Attention, international students studying overseas! You must hold a valid student visa throughout your period of online study!

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If you fail to hold a student visa while studying overseas, this may lead to the followingserious consequences:

a)  Whether it’s a period in the middle of the course or the final semester without a student visa, this will result inthat period of study being excluded from the Australian two-year study count, causing your Australian studyto fall short of 16 months,and therefore fail to meet the(Australian Study Requirement),leading to your Subclass 485 visa application being refused.

b)  If it’sthe final semester of the course that lacks a visa, then because thefinal semester is excluded from the Australian study count, it follows that:

i. The earlierperiod when you did hold a visa,didn’t actually see the course completed, so it may directly fail to meet the Australian Study Requirement (the ASR requires the course to be completed before that study period can be used to calculate the ASR),resulting in the 485 being refused;

ii. Even if the case officer is lenient and doesn’t refuse on the basis of (i),the applicant must also, within6 months of the previous student visa,lodge the Subclass 485 visa application.This is because if there’s no visa for the final semester, that period will be excluded when calculating the ASR. And the Subclass 485 visa requires that the study used to satisfy the ASR fall within the 6 months prior to lodging the application.

c) For the same reason, failing to meet the Australian two-year study requirement(Australian Study Requirement)may also affect the 5 points awarded under skilled migration.