Student visa applicants are no longer able to include family members (partner and/or dependent children) in their Student visa application unless an exemption applies (see below). This also applies to people lodging an application for a further Student visa.
Current Student visa holders are no longer able to add family members after their Student visa has been granted. There are no exemptions to this rule.
Exemptions
You may be able to include family members in your application if you meet limited exemption criteria. This includes:
- PhD students
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) or Defence-sponsored students
- foreign government scholarship recipients
- eligible students from Pacific countries and ASEAN member countries.
If you already have family members included on your current Student visa, and are applying in Australia, you may be able to include them in your next Student visa application.
You may also be able to include family members who were already included in your current Student visa if you apply in Australia or outside Australia and you:
- need up to 12 more months to complete the main course covered by your current Student visa, or
- need to lodge a further Student visa application because your education provider defaulted.
The primary applicant and all family members included in the application must be in the same location when the application is lodged.
You cannot add family members (subsequent entrants) to a Student visa after it has been granted. There are no exemptions to this rule.
Further information on the exemption criteria is available at Subclass 500 Student visa.
