Student visa ending: the options that remain after 2 October 2026

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The dates

• Course completion date. The date your provider records, usually the completion letter or the date results are released, not graduation day. The 485's six-month window runs from it.
• Visa end date. On the grant notice. Any onshore application has to be lodged before it, so that a bridging visa keeps you lawful while it is decided. After it, most onshore options close and a three-year exclusion can follow.
• Day you turn 35. For the 485, age is tested on the day of application.
• English test date. For the 485 the result must be from a test taken within 12 months before the application.

What closed on 2 October 2026

The Migration Amendment (Student Visa Reform) Regulations 2026 apply to applications lodged on or after 2 October 2026. A current student can lodge a further Student visa onshore only under an exemption: up to 12 months to finish the same main course with the same provider; moving to a higher AQF level, with higher-education to higher-education where the course is higher education; school studies; a PhD; DFAT and Defence students; or a provider default. A lower, sideways or unrelated course has to be applied for from outside Australia. Family members can no longer be added to a Student visa after grant, with no exceptions. Applications lodged before 2 October are decided under the old rules. The detail is on the student visa changes page.

The 485 Temporary Graduate visa

The first route to test, because it is the one with the shortest window. The Post-Higher Education Work stream is for Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral graduates, with no occupation or skills assessment required; the Post-Vocational Education Work stream is for eligible VET graduates and needs a nominated occupation and a positive skills assessment. Both require under 35 at application (narrow exceptions for certain research degrees and specific passports), an eligible qualification completed in Australia, English of at least IELTS 6.5 overall or equivalent from a test within the last 12 months, and lodgement within six months of completion while holding an eligible visa. The stay is broadly 18 months to three years depending on the qualification. Decisions have recently been quick for the higher-education stream and slower for the VET stream; the processing times page carries the current figures.

Use the 485 deadline calculator for your window, and read the 485 guide for the streams. One more date: the 17 September 2026 package announced that family members will be excluded from new 485 grants. It has no start date yet. While it has none, a 485 lodged with a partner or child is assessed under the current rules, which is a reason to lodge rather than wait.

Employer sponsorship: the 482

If an employer will nominate you, the Core Skills stream of the 482 needs the occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List, a salary of at least A$79,423 or the market rate if higher, and at least one year of relevant full-time experience in the last five years. Casual or part-time work during study counts pro rata where it was in the occupation. The employer has to be, or become, an approved sponsor. A nomination from a job you already hold is the strongest version of this route; a job offer made to secure a visa is the weakest. Processing has been months, not weeks, for Core Skills, with onshore applicants ahead of offshore ones under the priorities in force since 19 September 2026. See the 482 guide and, for the employer, whether a small business can sponsor.

State nomination: 190 and 491

Points-tested permanent (190) and provisional regional (491) visas need a positive skills assessment in an occupation on the relevant list, at least 65 points, age under 45, and a nomination from a state or territory, each with its own list and criteria and most of them favouring people already living and working in the state. Australian study and work experience add points; a Proficient or Superior English result adds 10 or 20. The 2026–27 program cut regional 491 places sharply and raised the 190 allocation, so the 190 is the more realistic target this year in most states. For most graduates this is a route that runs through a 485, not instead of it. Check your score on the points calculator and the states on the nomination tracker.

Partner visa

If you are married to, in a registered relationship with, or have lived for 12 months as the de facto partner of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, an onshore partner application lodged before your visa ends carries a bridging visa with work rights while it is decided. The application charge is the highest of any visa, decisions take well over a year, and the relationship evidence has to be genuine and documented from the start: the 820/801 guide and the evidence checklist set out what that means.

Further study by exemption

The exemptions are real routes for the students they describe: a Bachelor graduate moving to a Masters at a higher-education provider; a Masters graduate moving to a PhD; a student who needs a few more months to finish the same course. They are not a way to hold a visa with a course chosen for the visa, and the Genuine Student requirement is applied to exactly that pattern. Anyone outside the exemptions applies from outside Australia, where the same requirement applies. The Genuine Student guide explains what the Department looks for.

Leaving in time

Leaving before the visa ends and applying for the next visa from outside Australia keeps the record clean and keeps every route open, including a Student visa for a course that does not fit the onshore exemptions. Staying past the date, or lodging something weak just to get a bridging visa, costs more later: an unlawful period, a section 48 bar on most onshore applications, and in some cases a three-year exclusion. If leaving is the plan, book the flight for before the end date, not on it.

If the course was cancelled or you have been reported

A provider report for attendance, progress or non-payment, or a course cancellation, is the start of a section 116 cancellation process. A notice of intention to consider cancellation follows, with a short response period that is strictly applied. Enrolling with another provider does not withdraw the report. The response is where the matter is decided; get the notice read the day it arrives. See the s116 notice guide, and if the visa has already been cancelled, unlawful in Australia, what now.

What to do this week

1. Get your completion letter, or your expected completion date in writing from the provider, and write down your visa end date.
2. Count the 485 window from completion and check your age and English result against it.
3. If you are working, ask whether the employer would nominate you and whether they are an approved sponsor.
4. Run your points. If you are near 65 with a listed occupation, the 485 is the bridge to the 190.
5. Book the consultation with those four facts ready. The order you lodge in is what decides this, and it is set once, at the start.

Book a consultation — $330 inc. GST, credited