Increasing demonstrated savings for student visa
The Australia Government is increasing the amount of savings international students need to demonstrate in order to obtain a student visa. The government states this requirement has not been indexed since 2019 and needs to increase to reflect higher living expenses. From October 1, 2023, international students will need to show evidence of $24,505 in living expenses, which is a 17% increase on current levels.

End to concurrent COE’s
The government has put an end to the option for concurrent COE’s (Confirmations of Enrolments). There has been a sharp uptake in the use of the concurrent function in 2023 – in the first half of 2023, 17,000 concurrent enrolments were created, compared to approximately 10,500 for the same period in 2019 and 2022 combined. Concurrent CoEs have long been considered a loophole that was exploited by students to switch courses to low cost or low quality provider before end of their first 6 months in principal course for which they got the visa.

Pandemic visa scrapped
The pandemic visa or the 408 visa, was introduced to enable international students who were stranded in Australia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions to remain lawfully in the country and to support themselves by taking on paid employment. It was also intended to help address labour shortages in critical sectors of the Australian economy by allowing international students to access jobs for which they previously were not eligible.

More than 20,000 international students have used the 408 visa to work in Australia – and most of them have done so after the borders reopened at the end of 2021.

As of 2 September 2023, immigration officials are no longer accepting applications for the visa, except from those students who currently hold them and are applying to renew them.

Get in touch to find out how the changes may impact you.