Starting on March 23, international students to Australia will have to follow tougher rules for obtaining a study visa, the government has decided.
The measure follows record-breaking migration rates that were revealed recently, which is believed to be considerably driven by the large number of international students who have come to this country, VisaGuide.World reports.
As of this week, international students will have the English language requirements increased, while the government will be able to suspend universities and other higher education institutions that accept international students who fail to abide by the rules frequently, as Reuters reports.
Australia to Present “No Further Stay Conditions” to More Short-Stay Visas
The “No Further Stay (NFS)” condition is an attachment that prevents foreigners in Australia from applying for another type of visa while they are in the country. This condition is expected to become more common for temporary visas, including student visas (subclass 500).
Such a condition can be attached to several types of visas based on the visa category, the candidate’s circumstances, and their immigration history.
In addition to the student visa, visas are more likely to have an NFS condition, including tourist visas (subclass 600), working holiday visas (subclass 417), and visitor visas (subclass 600) (Family sponsored stream).
Australian Government Trying to “Correct” Former Administration Decisions of Extending Work Hours Cap
The current Australian government, led by Anthony Albanese, is dedicated to urgently responding to the country’s migration situation.
The actions this weekend will continue to drive migration levels down while delivering on our commitments in the migration strategy to fix the broken system we inherited.
As the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the Australian economy and education system, the former administration had lifted the working hours cap for international students, allowing them to work unrestricted hours. To balance out the economic and social implications of this decision, the government promised to tighten the migrant intake over two years.
In order to help revive the economy coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, then-administration admitted more migrants to the country in 2022 in an effort to help businesses fill in labour shortages. During the pandemic, international students and foreign workers were not able to come to the country for nearly two years due to stringent travel restrictions.
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, almost 549,000 people came to the country between January and September of 2023 – even higher than the migrant intake recorded between June 2022 and 2023. This led to the Australian population increasing faster than ever before to 26.8 million people, scoring a 2.5 percent surge.