Applying for an 820 from a Student Visa

A student visa holder or graduate visa holder who is in Australia can lodge a subclass 820 partner visa application, and can do it without leaving a course, an employer or the country. The two things that decide whether it works are the conditions on your visa and the date your visa ends.

Do you have to stop studying first?

No. Nothing in Part 820 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994 asks what you are studying or whether you intend to keep studying. You can apply mid-semester, mid-degree or after a graduate visa has been granted.

What does not change is the rest of the application. If you are not married, regulation 2.03A requires the Minister to be satisfied you have been in the de facto relationship for at least the 12 months ending immediately before the date of the application, unless an exemption applies — see exemptions from the 12-month rule. Student relationships often begin in Australia and are younger than the couple realises.

Check for condition 8534 before anything else

Condition 8534 in Schedule 8 provides that the holder will not be entitled to be granted a substantive visa, other than a protection visa, a Subclass 485 (Temporary Graduate) visa or a Subclass 590 (Student Guardian) visa, while the holder remains in Australia. A partner visa is not on that list, so it blocks an onshore 820 in the same way condition 8503 does.

It is not on every student visa. Clause 500.611 of Schedule 2 says that conditions 8105, 8202, 8501, 8516, 8517, 8532 and 8533 must be imposed on a student visa granted to a primary applicant, and that condition 8534 (and 8303) may be imposed. So two classmates on the same subclass visa can have different conditions.

For the subclass 485 graduate visa, clause 485.611 requires condition 8501 — adequate health insurance arrangements — and 8534 does not appear in Part 485 at all.

Check every condition number against your own visa using the Department's check visa details and conditions (VEVO) service, not the grant email.

What happens to enrolment and conditions after you lodge

Lodging the 820 changes nothing about the visa you currently hold. Until the student visa ceases, every condition on it still applies, and breaching one is a cancellation risk that has nothing to do with the partner application:

• condition 8202 — you must remain enrolled in a full-time registered course and meet the course progress and attendance standards;
• condition 8105 — the work limit continues during fortnights when your course is in session;
• condition 8501 — you must maintain adequate health insurance arrangements while in Australia;
• condition 8516 — you must continue to be a person who would satisfy the criteria for the grant of the student visa.

The change comes when the student visa ends. A Bridging visa A granted in respect of the partner application comes into effect either on grant or when the substantive visa ceases, under clause 010.511. From that point the student visa conditions no longer apply as such. What carries over is narrower: clause 010.611 provides that, in the ordinary case, the Bridging visa A carries whichever of a listed set of conditions applied to the visa held at the time of application. Condition 8105 is on that list. Conditions 8202 and 8501 are not.

So while the student visa runs you must stay enrolled; once it has ceased and you are on a bridging visa, the enrolment condition is not part of what the bridging visa carries. Your contract with the education provider is a separate matter and does not change because a visa did.

Work rights before and after

Before the student visa ends, the student visa work limit governs you. Condition 8105 restricts work to a set number of hours a fortnight during any fortnight when the course is in session, with the limit raised for subclass 500 holders and disapplied for holders who have commenced a masters by research or doctoral degree. A subclass 485 graduate visa carries no work-hours condition.

After the student visa ends, read the bridging visa's own conditions in VEVO rather than assuming. If a work condition carried across and it is causing real difficulty, clause 010.211(4) allows a further Bridging visa A where the Minister is satisfied the applicant has a compelling need to work, which regulation 1.08 defines as including financial hardship.

Once the 820 is granted, clause 820.611 imposes no conditions on the visa, and the Department says that on the subclass 820 "you will have full work rights and are protected by Australian workplace law". More at work rights.

Fees, health cover and the things this page cannot tell you

Neither of these is decided by the Department of Home Affairs.

Domestic or international fees. Whether you are charged domestic or international tuition is set by your education provider under the Commonwealth and state rules that define who counts as a domestic student. A subclass 820 is a temporary visa, not permanent residence, and a bridging visa is not a substantive visa at all. Ask your provider's admissions or fees team, in writing, what your status will be on a bridging visa and on the 820.

Overseas Student Health Cover. Student visas carry condition 8501, and providers usually require cover for the duration of enrolment. Once the student visa ceases, 8501 is not among the conditions clause 010.611 carries onto the Bridging visa A, and the 820 itself carries no conditions. Separately, the Department says subclass 820 holders can apply for Medicare on the 820 visa. How all of that interacts with your particular policy and your provider's enrolment rules is a matter for the insurer and the provider, and this guide does not state a rule it cannot verify. Do not cancel a policy on the strength of a general description.

The timing question

Lodge while you still hold the student or graduate visa. This single decision changes the difficulty of the whole application. If the visa ceases before a valid application is made, you no longer hold a substantive visa, and clause 820.211(2)(d) then requires you to satisfy Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004 unless the Minister is satisfied there are compelling reasons for not applying them. Criterion 3001 alone measures 28 days from the day your last substantive visa ended. See Schedule 3 criteria.

Work backwards from the expiry date in VEVO, and allow weeks, not days, for relationship evidence and for the sponsor to complete the sponsor's part of the application.

Where professional help matters here

An application prepared by a migration lawyer is more likely to succeed on this pathway, for reasons specific to student cases. The condition check is not obvious: 8534 is discretionary, so it is present on some student visas and absent from others, and a waiver has to be approved before the application exists at all. The relationship is often close to the 12-month line, which is where evidence has to be built rather than gathered. And student visas end on a fixed date that arrives while a couple is still deciding what to do. Nobody can promise an outcome, but a late lodgement turns an ordinary application into a Schedule 3 case.

What to do next

Open VEVO today, write down every condition number and the exact date your visa ends, and check for 8503, 8534 and 8535. Then read 820 visa requirements, how to apply for the 820 visa, and Bridging visa A for what your status will be once the student visa ends.

Keep reading

Lodging in ImmiAccount: Screen-by-Screen

How the 820 partner visa is lodged in ImmiAccount - who should own the account, what the form asks, attaching documents, the TRN, paying, and what happens next.

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The Sponsor's Part of the Application

What the 820 visa sponsor has to lodge - the Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia form, when to lodge it, what it asks, and what happens if it is refused.

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Including Dependent Children in Your 820 Application

How to include children in an 820 partner visa application: who counts as a dependent child, what each child needs, consent and custody, and adding a child later.

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