Arabic version: تغييرات التأشيرات تترك الطلاب الدوليين في حالة من عدم اليقين

According to The Guardian, international students in Australia are dealing with new student visa rules that require most affected temporary visa holders to leave the country before applying for a new visa. The changes, which took effect this month, are intended to reduce “permanently temporary” migration and curb visa hopping and onshore student transfers.

Fatima Bonna, a 27-year-old student from Bangladesh studying a master’s in early childhood education at Ikon Institute, said her visa expires next September, four months before her course is scheduled to finish. After changing degrees and institutions following her first semester, her visa end date no longer matches her course completion date. Under the new rules, she will need to travel offshore to seek another student visa.

The changes also prevent student visa holders from adding relatives after their visas have been granted. Wina Satria, an Indonesian PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, had planned to add her husband to her visa next year after arriving in Australia with her then two-year-old son. She said the new restriction disrupted the family’s plans to reunite. PhD students and applicants from Pacific and Asean member countries are exempt from some limits on secondary applicants.

Migration agent Gurpreet Dhawan said offshore applications could leave students in limbo because of uncertainty over processing times. The Department of Home Affairs estimates that about 50% of higher-education student visa applications are processed within 16 days and 90% within four months. The government says the reforms preserve the integrity of the student visa program while continuing to welcome genuine students. Its target is to reduce annual net overseas migration from almost 300,000 to 225,000 by mid-2028.