done on a Bridging Visa E within 28 days of becoming unlawful, and aimed at a visa the exclusion periods do not touch, it is often cleaner than a weak onshore application that fails and adds a second refusal to the file.
The wrong route is the one taken most often: a visa not on the list lodged anyway, discovered invalid after the bridging visa has lapsed, with the review deadline now passed. The order of these decisions is the whole job.
Before you lodge anything
- Read the refusal or cancellation notice for the section it was made under and the review deadline it states.
- Check VEVO for what you hold today and when it ends. A Bridging Visa A tied to a refused application ends a set number of days after the decision; a review application keeps it alive.
- Do not leave Australia on a bridging visa expecting the bar to reset.
- Do not lodge a protection claim unless you have one.
- Get the route decided before the deadline, not after it.
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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Section 48, 48A, 48B and 501E of the Migration Act 1958 and regulation 2.12 of the Migration Regulations 1994 as in force at the date above; confirm the current text before acting. 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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Does section 48 apply to me if my visa simply expired?
No. Section 48 needs a refusal or a cancellation since you last entered Australia. A person who overstayed without either is not barred by s48 and can apply for a substantive visa onshore, subject to Schedule 3 and the visa's own criteria. See the unlawful-in-Australia guide for that situation.
My visitor visa was refused while I was in Australia. Can I apply for a partner visa here?
Usually yes. The partner visa is one of the classes that can still be applied for onshore despite s48. Because you will not hold a substantive visa, Schedule 3 applies, and the application succeeds or fails largely on whether its criteria are met or waived. That is a case to have read before lodging, not after.
Can I apply for a 482 onshore after a refusal?
No. The 482 is not on the list of exceptions. The employer-sponsored visas that are on the list are the 494 and, through state nomination, the 190 and 491, each of which needs a nomination approved first. A 482 would have to be applied for from outside Australia.
If I leave on a Bridging Visa B and come back, is the bar lifted?
No. The Act treats a person who leaves and re-enters on a bridging visa as having stayed in Australia the whole time, so the bar continues. The bar is only avoided by applying from outside Australia, or by re-entering on a new substantive visa granted while you were away.
Does asking for ART review count as a new application?
No. Review asks the Tribunal to re-decide the application you already made. If the Tribunal sets the refusal aside and sends it back, the Department decides the same application again; s48 has nothing to bite on. Review is lodged within the deadline on your refusal letter, usually 21 or 28 days.
What is the difference between section 48 and section 48A?
Section 48 is the general bar after any onshore refusal or cancellation and has a list of exceptions. Section 48A is a separate bar that stops a further protection visa application after a protection visa has been refused or cancelled, with no exceptions other than the Minister personally lifting it under s48B.
What does the consultation cost?
A$330 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video with Keshab Chapagain (MARN 1576536), credited in full against the professional fee if you engage WIDEN. For a refusal with a deadline the extended 60-minute session at A$550 is usually the right one.
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