Australia cuts post-study work visa by two years and increases English language test requirements

The Australian government has laid out a range of changes to student visas in a bid to crack down on visa applications from non-genuine students and ensure students and graduates are working in jobs that match their skills levels. 

Among these measures are the decision to cut the post-study work visa for international students by two years, just months after it announced extensions to post-study work rights.

The previous extension meant that undergraduates on selected programmes would have been able to stay and work in Australia for four years, rather than two years. Master’s students studying within the selected disciplines will be able to stay for five years, rather than three. These have now reverted back to the original durations of two and three years respectively.

The migration strategy, released in December 2023, also states that concessions that were made during the Covid-19 pandemic for international students will end. This includes ending uncapped working hours for international students. 

These changes were announced to “improve integrity in international education and support genuine students”. 

Some of these changes include closing a loophole that allows students to transfer to lower-quality education providers and increasing the amount of savings that international students will need if they are to apply for student visa. The amount will increase to A$24,505 (£13,000) in savings, which is a 17 per cent increase on previous levels. 

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The government will also introduce a new “Genuine Student” test for all international students. This test will incentivise applications from genuine students who wish to study at Australian universities or education providers, rather than those whose priority is to work in Australia. This test will replace the existing Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement. 

The government also promises to strengthen the visa unit that processes student visas to ensure there is greater scrutiny of non-genuine student visa applications and to crack down on “visa-hopping”, a practice in which an individual hops from visa to visa in order to prolong their stay in Australia. 

While the government is cutting the length of post-study work visas, it is simplifying the application process and taking action to speed up the transition between student and graduate visas. 

Existing graduate visa routes will be streamlined to become the “Post-higher Education Work” and “Post-Vocational Education Work” streams to ensure that it is much clearer for applicants when they come to apply for their next visas. Processing times will be improved and there will be clearer post-graduate visa pathways. 

The aim of these changes is also to ensure that graduates are moving into roles that match their skill levels after they graduate. The strategy states that “more than 50 per cent of graduate visa holders with a bachelor’s degree or higher are working significantly below their skill level. This is particularly true for engineering and IT graduates, despite them studying in areas tied to skills shortages.”

The government will also increase minimum English-language requirements for student and graduate visas to the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 6.0 for student visas and 6.5 for temporary graduate visas. This change will be introduced in early 2024. 

Up to 39 per cent of temporary migrants who arrive in Australia are students or graduates. They are the second-largest group of migrants in Australia after New Zealand citizens.