Hoping to bring your partner on a student visa? Since 2 October, most students cannot

Most people applying for an Australian student visa can no longer bring a partner or children on it. Under changes to the Migration Regulations in force since Friday 2 October 2026, student visa family members can be included in an application only when an exemption applies, and no one can add them once the visa has been granted. Eligible students from Pacific and ASEAN countries keep the option. Indian students have no exemption by nationality; a new applicant from India can include family only for PhD study, with sponsorship from DFAT or Defence, or on a foreign government scholarship that fully funds their studies.

Indian citizens held more student visas than any other nationality at 31 December 2025: 88,306 of the 477,890 in Australia, the department’s figures show. Those totals include families. Across all nationalities, 68,505 holders on that date, about one in seven, were secondary visa holders, the official term for partners and children accompanying a student. The figures do not show how many were Indian.

Forty-eight hours a fortnight

Partners on student visas have been able to work. Home Affairs says family members can work up to 48 hours a fortnight and, unlike students, stay limited during course breaks. Partners and children of students doing a master’s degree or a doctorate can work more than 48 hours a fortnight. Under the new rules, PhD study is an exemption that lets family be included. A master’s degree, even by research, is not.

For a new student without an exemption, there is no place on the visa for a partner, and so no work rights under it. Assistant Minister Julian Hill’s release announcing the change says nothing about partners’ work or income. Its stated aim for the family rules is that student visas be “mainly granted to people who are coming to Australia to study”. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the National Press Club on 17 September that an Australian citizen sponsoring an overseas partner faces a wait of years, while a student could bring a partner from the start.

Student visa family members already here keep their visas

For those already holding a student visa, partners and children included, the Home Affairs factsheet says: “The changes do not affect your current Student visa.” Applications lodged before 2 October, including those naming family members, are assessed under the rules in place when they were lodged. The release says families already together in Australia, including those on Temporary Graduate visas as secondary applicants, will not be separated.

The limits apply at the next step. A student with family already on their visa who is eligible to apply again in Australia may be able to include them, provided everyone is in the same place when the application is lodged. Adding someone new is another matter. Current holders can no longer add family members once their visa is granted, and the factsheet adds: “There are no exemptions to this rule.” A student from Hyderabad enrolled in Melbourne, with a partner still in India, can no longer apply to add that partner.

The onshore rules reach partners too. A partner who holds a student visa as a dependant cannot apply in Australia to study as the main applicant, Home Affairs says. That application must be lodged from outside Australia, and the partner must be outside Australia when the visa is granted.

Graduate visas are next, with no date yet

For graduates, the release looks ahead in a single sentence: “Similar restrictions will apply to Temporary Graduate visas.” It gives no start date and no detail. Burke told the Press Club that family members would no longer be attached to graduate visas either.

India is the largest source of grants for that visa: Home Affairs figures show Indian citizens received 26,116 of the 72,205 granted in the six months to 31 December 2025, or 36.2 per cent. Across all nationalities, 64,708 of the 225,901 Temporary Graduate visa holders in Australia at 31 December 2025, nearly three in ten, were secondary visa holders. The department’s report says they can work and study, and its graduate visa page, last updated on 12 October, still says family can apply to join a graduate after the visa is granted.

Indian graduates have a particular arrangement. Home Affairs says Indian nationals in the Post-Higher Education Work stream may stay two to four years, as agreed in the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, against the usual two to three. Asked at the Press Club whether that extra time would remain, Burke replied: “We are working within all free trade agreements in everything that I’ve said.” He added that the government was not about to undermine concessions Australia had offered in those agreements.

Burke also told the Press Club the points test for skilled visas had been redone in consultation with Treasury. A university course normally earns more points than a trade, he said, but on implementation anyone skilled in the housing trades will get “the same number of points as though it were a university qualification”. He gave no date.

Twelve months before switching providers

Until 30 June 2027, students outside the school system must generally complete 12 months of their principal course before another provider can enrol them, up from six. From 1 July 2027, the government says, a student moving through a new transfer stream will need the new visa before starting with the new provider. Transfers will be allowed only at the same level or higher on the Australian Qualifications Framework, and students who came for higher education will no longer be able to transfer onshore into vocational training.

Families already here keep the visas they hold. For the next student leaving India without an exemption, a partner can no longer travel on the same visa, or work under it. The government says graduates will face similar limits. It has not said when.