Lately a lot of you have been asking us about this: you finished your course early and have already returned home — or simply went home with plans for a short trip abroad — and then received an email from the Department of Home Affairs saying there is an important written notice about your visa that needs to be sent to you, and requiring you to reply within 5 working days with your current residential address and email ·
What It Means to Receive a Department Notice After Graduating Early While Offshore
Receiving this letter most likely means your student visa has already been cancelled under s128 of the Migration Act, and the Department is contacting you simply to deliver the cancellation notice. Even if you don’t reply to the Department as required, it doesn’t change the fact that your student visa has already been cancelled ·
In our past experience, when it came to early course completion the Department generally left you alone once you were offshore. Recently, however, we’ve found that quite a few clients who graduated late last year or early this year — whose student visas weren’t due to expire until the end of this year or even next year — had returned home. Then, in barely a few months and while still offshore, they received a notice that their visa was about to be cancelled ·
The Two Types of Early Graduation Under Student Visa Rules Explained
Let’s quickly recap the two early-graduation scenarios under the Migration Act (Figure 2)
Early graduation caused by a change of course — for example, your student visa was originally granted for a 3-year bachelor’s degree, but you switched majors midway and ended up graduating early. Within 28 days of the school confirming course completion in the system, you must either leave Australia or apply for a valid visa; if you don’t, the Department can start the visa cancellation process ·
Completing your course normally, but earlier than the original CoE date. If you studied during the holidays or had previous study credited, so that you graduate before the end date shown on the CoE that applied when your student visa was granted, the CoE lapses because you are no longer enrolled, which breaches student visa condition 8202. In this situation, however, there is usually a 3-month grace period, allowing the visa holder to stay in Australia for no more than 3 months; beyond 3 months you must apply for a new visa, or your visa may be compulsorily cancelled. We’ve written notes on this before that you can refer to (Figure 3) ·
The Key Consequences of an s128 Student Visa Cancellation After Early Graduation Offshore
Today we want to focus on this: graduating early, already being offshore, and having your student visa cancelled. This mainly affects those who, after graduating, want to go home for a while — to visit family and friends, or to see whether there are opportunities in the autumn graduate recruitment season back home, and so on — and who still hope to return to Australia to apply for a Subclass 485 or another visa. If your student visa is cancelled while you are offshore, you can no longer use that student visa to return to Australia. In theory you could apply for revocation in this case, but because the course has actually finished, it is very hard to get the visa back ·
A special reminder for anyone in graduation season, or who has already finished their course early: if you might want to apply for the Subclass 485 work visa in the future, we strongly recommend that you lodge your Subclass 485 onshore before you leave Australia! Otherwise, you could end up in the awkward position of being back home, with your student visa cancelled and no valid visa to return to Australia to lodge a Subclass 485 or any other visa ·
Does a visa cancellation like this carry a three-year ban? In principle, there is no three-year ban. You can still apply for other visas within three years and are not subject to Public Interest Criterion 4013 (PIC 4013), because this is simply normal early completion of a course and does not breach other visa regulations ·
So for anyone who wants to obtain a Subclass 485, or who still wants to build a future in Australia: even if you graduate early, make sure you are properly prepared before you head home!
