How to apply for Australia Student Visa; Here is the complete guide regarding eligibility and documents

CANBERRA -  Australia is a great country when it comes to studying and the edge it offers is the fact that the language of instruction is English in the country. If you also want to pursue studying in Australia, here is the detailed guide for Subclass Visa 500.

Australia Student Visa

Australia student visa allows stay in the country for at least the duration of the study program. The instructions related to Subclass 500 visa are elaborated below.

Requirements

To be granted this visa, one must be enrolled in a course of study in Australia and hold Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC), or fall in one of the exemption categories. The lower limit for age is 6 years for this type of visa but one needs to prove they have a welfare arrangement, if they are under 18.

Benefits of Subclass Visa 500

If you are granted this visa, you can participate in an eligible course of study as well as bring family members to Australia with you. You can also apply online in or outside Australia and work as well. 

Duration of Stay

The biggest advantage of this visa is that one can stay up to 5 years in the country and in line with one’s enrolment.

Cost

The cost of applying for the visa starts from AUD650.

Processing times

The Australian immigration department has not given any timeframe for processing time as it can depend on variety of factors including whether application was submitted in paper form or online and how swift you responded to their counter queries.  

Eligibility

The first criteria is about age. For securing this visa, If you are a school student (but not participating in a secondary school student exchange program), you must be aged 6 or older to apply for this visa.

The immigration department also confirms that one must also be less than 17 years old when they begin year 9 or less than 18 years old when they begin year 10 or less than 19 years old when they begin year 11 or less than 20 years old when they begin year 12. You must see in which bracket you fall as mentioned above. 

As far as course enrolment is concerned, you must include evidence of that with your student visa application. For this, you must be enrolled in a full time course registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

If you are applying from outside Australia, you must provide a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) for each course of study with your visa application. In case you are applying from Australia, you must  provide a CoE or Letter of Offer for all intended courses. It must be kept in mind that if you are applying for more than 1 course you must include all CoE codes in the application form.

The immigration department says that you can apply to take 2 or more courses where one course clearly leads to the next. In this case, course gaps must be less than two calendar months, unless the first course finishes at the end of the standard academic year and the next course begins at the beginning of the standard academic year.

There is an exception as you do not need to provide a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) if you are enrolled in a full-time course of study or training under a scholarship scheme approved by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade but you must provide a letter of support.

Moreover, you don’t need enrolment proof if you are sponsored by the Australian Department of Defence (letter of support must be provided). There is also no need for proof of enrolment if you are a secondary exchange student (provide an Acceptance Advice of Secondary Exchange Student (AASES) form)

Lastly those who are postgraduate research students who need to stay in Australia while their thesis is marked also don’t need to provide proof but they must provide a letter from their education provider.

As far as welfare arrangements are concerned for eligibility, you must have adequate welfare arrangements while you are in Australia if you are under 18 years of age. On the other hand, if you will be 18 years of age when you land in Australia, you might not need to provide this information. 

There is also a requirement regarding English language as you might need to submit evidence of English language proficiency with your visa application. The good thing is that Australia allows extra time for submitting English language test results if you were unable to take a test because of COVID-19. It is to be kept in mind that the immigration department can ask you to provide evidence of English language skill even if you have submitted your application.

Moreover, it should be kept in mind that even if Document Checklist tool shows that you don't need to provide evidence of your English language skill, you can be asked about that. Indirectly, you must pass this criteria. 

Minimum of 5.5 band is necessary in International English Language Testing System (IELTS) for this visa type. Besides IELTS, TOEFL internet-based test, Cambridge English: Advanced (Certificate in Advanced English), Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic), and Occupational English Test are also valid for submission as a proof.

There are some exceptions for English language skill. For instance for those who are a citizen and hold a passport from UK*, USA, Canada, NZ or Republic of Ireland. Moreover,  if you are an applicant who is a Foreign Affairs or, Defence sponsored student or a Secondary Exchange student (AASES), you don’t need to provide this proof. 

Those who are enrolled in a principal course of study that is a registered school course, a standalone English Language Intensive Course for Overseas Students (ELICOS), a course registered to be delivered in a language other than English, or a registered post-graduate research course are also exempted from this language benchmark.

Even if you have completed at least 5 years’ study in English in one or more of the following countries: Australia, UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, or the Republic of Ireland, you don’t need to provide any language proficiency test.

Moreover, you don’t need to provide English proficiency test if in the 2 years before applying for the student visa, you completed, in Australia and in the English language, either the Senior Secondary Certificate of Education or a substantial component of a course leading to a qualification from the Australian Qualifications Framework at the Certificate IV or higher level, while you held a student visa.

Another eligibility benchmark is that one must have adequate health insurance for whole time of their stay in the country even if the course starts after some time of their arrival in Australia.

The Immigration department of Australia also ensures that you are a temporary resident and would return back after completion of your study. For this, you need to provide a statement of purpose in English.

How to Apply For Australia Student Visa

The step by step process for applying for Subclass Visa 500 is that firstly you must ensure that you apply for visa at least 8 weeks before your course starts. As far as the documents are concerned, you must provide and prove your identity. 

Beside, you must also provide the pages of current passport showing your photo, personal details, and passport issue and expiry dates.

Moreover, Confirmation of enrolment, letters of support and acceptance forms as well as evidence of enough money for your stay should be submitted with the application. 

If you are married, you must also provide your partner's identity documents, character documents and documents about other family members, if applicable.

One thing is important that you must translate all documents into English and translators in Australia must be accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.

For translators outside Australia, no accreditation is required but on each translation, they must include their full name, address and telephone number, qualifications and experience in the language they are translating. These details must be in English. A bright aspect is that for this subclass 500 visa, you do not need to have any documents certified.

You must also scan or photograph all documents (English and non-English) in colour and they must be legible. If a document is more than 1 page, save it all as 1 file. Now at this stage, we are done with preparing documents.

Now we need to apply for the visa online for which ImmiAccount should be created. Then all the documents which have been mentioned above should be attached and the visa fee should be paid.

It must be kept in mind that if your visa cancellation was set aside by the Tribunal you can’t apply online and instead you should submit a ImmiAccount technical support form.

The Immigration department confirms that they cannot award a student visa to one’s child if they are 18 years or more at the time their own visa is finished. Instead, they should apply for their own visa. 

Moreover, where subsequent entrants are siblings (two or more children with no parent), they must each make a separate subsequent entrant student visa application and pay the base visa application charge to join their parent.  

Now that you have applied for the visa, keep checking your phone and e-mail address for any correspondence. You must provide the information if sought by the embassy for your visa. Now you should wait for the outcome of your visa against Subclass 500 category.