Australia Tightens Visa Rules for Students and Backpackers

Australia will tighten its migration rules for international students, “visa hoppers” and backpackers, with new measures announced by the Home Affairs Minister aimed at bringing migration under tighter control.

Families No Longer Added Automatically For Students

Foreign students will no longer be able to bring family members with them under the revised student visa rules, Tony Burke said on Thursday.

Burke also set out changes for students seeking to extend their stay. Those wishing to remain in Australia will need to choose a higher qualification rather than moving to another course to extend their visa.

Exemptions will apply for foreign students already in the country, as well as for applicants from Pacific and South East Asian countries. Burke said PhD students would also be able to bring their families because their circumstances were different from those of undergraduate students.

The minister said the government would stop “adding to the stock” of students automatically being able to bring family members over, as it seeks to manage the migration program more closely.

Student “Visa Hopping” To Be Curbed

For international student and graduate visas, the government will clamp down on what Burke described as “visa hopping”. Under the approach, students who finish a course and then apply to study another course—often at a lower level—will face tighter scrutiny, including where providers are deemed not “so legitimate”.

Burke said students would still be able to move “up the scale” within the system. He gave an example of progressing from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree.

The changes were set out in a speech titled “The work of managing the migration program: who arrives, who stays, who leaves”, as the government targets net overseas migration of 225,000 people by 2028.

Working Holiday Visas Face Ballot Caps

Working holiday visas for people aged 18 to 30—commonly used by backpackers—will also be changed. Holders can work in Australia for 12 months and may extend for a second and third year.

At present, applicants for a second year must work for three months in regional Australia, while those seeking a third year must work for six months in regional Australia.

Under the new rules, people who qualify for a second year will enter a ballot with a cap of 45,000 places, down from 57,000 who qualified last year. For a third year, the ballot will be limited to 5,000 places, down from 31,000 last year.

British working holidaymakers will not be affected by the ballot caps because of the UK’s free trade agreement with Australia.

Migration Pressure And Political Debate

The government’s changes come as Australia’s population rises amid heightened political debate over immigration and pressure on living costs, housing affordability and public services.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed population growth of 1.4% over the 12 months to March 2026, reaching 27.9 million. The figure included births and deaths, alongside net overseas migration of 292,100.

Burke said immigration was a “strength” for Australia, but insisted there must be a “high level of control”.

One Nation, a right-wing party with an anti-immigration platform that has gained support in recent months, outlined its own migration proposals earlier this week. It called for temporary migrant visas to be cut by 750,000 over three years and for net overseas migration to be capped at 130,000, which Burke criticised as risking “smashing parts of the Australian economy”.

In July, the government introduced additional measures including prioritising family visa applications lodged onshore over those submitted overseas, and giving priority to skilled migrants already in Australia applying for permanent visas. It also paused working holiday visa applications from 24 countries, excluding the UK.

Violet Roumeliotis of Settlement Services International, which supports new arrivals, said the migration debate was being shaped by short-term politics. She said the proposed family visa changes for international students would make it harder for Australia to compete for “future talent”.

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17 September 2026