How Do I Renew My Visa So Migration and Staying in Australia Can Be Faster, Safer and More Affordable? The Most Complete Renewal Guide for Every Situation — All Sorted in One Article!

As long as you meet the eligibility criteria, you can lodge a Subclass 408 visa application fee-free. Note that the Subclass 408 visa comes in two types —

the first is a 12-month visa that comes with work rights. Applicants need to meet the following conditions:

– You must currently be in Australia and apply online;

– Explain why you’re unable to leave Australia;

– Hold appropriate health insurance for the duration of your stay in Australia;

– Be working in a critical sector (agriculture, food processing, healthcare, aged care, disability care, childcare, or tourism and hospitality) work;

– Have an employer confirm your employment and provide the relevant documents, and your role is one that Australian citizens or permanent residents cannot fill;

– Hold a substantive visa with 90 days or less validity remaining, or apply within 28 days after your last substantive visa expired;

– You must provide corresponding proof of funds.

The second is a 3-month visa with no work rights.

This applies to those not working in the critical sectors above, but who have no other renewal option and are stuck onshore in Australia — for example, planning to return home but unable to book a flight before the current visa expires. The government will still grant this visa in such cases, but it’s meant purely as a temporary bridge, so the visa period is shorter and doesn’t carry full-time work rights.

If you’d like to know whether you meet the criteria to apply for a Subclass 408, get in touch with our consultants for a detailed chat.

These days, once almost any substantive visa in Australia expires, if you want to keep staying in Australia without needing work rights, renewing onto a visitor visa is an option.

The reasons for wanting to stay on vary widely — whether you’re on a visitor visa, student visa, guardian visa, Subclass 485, or a 462/417 working holiday visa, your situation is basically covered by one of the scenarios below.

1. Your visa is about to expire and you’re planning to leave, but you haven’t managed to book a suitable flight, and you still need around 3-6 months to sort out various matters.

For this scenario, the best-value option is of course to renew onto a visitor visa while booking a flight as soon as possible, then leaving within that visitor visa’s validity. A visitor visa costs only AUD 365 in visa application fees, and doesn’t require you to take out insurance, with a health check only required in specific circumstances. Its validity is also longer than the standard 408 visa without work rights.

2. Your visa is about to expire and you have plans for another visa afterwards, but you don’t yet meet the criteria to lodge it on time.

This usually happens with partner-type visas — for example, wanting to lodge a guardian visa attached to a student visa, or a partner migration visa, but the relationship evidence isn’t sufficient, so it can’t be lodged before the substantive visa expires. In this case, you can plan around it — lodge a stable short-term visitor visa first as a bridge, to buy yourself more time.

3. There are also students whose student visa is expiring and who need to apply for a Subclass 485, but whose PTE results haven’t come through in time — they need to renew to buy themselves time.

In this situation too, you can lodge a visitor visa. The key point is the final deadline for lodging the 485, which everyone needs to calculate carefully — whatever you do, don’t miss your one and only chance to lodge the main 485 application.

Many people may assume a student visa costs too much, requires attending classes, and comes with all sorts of restrictions — visa history, age, education level and so on — making it a poor renewal choice. In fact, that’s not the case.

Quite the opposite — the student visa is actually one of the most flexible visa categories around. Australia is home to large numbers of temporary visa holders, with the biggest categories being visitor visas, student visas, guardian visas, Subclass 485, and 462/417 working holiday visas, among others. During the pandemic, when these temporary visas expired, holders faced all kinds of entry and exit issues. Besides the two short-term visas mentioned above — the 408 and the visitor visa — the student visa is also available as a relatively longer-term temporary option.

Whether you’ve used up your Subclass 485 and want to keep building work experience, your student visa is expiring and you want to keep renewing it, or your parents’ guardian visa is expiring and they don’t want to leave the country and want to keep staying with their child, and so on — a student visa is an option in all these cases.

The student visa offers the following advantages:

1. Compared with other Australian visas, the eligibility bar for this visa is relatively low, and the approval rate is extremely high — a single application can secure a work-and-study visa valid for 2-3 years, and with the border open, you can travel freely in and out of Australia.

2. Once the visa expires, it can be renewed multiple times, and your spouse and children can also apply to join you as guardians.

3. A student visa comes with legal work rights and health insurance, giving you access to more job opportunities across a wide range of fields.

4. The course scheduling that goes with a student visa is very flexible — attendance requirements are relatively relaxed, there’s no English-language requirement and no age limit. Tuition costs are low, payments can be made in instalments, and intakes start every month.

5. If you’re also planning to migrate, there are multiple migration pathways to choose from — for example, studying a migration-relevant field, applying for a partner/marriage visa, or running a small business, among others.

Speaking of student visas, we should also mention the matching school application. If your school’s course requirements are too strict, you’ve failed subjects multiple times, tuition is too expensive, or your CoE is at risk of being cancelled for any other reason, we can put together a free plan for you and arrange a new course.

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