Studying on the 820 Visa

You can study on a subclass 820 visa, and the Department of Home Affairs attaches one clear warning to it: "you will not receive any government support and any study costs will be at your own expense." The permission is broad. The money is the problem.

Nothing in the visa restricts what you study. Clause 820.6 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994 sets the conditions attached to the subclass 820 at "Nil", so there is no course requirement, no enrolment obligation, no minimum or maximum study load and no restriction on the level of the qualification. You are not a student visa holder any more, and none of the student visa machinery applies to you.

The fee question, and why nobody here can answer it

The question almost everyone asks is whether an 820 holder pays domestic fees or international fees. This guide will not give you a rule, because the answer is not made by the Department of Home Affairs and is not uniform across the sector. Here is how the decision is actually made.

The institution classifies you. Universities, TAFEs and private providers each assign every enrolled student to a fee category. They do that by applying the funding rules that govern them — Commonwealth rules for higher education places and student loan schemes, state and territory rules for subsidised vocational training, and their own policy for anything not covered by either.

Those rules generally turn on status, not on visa number. Government-subsidised places and student loan schemes are built around citizenship and permanent residence. The subclass 820 is a temporary visa. That is consistent with what the Department says about government support on this visa, and it is why 820 holders are commonly treated as full-fee students rather than domestic students.

The provider is the only place to get a binding answer. Fee status can change the price of a degree by tens of thousands of dollars, so ask the admissions or student fees team in writing, and ask four things specifically:

1. Which fee category an applicant holding a subclass 820 temporary Partner visa falls into for the course you want.
2. Whether a government-subsidised or Commonwealth supported place is available to you.
3. Whether any student loan or deferral scheme is available to you.
4. Whether the answer changes when the permanent subclass 801 is granted, and what evidence they need at that point.

Keep the reply. The fourth question is the one people forget and the one that matters most — see when the 801 is assessed.

What happens to a student visa when the 820 is granted

It ends, automatically, on the day the 820 starts. Section 82(2) of the Migration Act 1958 says that a substantive visa held by a non-citizen ceases to be in effect if another substantive visa comes into effect. A subclass 500 student visa and a subclass 820 are both substantive visas, so the student visa simply stops.

Everything attached to it stops with it. Condition 8202, which requires a student visa holder to maintain full-time enrolment in a registered course and to meet course progress and attendance standards, no longer binds you. Neither does the student work hour limit, and neither does condition 8501, which requires a student visa holder to maintain adequate health insurance arrangements while in Australia.

That last one deserves a moment. The visa requirement to hold health cover disappears; the need for health cover does not. Your overseas student health cover policy may have been arranged around a student visa and a course end date, and it may not behave as you expect once you are no longer a student visa holder. Check the policy terms, and see Medicare on the 820 visa for the separate question of Medicare enrolment.

Your obligations to the education provider are a different matter again. They come from your enrolment contract and the provider's own rules, not from the visa. Tell the provider your immigration status has changed, and ask what it means for your enrolment, your fee category and your cover. See applying from a student visa for how the earlier part of this journey works.

Studying while you wait on a bridging visa

There is usually no visa condition preventing study on a Bridging visa A granted for a Partner application. The conditions a Bridging visa A inherits from your previous visa under clause 010.611 of Schedule 2 are largely work conditions; the student course requirement condition is not among them. Check your own conditions in VEVO rather than relying on that general statement.

The real obstacles during the wait are practical:

• Fee category. The same question as above, with an extra layer, because you are on a bridging visa rather than a substantive visa. Ask the provider.
• Admission. Some courses and scholarships are restricted by residency status, which is set by the institution or the scholarship, not by the Department.
• Health cover. If your previous visa required it and that visa has ended, the requirement has gone but the exposure has not.
• Time. A course commitment made on the assumption of a quick decision can become expensive. See 820 visa processing time.

For children, school enrolment is a separate system run by state and territory education departments, with its own fee rules for temporary visa holders. See school enrolment for children.

Where professional help matters here

Study itself does not need migration advice. Two situations do. The first is where someone is considering a new student visa application instead of, or alongside, the Partner application — the Department's warning that being granted any other visa ends your eligibility for the permanent subclass 801 makes that a decision with permanent consequences. The second is where a course has been abandoned or a provider has reported a student while a Partner application is on foot. In both, an application prepared by an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed, because the damage in these cases is usually done before anyone realises a choice was being made. No one can promise an outcome.

What to do next

Email the institution before you commit to anything, and get the fee answer in writing. Then read work rights if you plan to work alongside study, and what the 820 visa lets you do for the rest of what the visa allows.

Keep reading

Work Rights on the 820 and Bridging Visa A

A granted 820 carries full work rights. Before grant, your bridging visa copies the work conditions from your old visa. How to check and how to lift them.

Read the guide →

Medicare on the 820 Visa

An 820 holder can apply for Medicare. How enrolment works, where bridging visa holders stand, and how to cover yourself for health care while you wait.

Read the guide →

Travelling on a Granted 820 Visa

A granted 820 lets you travel in and out of Australia as often as you want. Before grant you need a Bridging visa B, and New Zealand passports face a trap.

Read the guide →