Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate visa

A Subclass 485 is a temporary visa that lets a recent graduate of Australian study stay on to work, and it is used mainly as a bridge to a later skilled, employer-sponsored, or regional pathway. It looks simple but is really a validity-and-eligibility exercise: many of its errors cannot be fixed after lodgement, and its settings have been tightened in recent rounds, so it must be checked against current law, not taken on its easy reputation.

Stream follows what was studied

There are two streams, and the choice is not free – it follows the qualification completed:

• Post-Higher Education Work stream [cl 485.231] – for a person who completed an eligible Australian degree (bachelor, masters, doctoral, or graduate diploma). It is degree-driven and does not turn on a nominated occupation or a skills assessment.
• Post-Vocational Education Work stream [cl 485.221] – for a person who completed an eligible associate degree, diploma, or trade qualification closely related to a nominated skilled occupation [cl 485.222]. It requires the nominated occupation, a relevant occupation list, and a skills assessment.

Because study type, nominated occupation, skills assessment, age, English, and evidence all flow from the stream, the stream is settled first. The older labels – Graduate Work stream, Post-Study Work stream, and the Replacement stream – now describe only a previously-held visa [cl 485.211]; the Replacement stream is closed to new applications [Sch 1 1229].

The Australian study requirement is the central threshold for a Subclass 485, and for this visa it is set inside the stream clauses themselves [cl 485.221] [cl 485.231] – not borrowed from the general skilled-migration definition in reg 1.15F, which the points test still uses. The study must have been completed in the six months before the application, with all instruction in English, undertaken while the applicant was in Australia holding a visa that authorised study.

Two separate length tests, both mandatory

The completed study must satisfy two distinct measures, and a course can clear one while failing the other:

• at least 16 calendar months of study [cl 485.221(b)] [cl 485.231(1B)(b)]; and
• at least 2 academic years of study [cl 485.221(c)] [cl 485.231(1B)(c)], fixed at 92 weeks by legislative instrument LIN 19/085 (an academic year is 46 weeks).

Both must be met, so both are checked.

An invalid application is worse than a refusal. It counts as never made, so no one has to decide it and there is no right of review – a refusal can at least be appealed, an invalid application cannot. That is why the Schedule 1 validity rules are checked first, before anything about whether the visa should be granted.

What a valid 485 needs at lodgement

The main lodgement rules for a 485 are [Sch 1 1229]:

• Where the applicant is. A primary applicant in either currently open stream must be in Australia when applying, but not in immigration clearance. An eligible subsequent entrant may apply in or outside Australia. The former offshore primary-applicant limb is not a current pathway: the other offshore-applicable group was the Replacement stream, which closed to applications from 1 July 2024 [Sch 1 item 1229(3)(f)–(g), (5)(a)].
• The right visa history. The applicant must hold an eligible student visa; hold a Bridging A or Bridging B granted on a valid visa application, having held an eligible student visa in the prior six months; or hold a substantive visa and have held an eligible student visa in the prior six months. This summary is non-exhaustive: it omits the live ART-reversal and subsequent-485 routes [Sch 1 item 1229(4)(a)]. A Post-Higher Education applicant must hold or have held a Student (Class TU) visa.
• One stream, and an occupation for the vocational stream. The application picks a single stream, and a Post-Vocational applicant must also nominate a skilled occupation.
• Not too many past 485s. The applicant must not already have held four Subclass 485 visas.
• The right form and the fee.

If any of these is wrong, there is no application to decide. And the stream, the nominated occupation, and who the applicant is are locked in by the application – they cannot be changed later by an email or an explanation, so a mistake usually means starting again with a fresh application, if there is still time.

The police check and the skills assessment are different. They are visa criteria, not validity rules, so getting them wrong leads to a refusal – which can be reviewed – not to an invalid application.

Two eligibility limits catch applicants who were fine mid-study but no longer fit by the time they apply: an age ceiling, and a bar on having held a 485 before.

