Student visa · Dependants
Student visa dependants after 2 October 2026: who can still bring family, and what a dependant can do
For years a student could bring a partner and children to Australia on the same visa, and the partner's work rights were often the reason the family could afford the course. From 2 October 2026 that door is mostly shut: family members can no longer be added to a Student visa after grant, with no exemptions, and they can be included at application only by a short list of students. Families already here continue. This guide sets out who can still include family, exactly what an included partner and child hold and may do, what the family must show, and the routes for a partner who can no longer come as a dependant.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - After grant
- No family can be added, no exemptions
- At application
- PhD, DFAT or Defence, foreign scholarship, Pacific and ASEAN students
- Partner work
- 8104: 48 hours a fortnight; unlimited for masters and doctoral
- Partner study
- 3 months under 8201
- Children
- School enrolment and fees; condition 8517
- Already included
- Continue on the visa held
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The 2 October 2026 change
The Student visa reform regulations that commenced on 2 October 2026 did two things to families. They removed the subsequent entrant route, so that a partner or child can no longer be added to a Student visa after it has been granted, and the Department's factsheet states there are no exemptions to that rule. And they restricted who may include family members in a Student visa application at all, to the categories below. The same package closed onshore Student visa applications to most temporary visa holders, which matters for a partner who would once have applied for their own student visa from inside Australia. Applications lodged before 2 October 2026 are assessed under the previous rules. The full change is set out in the student visa changes guide.
Who can still include family
- Students in a doctoral degree.
- Students sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or by Defence.
- Recipients of a foreign government scholarship.
- Eligible students from Pacific or ASEAN countries, as the instrument defines them.
- A student applying in Australia under an exemption whose family members are already included on the current Student visa, who may include them in the next application.
The family members must be in the application from the start, and the primary applicant and every included family member must be in the same place, in or outside Australia, when it is lodged. A student outside the categories lodges alone.
Families already on a visa
A Student visa granted with a partner or children included continues on its terms until it ends, and the family's conditions, work rights and schooling obligations are those on the grant. The change does not reach back. What it changes is the next step: when the student applies for a further visa, the family comes with them only if the next visa allows it, which for a further Student visa means an exemption, and for the 485 or an employer-sponsored visa means the ordinary family inclusion rules of that visa. A family part-way through a course should plan the visa after this one now, not in the final semester.
What a partner holds and may do
A partner included on a Student visa holds the same visa, for the same period, as a secondary applicant, with their own conditions. Condition 8104 allows no work until the student's course has commenced and then no more than 48 hours in a fortnight, counted across all jobs including work on an ABN, with no unlimited period during course breaks; the dependant of a student in a masters by coursework, masters by research or doctoral course may work without limit once the course has started. Condition 8201 limits the partner's own study to three months; longer study needs their own Student visa, which from 2 October 2026 usually must be applied for from outside Australia. The partner holds condition 8501 and must be on the family's Overseas Student Health Cover. The partner cannot be the primary holder's employer for the 48 hours, cannot work before the course starts, and loses the visa if the relationship ends, since the visa depends on remaining a member of the student's family unit.
Children: schooling and fees
A child included on a Student visa must attend school, and condition 8517 requires the student to maintain adequate schooling arrangements for every included child aged six to eighteen. Government schools in most states and territories charge fees for the children of temporary visa holders, at annual rates that vary by state and sometimes by the parent's course level, with some states waiving fees for the children of research students; private schools charge their own fees. The Department expects the family to show funds for the fees as part of the financial requirement. A child who turns eighteen while on the visa must continue to meet the dependency test to remain included, and a child's own study beyond school is the child's own visa.
Health cover and funds
Every included family member must hold Overseas Student Health Cover for the whole visa period, on a family policy, and the policy must be in place at grant. The financial requirement rises with each family member: the Department's living cost figure for the student is increased by set amounts for a partner and for each child, plus school fees, plus travel, and the family shows the funds from acceptable sources. The figures are indexed and published by the Department, and the consultation uses the current ones; the principle is that a family of three needs to show, before anyone arrives, that it can live here without the partner's income, because the partner's income is capped and not assumed.
Relationship evidence
A partner is included as a spouse or de facto partner, and the Department tests the relationship as it does for any visa: the marriage certificate, or for a de facto relationship twelve months of cohabitation or a registered relationship, with evidence of a shared household, finances and social recognition. A child is included with a birth certificate naming the student or the partner, and where the other parent is not migrating, that parent's consent. A relationship that began recently, or a partner who has never lived with the student, is examined closely, and a student visa refused because a partner's inclusion was found not genuine is refused for the student too.
Routes for a partner who cannot be included
- The partner's own Student visa, applied for from outside Australia, for a course of their own. Two students, two visas, each with their own work rights under 8105 and no dependency between them.
- The partner's own skilled or sponsored visa, where their occupation and experience support one; a partner who qualifies for a 482 brings the student as a dependant, reversing the arrangement.
- Visits on a visitor visa, within the 12-months-in-18 rule and the genuine-visit test, with no work and no long stays.
- Later inclusion on the next visa, where the student's next visa, a 485 or a sponsored visa, allows family members, which most do.
What no longer exists is a partner arriving as a visitor and being added, or arriving later as a subsequent entrant. The routes above are the honest ones, and each has a cost and a timeline that the family plans before the student's course is chosen.
The order to plan in
- Decide whether the student falls within an exemption. If so, include the family in the application from the start, lodged with everyone in the same place.
- If not, decide which partner has the stronger visa of their own, and whether the other can be their dependant.
- Plan the visa after the student visa now: the 485 and the sponsored visas include family on their own rules.
- Budget on the partner's capped or absent income, with school fees and family health cover in the figure.
- Keep the relationship evidence running from the start, because every later inclusion will test it.
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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Subclass 500 criteria as amended by the Student visa reform regulations commencing 2 October 2026, and conditions 8104, 8201, 8501 and 8517 in Schedule 8 of the Migration Regulations 1994, as in force at the date above; the exemption categories are as defined in the relevant instrument. 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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Can I bring my wife on my student visa?
From 2 October 2026, only if you fall within an exemption: you are a PhD student, sponsored by DFAT or Defence, a foreign government scholarship holder, or an eligible student from a Pacific or ASEAN country, and she is included in the application from the start. Outside those categories a partner cannot be included, and cannot be added after grant under any circumstances. Applications lodged before 2 October 2026 are decided under the old rules.
My partner is already on my student visa. Does the change affect us?
No. A visa already granted with family included continues on its terms, and an application lodged before 2 October 2026 with family included is assessed under the rules at lodgement. Where you apply for a further student visa in Australia under an exemption, a partner already on your current visa may be included in the next one.
Can my partner work?
A partner included on a Student visa holds condition 8104: no work until your course has started, then up to 48 hours a fortnight. The exception is the partner of a student in a masters by coursework, masters by research or doctoral course, who may work without limit once the course has started. The hours are counted across every job, including work on an ABN.
Can my partner study?
Up to three months under condition 8201. Longer study needs the partner's own Student visa, which from 2 October 2026 usually cannot be applied for from inside Australia; the partner would apply from outside.
What about school-age children?
Children included on the visa must be enrolled in school, and most states and territories charge school fees for the children of temporary visa holders, at rates that vary by state and by the parent's course level; some waive them for research students. The fees are a cost the Department expects you to show you can meet, and the schooling condition, 8517, requires adequate schooling arrangements for every child aged six to eighteen.
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 student with a partner who cannot be included, the session is about the partner's own route and the order in which the two of you lodge.
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