Previously, Newstars identified a loophole in migration law: you could try a 1-year Master’s + 1-year Diploma to apply for PSW, and we even put forward some recommendations. As a result, many people asked about it, but no one dared to try it.
But now, things are different —the Department of Home Affairs websitehas given concrete confirmation, clearly stating:
Graduate Diplomait can be used to apply for PSW!
As shown in the image below ↓↓↓
But note, the Department of Home Affairs says a GD works,but still states thata Diploma doesn’t.So a 1-year Master’s (or longer) + 1-year GD is fine for a PSW application,but 1-year Master’s +1-year Diplomaaccording to the official websitecannot be used to apply forPSW.”
If you’re not entirely clear on the ins and outs of this new change, read on.
First, here’s the download link for the migration law:https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/F1996B03551
Open the link above and you’ll see a list of the Migration Regulations 1994 on the right-hand side,with the list running from newest to oldest, linking to the original text of each version of the law (as shown), and after clicking on the links to the law from19 September 2020before and after respectively, you’ll find a Download button up top to download the PDF file. The regulations run to 4 volumes in total — you only need to download Volume 2 of both the old and new versions.
Let’s start with the old law, before 19 September 2020 —
For the qualification and study requirements for PSW, see the screenshot:
A simple translation follows:
(1) The applicant holds one or more qualifications of a kind specified by the Department. (In practice, this means only a Bachelor’s/Master’s/PhD qualifies. This requirement comes from the blue-highlighted text above, ‘specified by the Minister in an instrument’ — we won’t go into that in detail here.)
(2) These qualifications need to be awarded by an institution specified by the Department. (In practice, this means the course must be CRICOS-registered.)
(3) The applicant’s study for these qualificationsneeds to satisfy the Australian study requirement — note the green-highlighted ‘the’ above, meaning, the qualifications in (1) and (2) must all be used to satisfy the Australian study requirement (i.e. the two-year study requirement).
So combining two 1-year Master’s degrees is fine, because both 1-year Master’s courses satisfy all 3 requirements. But if it’s a 1-year Diploma/Graduate Diploma plus a 1-year Master’s, it doesn’t satisfy requirement (3).Because the Diploma/Graduate Diploma itself doesn’t satisfy (1) and (2),the “applicant’s study for the qualification or qualifications” referred to in (3) is therefore left with only the Master’s, not the Diploma/Graduate Diploma — and since that Master’s is only one year,the Master’s alone cannot satisfy the Australian study requirement.even though a 1-year Diploma/Graduate Diploma plus a 1-year Master’s does, in itself, actually satisfy the Australian study requirement.
Now, let’s look at the amended law —
as shown above ((1A) can be ignored — that’s for the second 485 visa):
You’ll notice (1) and (2) are exactly the same as before,but (3) has changed —from “The applicant’s study for the qualification or qualifications satisfied the Australian study requirement” to “The applicant satisfied the Australian study requirement”,removing “study for the qualification or qualifications”!
This immediately creates a huge difference in meaning from before. Under the old law, the qualifications used to satisfy the two-year study requirement all had to be a Bachelor’s/Master’s or PhD, whereas under the new law,as long as the applicant satisfies two years of study, requirement (3) is met, while (1) and (2) only need a 1-year Master’s to be satisfied.
So a 1-year Diploma/Graduate Diploma plus a 1-year Master’s satisfies the new migration law, and PSW can be applied for.
Let’s back this up with the PAM —
According to the latest PAM (effective from 22 March 2021)(PAM stands for Procedures Advice Manual — the Department’s internal manual for assessing cases, which all licensed agents must purchase),
There is no requirement for the applicant’s qualification/s used to satisfy subclause 485.231(3) (the Australian study requirement) to be the same qualifications used to satisfy subclauses 485.231(1) and (2).
which means,the qualification used to satisfy the two-year study requirement doesn’t need to match the qualification used to satisfy (1) and (2) above!For the original PAM text, see the image below:
Whereas under the PAM prior to 19 January 2021, the qualification requirements meant 485.231(1), (2), and (3) all had to use the same qualification. As shown below:
1-year Master’s + 1-year GD — OK!
Now combine this with the confirmation we mentioned at the start, which we recently found on the Department of Home Affairs website:it clearly states that a Graduate Diploma can be used to apply for PSW!
So we can draw the conclusion ————————
fora 1-year Graduate Diploma + 1-year Master’sstudy pattern, the 1-year Master’s alone can satisfy the qualification requirements of 485.231(1) and (2), while the 1-year Graduate Diploma + 1-year Master’s together can satisfy the two-year study requirement of 485.231(3),so this study pattern can satisfy the qualification requirements for the PSW visa.
Study the 1-year Master’s first,or flip the order round —study the 1-year Graduate Diploma afterwards, and that also satisfies the requirement.
Please note, however:1-year Master’s + 1-year Diploma does not satisfy the requirement,1-year Master’s + 1-year Trade Qualification(e.g. Certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery)also cannot satisfy the requirement.
From a legal standpoint, we’ve already used themigration law to demonstratethe feasibility of this approach, and now we also haveconfirmation from the Department of Home Affairs website.
If there are friends out there willing to give this a try,
feel free to get in touch with our office in your region
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