Age

The applicant must be under the age limit when they apply [Sch 1 1229]. It is generally 35 or younger. A higher limit of under 50 applies to a holder of a Hong Kong or British National (Overseas) passport, and to someone who completed a research masters or a doctoral degree. The limit bites at the time of application, so a student who was well inside it during their course can age out before lodging – the age is checked on the day they apply, not when they finished studying.

Prior 485 history

The prior-485 limits work on two levels: a bar on getting a further primary 485, and hard ceilings on how many you may ever hold.

The bar counts only visas held as a primary applicant [cl 485.211], and it has two separate limbs, each a common criterion every primary applicant must satisfy whatever stream is now nominated, so a prior primary 485 on one side is not escaped by switching to the other:

• Vocational side (Graduate Work or Post-Vocational Education Work): a former primary holder here cannot be granted any further primary 485, with no exception.
• Higher-education side (Post-Study Work or Post-Higher Education Work): a former primary holder here cannot be granted any further primary 485, unless the applicant nominates the Post-Higher Education stream and meets the regional second-visa requirements – the only route to a further one.

The ceilings, by contrast, count every 485 held – primary or secondary [cl 485.211]:

• at most three Post-Study Work visas;
• at most two Post-Higher Education visas;
• and no more than four Subclass 485 visas in total, across all streams and both roles [Sch 1 1229].

Two consequences follow. First, hitting a ceiling closes the whole primary-485 route, not just one stream: clause 485.211 is a common criterion that every primary applicant must meet whatever stream is nominated, so someone who has held two Post-Higher Education visas (or three Post-Study Work visas) cannot satisfy it for any further primary 485 – a Post-Vocational application fails on the same clause. Second, a former secondary holder is not caught by the primary bar, so they can apply as a primary applicant if they meet the primary criteria in their own right – but the secondary visa they held still counts toward the ceilings.

Finally, study completed while holding a 485 rather than a student visa usually cannot ground a fresh 485, but the obstacle is the visa history, not the course itself: a valid 485 needs an eligible student visa held or recently held [Sch 1 1229], so a degree done entirely on a 485 with no qualifying student visa fails that lodgement requirement, and for a former primary holder a further primary 485 is in any case barred [cl 485.211]. The same study may still count toward skilled-migration points, which use a different study definition and do not need that student-visa history.

A Subclass 485 carries its own English requirement [cl 485.212], met in one of two ways – an accepted test at the specified score, or a passport of a specified type. The test and score are set by legislative instrument, not by the "competent English" definition the skilled-migration visas use. The current instrument is LIN 25/089, in force from 7 August 2025.

The current scores

For a standard applicant (LIN 25/089, from 7 August 2025):

Holders of a Hong Kong or British National (Overseas) passport meet a lower set (IELTS 6 overall, 5 in each component, and the equivalents) and were not affected by the 2024 score increase.

Timing and mechanics

Two recent tightenings matter, and they came in two steps. The score raise, and the cut of the validity window from three years to one year, came in 2024 (LIN 24/021); LIN 25/089 then replaced the accepted-test panel from 7 August 2025, adding CELPIP General, LANGUAGECERT Academic and MET, with some scores falling. C1 Advanced is not an accepted test for a test taken on or after that commencement date. The test must have been taken within the twelve months before the application. For a test taken on or after 7 August 2025 the instrument specifies only that one-year window; the older explicit single-sitting rule (with its OET exception) continues to govern tests taken before that date. The accepted-test list is read strictly and changes over time, so a test should be confirmed against the current instrument.

By passport

A valid passport satisfies the requirement without a test only if it was issued by Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States to a citizen of that country [cl 485.212] [LIN 25/089 s 9]. Hong Kong and British National (Overseas) passport holders are governed by the reduced-score provisions described above, not by the no-test passport exemption merely because their document was issued through another country's passport system.

Who it does not apply to

The test-or-passport requirement does not apply to an applicant meeting the regional second-visa criteria, or one who nominated the Replacement stream [cl 485.212].