Subclass 500 Student visa

A Subclass 500 turns on two evaluative criteria: that the applicant is a genuine student [cl 500.212], and that the applicant has genuine access to sufficient funds [cl 500.214]. These are judgment criteria.

Genuine Student

The applicant must be "a genuine applicant for entry and stay as a student". The decision maker assesses the applicant's circumstances and immigration history; for a minor, the intentions of a parent, guardian or spouse; the intention to comply with visa conditions, judged against any past compliance record and the applicant's stated intention; and any other relevant matter [cl 500.212]. This Genuine Student (GS) test replaced the former Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) criterion, dropping the old temporariness framing: the question is whether the person is a genuine student, so an applicant who hopes to move onto a skilled or other pathway can still satisfy it where the study purpose is genuine.

Genuine access to funds

The applicant must have genuine access to funds sufficient to meet the costs and expenses of the applicant, and of each family-unit member who will be in Australia, throughout the period they hold the visa [cl 500.214]. Where the Minister requires it, the applicant gives evidence of financial capacity meeting the requirements in a legislative instrument [cl 500.214(3)]. The test is genuine access (funds the applicant can actually draw on) across the whole intended stay.

A grant to a primary student carries a fixed set of mandatory conditions [cl 500.611]. Two of them govern day-to-day compliance: the work condition 8105 and the enrolment condition 8202.

Work: condition 8105

The holder must not work before the course commences, unless the visa they held when they applied (a substantive or bridging visa) already permitted work [sch 8 cl 8105]. Once the course is in session, the holder must not work more than 48 hours a fortnight; when the course is not in session, the cap lifts [sch 8 cl 8105(2A)]. Two carve-outs sit in the condition itself: work specified as a requirement of the course when it was registered does not count against the cap, and once the course has commenced there is no cap at all for a student whose visa was granted for a masters degree by research or a doctoral degree [sch 8 cl 8105(2)].

Study: condition 8202

Condition 8202 uses different enrolment rules for different cohorts. A Foreign Affairs student, Defence student or secondary exchange student must remain enrolled in a full-time course of study or training [sch 8 cl 8202(1)]. Other holders must remain enrolled in a full-time registered course and, subject to the listed course exceptions, maintain study leading to a qualification at the same AQF level as, or a higher level than, the course for which the visa was granted [sch 8 cl 8202(2)]. A change from an AQF level 10 doctoral degree to an AQF level 9 masters degree is expressly permitted [sch 8 cl 8202(3)]. The holder must also ensure that the education provider has not certified unsatisfactory course progress or unsatisfactory course attendance [sch 8 cl 8202(2)(c)(i)] [sch 8 cl 8202(2)(c)(ii)].

The remaining mandatory primary conditions apply in every case: 8501 (health insurance), 8516 (continue to meet the student criteria), 8517 (schooling for a school-age dependant), 8532 (welfare of a minor), 8533 (notifying the provider of the holder's address), and 8208 (critical-technology study control) [cl 500.611]. On top of these, cohort-specific mandatory conditions attach in defined cases – for example 8203 or 8204 for a citizen of Iran, and 8535 for a Foreign Affairs or Defence student [cl 500.611(1)].

A student's spouse or de facto partner, and an unmarried dependent child under 18 of the student or of that spouse or de facto partner, can be included as a secondary applicant [reg 1.12(6)]. They meet their own genuineness test and carry conditions that, on work and study, differ from the primary student's.

Who qualifies

The applicant must be a member of the family unit of a primary student who holds a student visa, through one of two doors: they became a family member before the grant of the student visa and were included or declared in the primary person's application, or they became a family member only after the grant – such as a new spouse or a newborn child [cl 500.311]. A person who was already a family member before the grant but was not declared in the student's application fits neither door. They must themselves be a genuine applicant for entry and stay as a family member, assessed on their circumstances, immigration history, and intention to comply with conditions [cl 500.312]. Genuine access to funds and health insurance are required, and for a school-age dependant staying more than three months, evidence of schooling arrangements [cl 500.313] [cl 500.314] [cl 500.315].

Which conditions attach

Four apply to every secondary holder whatever their age: 8104 (work), 8208 (critical-technology study), 8501 (health insurance) and 8516 (continue to meet the criteria) [cl 500.612], and cohort-specific mandatory conditions exist here too (for example 8204 for a citizen of Iran) [cl 500.612(1)]. Two more turn on age: a secondary who has turned 18 carries 8201, which caps their own study at three months (so a partner who wants a full course of their own needs their own student visa), while an under-18 secondary carries 8518, requiring their schooling to be maintained [cl 500.612] [sch 8 cl 8201].

