CANBERRA – The government of Australia has further tightened the rules for Student Visas, effectively ending the ‘visa hopping’ in the migration system.
According to an official press release issued by the Minister Home Affairs, the government has ended the loopholes that allowed students and other temporary visa holders to continuously extend their stay in Australia, in some cases indefinitely.
The development comes as the government noted that the number of international students staying in the country on a second, or subsequent student visa has grown by over 30 per cent to more than 150,000 in 2022–23. Visa hopping means exploiting the loopholes in the system to stay in the country.
As the government was tightening the measures regarding international students, calls were made that severely curtailing visa hopping by accepting fewer visa applications from people already in the country would better manage population growth than cuts to the permanent migration intake.
The Government has now implemented the changes and restricted the students from hopping from student visa to student visa unless there is credible course progression.
As the measures are being introduced, Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O’Neil said that the country needs a migration system that delivers the needed skills but doesn’t trade in rorts, loopholes and exploitation.
The government has taken a series of measures to discourage the ‘abuse’ of the visa system including ending unrestricted work rights and the former Government’s COVID visa.
From next month, the government is taking further steps. Firstly, Visitor Visa holders will not be able to apply for Student Visas onshore as the visitor-to-student pathway has become increasingly prevalent.
The government believes that this measure closes a pathway that has been used to attempt to subvert the Government’s strengthened offshore student visa integrity measures.
Secondly, Temporary Graduate Visa holders will not be able to apply for Student Visas onshore. The authorities believe that this change makes it clear that graduates should be finding skilled jobs and becoming permanent residents, or departing the country when they are more likely to become ‘permanently temporary’; the changes would be in effect from July 1st this year.
Moreover, the government is also introducing further changes to make it difficult for international students to land in the country. For instance, for Temporary Graduate visa holders there will be significantly shorter post-study work rights, reduced age limits from 50 to 35 years of age, and increased English language requirements.
The statement by the office of the Home Minister said that these changes will continue to reduce net overseas migration, with the Government on track to halve net overseas migration by next financial year.
