Introduction of the Post-Study Work stream in the Temporary Graduate visa

Policy effect

On 23 March 2013, Schedule 2 to Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1) renamed Subclass 485 and created a Post-Study Work stream alongside the Graduate Work stream. The former Skilled–Graduate criteria required a nominated skilled occupation, closely related qualifications and a suitable skills assessment. The new Post-Study Work primary criteria do not impose that occupation nomination or skills-assessment requirement; those requirements remain in the Graduate Work stream. This record covers the opening Post-Study Work route and its applicable primary eligibility conditions, not the regulation’s separate tribunal, student-cancellation or humanitarian amendments. A primary applicant must nominate only one stream, be under 50, and hold or have held their first Student Temporary (Class TU) visa granted on the basis of an application made on or after 5 November 2011. A first visa granted after that date from an earlier application does not meet this condition. The applicant must also satisfy one of the four visa-status gateways in item 1229(4): hold an eligible student visa; hold Bridging A or B granted from a valid application for a non-excluded visa and have held an eligible student visa within the preceding six months; hold a non-excluded substantive visa and have held an eligible student visa within those six months; or have been taken under the specified Migration Act notification provisions to have been notified, no more than 28 days before applying, that the Migration Review Tribunal set aside and substituted a refusal to revoke cancellation of the eligible student visa. The excluded visas for the bridging/substantive alternatives are Subclasses 570, 571, 575 and 576, and 572/573/574 applications involving the specified government or multilateral funded study, or AusAID/Defence-approved scholarship or training, with a condition to leave Australia on completion. The separate eligible-student-visa definition also excludes specified older Subclass 560 and 562/563 arrangements and related family holders, and specified 572/573/574 funded return-home arrangements and related family holders; it is not every student visa. A primary applicant must apply in Australia, outside immigration clearance, using the prescribed application method and paying the prescribed charge. The Post-Study Work qualification must be one specified by IMMI 13/013: an AQF level 7 or higher Bachelor, Bachelor with Honours, Masters by Coursework, Masters by Research, Masters (Extended), or Doctoral degree. IMMI 13/031 specifies Australian universities and non-university education providers that are registered on CRICOS and offer degree-level or higher courses. The applicant must have satisfied the Australian study requirement in the six months immediately before applying. Regulation 1.15F requires completed Australian qualifications from registered courses involving at least 16 calendar months and at least two academic years of study, instruction entirely in English, undertaken in Australia while holding a visa authorising study. Completion means meeting academic requirements, without requiring formal conferral. The common primary criteria prohibit previously holding a Subclass 476 or 485 granted on primary criteria. At application there must be evidence of competent English, of an AFP-check application within the preceding 12 months for the applicant and each included person aged at least 16, of medical-examination arrangements for every included person, and of adequate Australian health-insurance arrangements for the primary applicant, maintained since application. Applicable public-interest, family-member and special-return criteria in clauses 485.216–485.217 and any maximum-grant determinations in 485.218 still apply. Primary applicants and family members who applied jointly must be in Australia at grant. Family members have the separate secondary criteria in 485.3; the primary eligibility route is not an automatic entitlement for every family member. Health-insurance condition 8501 is mandatory. The contemporaneous ministerial explanatory statement describes the new stream’s duration policy as two years for Bachelor, Bachelor with Honours, Masters by Coursework or Masters (Extended), three years for Masters by Research and four years for Doctoral graduates. This is the official 2013 policy explanation, not an unconditional statutory guarantee: operative clause 485.511 permits stay until a date specified by the Minister. The record does not infer an automatic fixed term irrespective of the grant decision, or claim that later duration rules applied at commencement.

Conditions and exceptions

Validated condition or limit: The former Skilled–Graduate criteria required a nominated skilled occupation, closely related qualifications and a suitable skills assessment.; The new Post-Study Work primary criteria do not impose that occupation nomination or skills-assessment requirement; This record covers the opening Post-Study Work route and its applicable primary eligibility conditions, not the regulation’s separate tribunal, student-cancellation or humanitarian amendments.; A primary applicant must nominate only one stream, be under 50, and hold or have held their first Student Temporary (Class TU) visa granted on the basis of an application made on or after 5 November 2011.; A first visa granted after that date from an earlier application does not meet this condition.; The applicant must also satisfy one of the four visa-status gateways in item 1229(4): hold an eligible student visa; hold Bridging A or B…

Official source excerpt

Quoted verbatim from the official source below. Ellipses indicate omitted text.

Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1) Select Legislative Instrument No. 33, 2013 I, Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following regulation under the Migration Act 1958. Dated 14 March 2013 Quentin Bryce Governor-General By Her Excellency’s Command Brendan O’Connor Minister for Immigration and Citizenship OPC50365 - 14 Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2013L00490 Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2013L00490 Contents 1 Name of regulation ............................................................................ 1 2 Commencement ................................................................................. 1 3 Authority ........................................................................................... 1 4 Schedule(s) ........................................................................................ 2 Schedule 1—Amendments relating to Tribunal fees 3 Migration Regulations 1994 3 Schedule 2—Amendments relating to post-study work arrangements and other matters 7 Migration Regulations 1994 7 Schedule 3—Amendments relating to cancellation of student visas 23 Migration Regulations 1994 23 Schedule 4—Amendments relating to Tribunals 24 Migration Regulations 1994 24 Schedule 5—Amendments relating to migration agents 34 Migration Agents Regulations 1998 34 Schedule 6—Amendments relating to transitional arrangements 44 Migration Regulations 1994 44 No. 33, 2013 Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1) i OPC50365 - 14 Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2013L00490 Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2013L00490 1 Name of regulation This regulation is the Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1). 2 Commencement (1) Each provision of this regulation specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms. Commencement information Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Provision(s) Commencement Date/Details 1. Sections 1 to 4 23 March 2013. 23 March 2013 and anything in this regulation not elsewhere covered by this table 2. Schedules 1 23 March 2013. 23 March 2013 and 2 3. Schedule 3 13 April 2013. 13 April 2013 4. Schedule 4 1 July 2013. 1 July 2013 5. Schedules 5 23 March 2013. 23 March 2013 and 6 Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this regulation as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this regulation. (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this regulation. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this regulation. 3 Authority This regulation is made under the Migration Act 1958. No. 33, 2013 Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1) 1 OPC50365 - 14 Federal Register of Legislative … F2013L00490 4 Schedule(s) Each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms. 2 Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1) No. 33, 2013 OPC50365 - 14 Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2013L00490 Amendments relating to Tribunal fees Schedule 1 Schedule 1—Amendments relating to Tribunal fees Migration Regulations 1994 1 At the end of subregulation 4.13(1) Add: Note: The fee in subregulation (1) is subject to increase under regulation 4.13A. 2 After regulation 4.13 Insert: 4.13A Biennial increases in fees Despite any other provision of these Regulations, the fee prescribed by subregulation 4.13(1) is increased, in accordance with regulation 4.13B, on each biennial anniversary of 1 July 2011. 4.13B Calculation of increase (1) If, in a relevant period, the latest CPI number is greater than the earlier CPI number, a fee is taken to increase, on 1 July immediately following the end of the period, in accordance with the formula: Fee  Latest CPI number Earlier CPI number where: earlier CPI number is the CPI number for the last March quarter before the beginning of the relevant period. latest CPI number is the CPI number for the last March quarter before the end of the relevant period. (2) If, apart from this subregulation, the amount of a fee increased under subregulation (1) would be an amount of dollars and cents, the amount is to be rounded to the nearest whole dollar and, if the amount to be rounded is 50 cents, rounded down. No. 33, 2013 Migration Legislation Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 1) 3 OPC50365 - 14 Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2013L00490 Schedule 1 Amendments relating to Tribunal fees (3) Subject to subregulation (4), if at any time, whether before or after the commencement of this regulation, the Australian Statistician publishes for a particular March quarter a CPI number in substitution for an index number previously published by the Australian Statistician for that quarter, the publication of the later index number is to be disregarded for the purposes of this regulation. (4) If, at any time, whether before or after the commencement of this regulation, the Australian Statistician changes the reference base for the Consumer Price Index, then, for the purposes of the application of this regulation after the change is made, regard must be had only to numbers published in terms of the new reference base. (5) In this regulation: CPI number means the All Groups Consumer Price Index number (being the weighted average of the 8 Australian capital cities) published by the Australian Statistician. fee means: (a) a fee prescribed by subregulation 4.13(1); or (b) the fee in force at the end of the relevant period if regulation 4.13A applies. relevant period means any of the following periods: (a) the 2 year period commenci …

Review method

Source-based draft with independent Gemini 3.8 Flash verification

Other Australia changes operative in 2013

• 2013-10-18Migration Amendment (Temporary Protection Visas) Regulation 2013
• 2013-11-23Specification of Occupations Exempt from Labour Market Testing
• 2013-12-14Bridging E visa holders made subject to an enforceable code of behaviour
• 2013-12-14Minister may disclose specified Bridging Visa holder information to police