With 315 renewals currently at their peak, a new cohort is about to enter the bridging visa waiting stage while their substantive visa applications are processed. Given Australia’s notoriously slow processing times, the number of people holding bridging visas has grown from 200,000 to 300,000 and now nearly 350,000…… Some have been waiting onshore for six months, a year, or even two years without a grant……What was once a short-term transitional visa has become a way of life for many — an unfortunate reality.
So today, let’s talk about bridging visas
Bridging visascome in five types — A, B, C, D, and E —Most applicants who lodge a visa application onshore automatically receive a Bridging Visa A, and those who need to travel overseas must apply for a Bridging Visa B.Don’t let the automatic nature of most bridging visas fool you into thinking they are straightforward.In fact, this is a vast and complex area,with countless combinations depending on your preceding and subsequent visas, plus edge cases such as holding one during a merits review appeal or waiting to depart after an unlawful period — making it genuinely difficult to navigate.
Among all these questions, the most common ones are: can you work on a bridging visa? Can you work full-time? Can you study? This article focuses on explainingwork and study rightsin plain terms.
*Due to current special circumstances, the Australian Government has granted specific exemptions to the work entitlements for student visa holders. This article discusses the standard rules only.
Determining whether your bridging visa permits you to work
First, confirm whether your bridging visa has come into effect
Before checking whether your bridging visa grants work rights, there is a prerequisite you must address first:
— whether your previously held substantive visa has already expired
Because a substantive visa takes precedence over a bridging visa, if your previous visa had not yet expired or been cancelled when you received your bridging visa,the conditions of your current substantive visa still govern what you can and cannot do.
For example, if you lodged a Subclass 820/801 Partner visa and received a bridging visa while your Subclass 500 Student visa was still valid, you remain subject to the 40-hours-per-fortnight work limit until your Subclass 500 expires — not full-time work.
If your bridging visa has already come into effect
Check the work entitlements stated in your bridging visa grant letter
A bridging visa is still a visa, and it carries visa conditions. The simplest way to find out whether your bridging visa allows you to work is to check your visa grant letter(or check via VEVO).
There are two main visa conditions that restrict work:
8101 No Work
8105 Work Limitation
If your grant letterdoes not include either of these conditions, you can conclude that you are permitted to work while holding the bridging visa.
If you haven’t yet lodged a visa application and want to know in advance
This question gets more technical, and we need to refer to Australia’s Migration Regulations.
Work entitlements are set out in detail in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations. For Bridging Visa A conditions, refer to regulation 010.611 — see Figure 1:
(Figure 1)
Below is a plain-language breakdown of the key provisions:
Under regulations 010.611(1)(a) and 010.211(4), if a person’s Bridging Visa A does not carry work rights but they provide evidence of a compelling need to work and the Department of Home Affairs approves it, the visa condition becomes Nil (meaning no restricting conditions — full-time work and study are both permitted)
Reading these provisions closely leads to a clear conclusion:Regardless of what visa you currently hold (including a Subclass 600 Visitor visa with no work rights), if the visa you have applied for is a Protection visa, an onshore partner visa, an onshore parent visa, a Subclass 485 Graduate Work visa, a business migration visa, an employer-sponsored visa, or a skilled migration visa, the resulting bridging visa will carry full-timework rights,For the full table, see Figure 2:
(Figure 2)
“Whether a bridging visa permits work entirely depends on whether the previous substantive visa permitted work“?
This common belief is not entirely wrong,but it is only part of the picture.
The specific provision covering this situation is regulation 010.611(4) — see Figure 3. It states that if your previous visa carried any of the following conditions (8101, 8102, 8103, 8104, 8105, 8107, 8108, 8111, 8112, 8114, 8115, 8539, 8547, 8549, 8607, 8608), then a Bridging Visa A arising from an application for any visa not listed in Figure 2 will carry those same conditions.If the conditions on your previous visa are not among those listed, they will not carry over.
(Figure 3)
By checking your current visa conditions against the categories in Figure 2 and the regulation above, you can determine whether your future bridging visa will carry work rights.
This is genuinely complex material, and most people do not need to understand migration law to this level of detail —seeking advice from a qualified professional when questions arise is usually the better approach.
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Can you study on a bridging visa?
Many clients arrive in Australia on a Subclass 600 Visitor visa or a Working Holiday (Subclass 462) visa and then apply for a student visa. Some apply for a Diploma programme — if their application is refused, can they continue studying during the appeal period?
Answer: A Bridging Visa A obtained from any visa application, regardless of what visa you currently hold, permits full-time study.
There are three visa conditions related to study rights: 8201, 8207, and 8548 (see Figure 2).
Since none of these three conditions appear in the list referenced by regulation 010.611(4),you can be confident that all Bridging Visa A holders have full-time study rights.
Visa refusal and the appeal period
Under regulation 010.211(2)(b) of the Migration Regulations, a Bridging Visa A held during an appeal after refusal is legally the same as one held before a refusal — in both cases the visa application is not yet ‘finally determined’. See Figure 4.
Accordingly, the work and study rights on a Bridging Visa A during an appeal period are exactly the same as those before the refusal.
(Figure 4)
Other types of bridging visas
Bridging Visa B
The above discussion has focused on Bridging Visa A. What about the other bridging visas? Bridging Visa B carries the same conditions as Bridging Visa A and is used for travel overseas, so no further elaboration is needed.
Bridging Visa C
Under regulation 030.6 of the Migration Regulations, applicants forbusiness migration, employer-sponsored migration, or skilled migration(Subclass 132/188/888/186/187/491/494/189/190/489 visas)will also receive a Bridging Visa C with full-time work rights,while all others carry the 8101 No Work condition. Study rights, however, apply to all Bridging Visa C holders.
Additionally, if you hold a Bridging Visa C without work rights, you may in theory apply for a second Bridging Visa C to obtain work rights, but you will need to provide evidence ofcompelling need to work.
Bridging Visa E
generally carries both the 8108 and 8207 conditions, meaning you can neither work nor study.This typically occurs after a student visa is cancelled — during the appeal period, the holder will be on a Bridging Visa E. In this situation, just as with a Bridging Visa C,intheory you may apply for a second Bridging Visa E to obtain study and work rights.
If you need to apply for a bridging visa
such as applying for a Bridging Visa B to travel overseas
(bridging visa holders can currently travel in and out of Australia freely)
please don’t hesitate to contact us below
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