Do you understand your work rights as a student Visa holder in Australia post 1 July 2023?
Students must know their visa conditions, including work rights. Your work rights may be impacted by your course level and the visa you held when you applied for your student visa. You must continue to balance your study and work commitments.
Students must:
- maintain their course enrolment
- ensure satisfactory course attendance
- ensure satisfactory course progress.
Student visa holders who cancel their enrolment, stop attending classes or fail to meet satisfactory course progress may be in breach of their visa conditions.
Student visa holders will only be permitted to work 48 hours a week starting on July 1, 2023
From 1 July 2023, student visa holders can work no more than 48 hours a fortnight while studying. Student visa holders have no work restrictions when their course of study or training is not in session. This ensures that student visa holders are able to focus on obtaining a quality Australia education and qualification, while remaining able to gain valuable work experience, and contribute to Australia’s workforce needs.
Student visa work restrictions were relaxed throughout the pandemic, and completely removed in January 2022. This allowed student visa holders to work over their normal limit of 40 hours per fortnight to address workforce shortages. This ended on 30 June 2023.
Unrestricted hours for aged care workers
The Australian Government has also announced that student visa holders already working in the aged care sector on 9 May 2023 can continue to work unrestricted hours in the aged care sector until 31 December 2023. However, if this exemption applies to you, you must continue to balance your study and work commitments even though there is flexibility in the number of hours you can work.
Information for Employers
Employers must continue to follow Australian workplace law. Overseas workers, including international students, have the same rights under Australian workplace law as all other employees.
While these measures are in place, the Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force will:
- not cancel the visas of students who work more than 48 hours a fortnight in the aged sector, under s116(1)(b) of the Migration Act 1958
- not refer student visa holders working in the aged care sector for investigation of any potential offence under s235 of the Migration Act 1958. (This might relate to the hours worked by a student visa holder in breach of their visa conditions)
- not refer a student working in the aged care sector or relevant third-party labour hire companies, as an employer, for investigation of any potential offence under s245AC of the Migration Act 1958. (This might relate to allowing a student visa holder to work in breach of their visa conditions).
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