Visitor (600) · Want to stay
In Australia on a visitor visa and want to stay: the routes that exist
A visitor visa is granted on the basis that you will leave, which is why staying from one is harder than from any other temporary visa. It is not impossible. The routes are a partner visa, an employer's nomination, in narrow cases another visitor visa, and most often leaving and applying from outside Australia. Two conditions decide which of those are open: 8503, which blocks every onshore application, and 8558, which limits how long a visitor can be here. The grant notice answers both before any plan is made.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - First check
- Condition 8503 on the grant notice
- Second check
- 8558: 12 months in any 18
- Student visa onshore
- Closed since 2 Oct 2026
- Announced
- 8503 on all new visitor visas, no date
- Hard stop
- Your visa end date
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Thirty minutes to find out whether the route is onshore or offshore, and by when.
In the consultation I read your grant notice for the conditions, take the facts of the relationship or the job, and tell you which route is open, whether it can be lodged here or has to be lodged from outside Australia, and the date by which each step has to happen. You leave with a written summary.
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 for the application.
Read the grant notice
- 8503 No Further Stay. If it is there, no substantive visa other than a protection visa can be granted while you are in Australia. Every onshore route on this page is closed, and the plan is a waiver request, which a new relationship or a job offer rarely supports, or applying from outside Australia. It is always on the Sponsored Family stream, at the Department's discretion on the Tourist stream, and, once the announced change commences, on every new visitor grant.
- 8558. No more than 12 months in Australia in any 18-month period. It limits how far another visitor visa can take you; the 8558 calculator counts it.
- 8101 No work. On every visitor visa. A job offer does not change it; working before a work visa is granted is a breach that follows the file.
- The visa end date. Any onshore application has to be lodged before it, so that a bridging visa keeps you lawful while it is decided.
Partner
The onshore partner visa (820/801) can be lodged from a visitor visa that does not carry 8503, before the visa ends, 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. A relationship formed during the visit can meet the test; a relationship that is a few months old usually cannot, unless it is registered in a state that allows registration, which removes the 12-month requirement. The application carries a bridging visa with work rights once the visitor visa ends, costs more than any other visa, and takes well over a year to decide. Where 8503 is on the visa, or the relationship is not yet at the threshold, the route is the offshore 309/100 visa, lodged after you leave, with a visitor visa to return while it is decided. The 820/801 guide and the evidence checklist cover the evidence.
Employer sponsorship
A 482 application can be lodged in Australia from a visitor visa without 8503, where the employer is an approved sponsor, the occupation is on the Core Skills Occupation List, the salary is at least A$79,423 or the market rate, and you have a year of relevant experience in the last five. In practice the sequence rarely fits inside a visit: the employer has to become a sponsor, the nomination has to be prepared, and you cannot work in the meantime. The usual plan is to settle the nomination while you are here and lodge the visa from outside Australia, returning when it is granted. The employer's side is on sponsoring a worker.
Another visitor visa
A further Visitor (600) can be applied for in Australia where the current one has no 8503. The Department grants it for a visit: a wedding, a family event, a medical reason, a defined end. It is not granted to keep someone here while a plan to stay is worked out, and a second onshore 600 lodged for that reason is where 8503 is most often imposed, closing the door it was meant to hold open. Condition 8558 caps the total at 12 months in any 18. Where a short, defined extension is needed, it is a tool; as a strategy it ends badly. See visitor visa refused for what follows a refusal.
What closed
Since 2 October 2026 a visitor visa holder cannot lodge a Student visa in Australia. For twenty years the course was the way a visitor became a resident; it is now an offshore application, with the Genuine Student requirement applied to a history that includes the visit and the reason for it. The route still exists for people who want to study; it no longer exists as a way to stay. See the student visa changes page.
Leaving to apply
For most visitors who want to stay, this is the route: leaving before the visa ends and lodging the partner, sponsored or skilled application from outside Australia, then returning on a visitor visa while it is decided where the Department allows it. It keeps the record clean, it avoids 8503 and 8558 entirely, and for a partner visa it is often no slower than the onshore route. Overstaying, or lodging something weak to get a bridging visa, costs more than it buys: an unlawful period, a section 48 bar on most onshore applications, and a possible three-year exclusion. See my visa is expiring soon.
What to do this week
- Read the grant notice for 8503, 8558 and the end date. Everything else depends on those three lines.
- If the route is a partner, start the evidence now: joint lease, accounts, correspondence, statements from people who know you both.
- If the route is a job, ask the employer whether they are an approved sponsor and whether the role is on the Core Skills list, and do not work until a work visa is granted.
- Decide the onshore or offshore question with the dates in front of you, and book the flight to match the plan rather than the hope.
- Book the consultation with the grant notice to hand.
Not sure which visa fits you?
Answer three questions. An automated guide points you to the route that usually applies. General information only.
Ask Keshab a question — it costs nothing
Tell Keshab your situation and your question. Keshab reads it personally and replies within a business day. Asking costs nothing. Advice on your own case is the paid consultation.
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Pick a time — no enquiry needed →Questions we get asked first
I came on a visitor visa and met someone. Can I apply for a partner visa here?
If your visa does not carry condition 8503, and the relationship meets the test, married, registered, or 12 months living together as de facto partners, an onshore partner application can be lodged before the visitor visa ends and carries a bridging visa. If 8503 is on the visa, no onshore application is valid; the partner visa is lodged from outside Australia, or a waiver is sought, which a new relationship rarely supports.
Can an employer sponsor me from a visitor visa?
Yes, where the visa has no 8503, the occupation is on the Core Skills list, the salary meets the threshold and you have a year of relevant experience. The employer has to become an approved sponsor and lodge a nomination, which takes time, and a visitor visa cannot be used to work in the meantime. In practice the nomination is prepared while you are here and the application is often lodged after you leave.
Can I enrol in a course and switch to a student visa?
Not from inside Australia since 2 October 2026. Visitor visa holders can no longer lodge a Student visa onshore; the application is made from outside Australia and the Genuine Student requirement is applied to the whole history, including the visit.
Can I just apply for another visitor visa?
Sometimes. A further Visitor (600) can be applied for in Australia where the current visa has no 8503, but the Department expects a genuine visit, condition 8558 limits most visitors to 12 months in any 18, and a pattern of back-to-back visitor visas is read as living here on a visitor visa, which is the thing the visa is not for.
What is changing for visitor visas?
The 17 September 2026 package announced that condition 8503 will be imposed on all new Visitor visa grants, which will stop onshore applications for other visas from a visitor visa. It has no start date yet. Visas granted before it starts carry 8503 only where it was imposed on grant.
What does the consultation cost?
A$330 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video, credited in full against our professional fee if you then engage WIDEN. For a visitor the question is usually answered in the 30 minutes: which route, onshore or offshore, and by when.
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