Rules checked on 22 October 2026.
Before paying for another course or arranging travel, answer three separate questions: can you apply from Australia, can your family apply with you, and where must each person be when the visa is granted?
Since 2 October 2026, a course offer alone does not answer those questions. This checklist helps you organise the facts before applying. For the background, read our October Student visa changes overview.
1. Start with each person’s current position
Make a separate note for the main student and every family member:
Current visa subclass, expiry date and conditions.
Whether their Student visa was granted as the main applicant or a family member.
Their location now and proposed location when applying.
Any pending application’s actual lodgement date and who applied.
Current course, provider, enrolment status and completion date.
Do not treat the family’s circumstances as interchangeable. One person’s eligibility does not establish everyone else’s.
Applications lodged before 2 October continue under the earlier rules. That protection concerns the existing application, including family members who applied with it. It does not turn a later, separate family application into a pre-2 October application. Home Affairs transition guidance.
2. Check whether you can apply in Australia
Already the main Student visa holder? A further onshore Student application now needs an applicable exception. The categories include certain course-completion and study-progression situations, doctoral study, school students, DFAT or Defence students, and provider default. These are conditional categories, not automatic permission for every continuing student.
Currently a secondary Student visa holder wanting to become the main applicant? You must apply offshore. The primary-holder exceptions, including doctoral study, do not remove that restriction. Applying offshore still requires you to meet all other visa requirements. Home Affairs onshore guidance.
Holding another temporary visa? Check its exact subclass and stream against the prohibited list. Common affected visas include Visitor, Temporary Graduate, Training, Working Holiday and employer-sponsored temporary visas. A PhD offer does not override that list. Official visa-class instrument.
If your visa has expired or you hold a bridging visa, get the application-validity position checked rather than assuming these ordinary categories cover you.
3. Match the exception to evidence
For current primary Student visa holders, the detailed tests matter:
Finishing your course: check whether completion falls within 12 months of the relevant CoE end date. If relying on an alternative principal course, check its compatibility and same-provider requirements. This is not permission for an unrelated new course.
Progressing to further study: completion of the previous principal course, the next qualification’s level and the provider can matter. The specified progression category also limits enrolment to one further course.
Doctoral study: verify actual doctoral enrolment at application. A master’s by research is not a doctorate.
Provider default: keep evidence of the default, replacement study and timing. The category includes a 12-month application limit and a restriction on repeat use for the same default.
These are checkpoints, not the complete legal tests. Check your evidence against the specified-class instrument, rather than relying on the label of an exception.
4. Check family eligibility separately
New applications can include family only within limited categories. These include doctoral students, certain sponsored or scholarship students, eligible Pacific and ASEAN passport holders, and specified existing-family arrangements. The foreign-government scholarship category requires all courses to be fully funded.
Existing secondary holders should check their own grant and application dates, their connection to the same primary student, and whether the relevant category requires them to be in Australia. Special provisions also address certain children born in Australia. Being named as a non-applying family member is not the same as having applied for a visa.
Some existing families can apply together inside or outside Australia where the student meets the completion or provider-default category. Do not assume that every existing family can renew offshore on the same basis. Home Affairs family guidance, amending regulations.
5. Do not confuse inclusion with joining later
New subsequent-entrant applications are no longer available, including for doctoral students. A family-inclusion exception instead concerns an eligible combined application with the main student.
The applicants must apply together at the same time, with all applicants in Australia or all applicants outside Australia, as applicable. If one person must apply offshore, the family cannot solve that by submitting the main application onshore and adding that person later. Official explanatory statement.
For the doctoral scenario, our PhD student and partner guide explains why a fresh combined application differs from adding a partner to an existing visa.
6. Separate lodgement location from grant location
Where the rules require an applicant to lodge offshore because of their current Student visa position or failure to meet the onshore visa requirements, that applicant must also be offshore for grant.
But choosing to lodge offshore is not, by itself, a universal offshore-grant rule. The reason for offshore lodgement matters, and the grant-location test must be checked for each person. Student visa grant-location amendment, clause 500.411.
An offshore application does not provide a linked bridging visa. Returning while it is pending depends on a separate valid visa and its conditions. Do not plan a return or assume you can remain until a decision without checking that position. Home Affairs travel guidance.
7. Check the actual application documents
Ordinarily, you need CoEs for all intended courses when applying, not just an offer letter. Check whether a specific alternative-evidence category applies. Where a CoE is required, it must remain valid at decision; a cancelled CoE or completed course can require updated enrolment evidence. Student visa evidence requirements.
Then check the personalised Home Affairs document checklist, including applicable English, financial, health-cover and family evidence. Cross-check names, dates, course details and answers against your documents. Our application cross-check guide gives a practical starting point.
Before you proceed
You should be able to explain:
Why each applicant is eligible to apply from the intended location.
Which exception applies, with documents supporting every condition.
Why each family member can be included in this application.
Where each person must be at grant and how they will remain lawful meanwhile.
Whether the enrolment evidence and application answers are current and consistent.
If an answer is uncertain, resolve it before lodging or making non-refundable plans. WiseKangaroo can review your proposed application through an application review or help assess the options in a consultation.
This checklist is general information, not individual migration advice. Meeting an application exception does not guarantee a visa grant. Requirements depend on your circumstances and may change.