Work: condition 8104

The family member's work condition is 8104, not the primary's 8105 [cl 500.612], and it runs differently in three ways. First, the family member generally cannot work until the primary student has commenced their course, unless either the family member or the primary already held a work-permitted visa when they applied [sch 8 cl 8104]. Second, the ordinary cap is 48 hours a fortnight whenever the holder is in Australia, whether the course is in session or not, so there is no vacation uplift of the kind the primary enjoys under 8105 [sch 8 cl 8104(3A)]. The one exception is the pre-commencement window: where either the family member or the primary held a work-permitted visa at application, the family member may work above the cap before the primary's course commences [sch 8 cl 8104(2C)]. Third, the cap depends on the primary's study level: if the primary's course is for a masters or doctoral degree, the family member may work unlimited hours; at any lower level (a graduate diploma, graduate certificate, bachelor or below), the family member stays capped [sch 8 cl 8104].

The financial capacity criterion is ordinarily met by either of two routes, with the detail set by the current version of LIN 19/198 rather than the clause itself [cl 500.214(4)]. A few defined cohorts satisfy it a different way, noted below.

The two ordinary routes

The funds route is genuine access to the required amount, held as a money deposit with a financial institution, a loan from a financial institution, a government loan, or a scholarship or financial support [LIN 19/198]. The annual-income route is evidence that the applicant's parent, spouse or de facto partner had at least the instrument-specified personal annual income in the twelve months immediately before the application, with the applicable tier determined by whether there is a secondary applicant; the evidence must take the prescribed form of official Government documentation of personal income issued in the twelve months immediately before the application is made [LIN 19/198 s 6(3)]. Either way, clause 500.214 requires the funds to be genuinely available to the applicant across the intended stay, not merely displayed at lodgement [cl 500.214]. Outside these two routes, a few defined cohorts satisfy the criterion under the same instrument by a specified document instead: a secondary exchange student by a completed AASES form, a Foreign Affairs student by a letter of support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and a Defence student by a letter of support from the Department of Defence [LIN 19/198].

How the funds-route amount is calculated

The amount is built from travel costs, course fees net of amounts already paid, the instrument-specified living-cost component for the primary applicant and each accompanying family member, and schooling costs for each school-age child [LIN 19/198]. Course fees and living costs are ordinarily calculated for twelve months, or for the shorter remaining period where the relevant study or stay is under twelve months. Check the income thresholds and each cost component in the version of LIN 19/198 in force on the relevant date.

English proficiency is a criterion set by clause 500.213. LIN 25/090 applies to Subclass 500 applications made on or after 7 August 2025; its saved pre-commencement test cohort operates only within that application cohort [LIN 25/090 ss 8–9]. Work through the current applicable instrument in two steps: is the applicant exempt, and if not, what score is required.

Step 1: Exemptions

LIN 25/090 lists classes that need not give any English evidence, and an exempt applicant cannot be required to test [cl 500.213(2)]. The main ones are: a passport holder of the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand or the Republic of Ireland; a student whose only course is a registered school course, a registered postgraduate research course, or an ELICOS; a Foreign Affairs, Defence or secondary exchange student; and a student with a recent qualifying record of study in English. So school-sector and research students are typically exempt, while higher-education and VET students usually are not.

Step 2: The score

For the two tests below the requirement is a single overall test score rather than separate listening, reading, speaking and writing minimums. Which scores apply turns on when the test was taken: a test taken on or after 7 August 2025 is scored against Schedule 1, while a test taken before that date is assessed under the instrument's transitional provision against the Schedule 3 scores. Either way the test must have been taken within two years, measured back from the application date where the result accompanies the application, or from the decision date where it is supplied later [LIN 25/090]. The two tests in common use, under LIN 25/090:

The lower tiers apply where the principal course is packaged with ELICOS ahead of it, or, at the middle tier, a standard or extended foundation program or an eligible pathway program. Other accepted tests (TOEFL iBT, Cambridge C1 Advanced, OET and others) carry their own equivalent scores in the instrument. These figures are fixed by LIN 25/090 and change with it, so the current instrument governs.