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Over the weekend — with no warning — the visa fee for the 485 Temporary Graduate visa was doubled, and on top of that a wave of student visa cancellations has hit lately. Australia is clearly entering a new “send-them-home” cycle, so we wanted to write this piece specifically to alert international students.

Over the past 2–3 years Australia has concentrated its firepower on cracking down on the various “misbehaviours” of Student visa holders, setting up a dedicated task force specifically to catch breaches of visa conditions and other non-compliance. Most of the previous catches were for working in excess of the hour limit, or for having a CoE cancelled by the institution after failing to attend classes.

More recently, new patterns have emerged

1. Cancellation carried out while the holder is offshore

2. Downgrading the course of study has become one of the main triggers

3. Stricter treatment of CoE and study-period gaps

Because many students have gone back to China for the holidays during this period,we are seeing a particularly large number of people held up at the border — some are told on departure that their Student visa is already gone, others have it cancelled on the spot by Australian border officers,and of course there are also people who receive a NOICC (Notice of Intention to Consider Cancellation) while onshore and subsequently have the visa cancelled.

Breach of Condition 8202: downgrading the course of study

While onshore in Australia, the holder is identified by the Department of Home Affairs,receives a NOICC asking for an explanation, and if the explanation is not accepted, a formal cancellation decision follows.

Breach of Condition 8202: another downgrade case

A Student visa granted on the basisof a bachelor-level course is later downgraded to a diploma,, the holder is identified at the border, and the visa is cancelled on the spot.

Breach of Condition 8202: a gap in the CoE

The holder was onshore in Australia on a Student visa but their CoE had expired with no course enrolled,the gap had just exceeded two months, and by the time they had departed Australia and secured a new CoE,ready to re-enter to continue higher-education studies, they were told at the airport that their Student visa had already been cancelled.

International students — please, again and again, commit Condition 8202 on your Student visa to memory

1. Maintain enrolment in a course for the entire time you hold the visa

2. The course you are enrolled in must be at the same AQF level as — or higher than — the course your Student visa was granted for

3. Maintain satisfactory course progress and attendance

In any of these scenarios, if the Department of Home Affairs identifies a breach of Condition 8202:

1.When the holder is onshore in Australia,the Department will first sendyou a NOICC, typically giving you 5 business days to provide an explanation. If the explanation fails, the visa is cancelled. This is also very likely to trigger Section 48 — barring you from lodging most visas onshore — and to trigger PIC 4013,one form of the three-year bar, which blocks many temporary visas from being granted

2.When you are offshore, the Department has the power to cancel your visa without any warning at all (no NOICC, no opportunity to respond),and in most cases the Departmentwill not even proactively send you the cancellation notice — many people only find out when they try to re-enter

3. When you assume your breach went undetected and try to renew after the current Student visa quietly expires,the case officer may go back through your study history and check whether you previously breached conditions. More seriously still, when you lodge online without realising how serious the situation isand answer “NO” to the question about whether you have complied with visa conditions or been removed, and the Department later uncovers the issue — if the application is ultimately refused, it is very likely to attract PIC 4020,the “bonus” that comes with providing false or misleading information or documents, which can then block even permanent visas such as skilled migration and family migration from being granted.

If you believe you have already breached Condition 8202, try to bring your Student visa back into compliance before you leave Australia;if you are identified and cancelled onshore, at least you retain the right of appeal to the ART.If cancellation happens while you are offshore, the only remaining option is — in theory — revocation of the cancellation. For example, students with a CoE gap wait until a new CoE becomes effective, and students who downgraded apply for a new Student visa.

Finally, the most serious and earnest reminder of this article

1. Comply with your Student visa conditions at all times — no amount of after-the-fact remedy beats not breaching in the first place

2. Rectify the breach as soon as possible and do your best to explain it. Once identified, every future visa application will require an explanation, the risk of refusal rises accordingly, and the GTE requirement may not be met

3. Disclose truthfully. Do not conceal breaches in the hope of sneaking through — if uncovered again, the consequences often include a bar and other, more serious outcomes

If you have an urgent or unusual visa situation and need help,

please contact our client services team below