Labor targets ‘visa hopping’ international students in crackdown on ‘permanently temporary’ migration

“Visa hopping” international students, migration agents and lawyers trying to “game” the migration system will be targeted by the government, as Labor unveils a further crackdown.

The changes announced on Friday mean international students will soon need to apply for a separate visa to transfer courses, on top of previously announced rules that prevent transferring to a lower grade course, such as switching from a bachelor or masters’ degree to a vocational program.

In a speech to the Migration Institute of Australia, the assistant minister for international education, Julian Hill, said the changes will stop the increase of “permanently temporary” migration.

“When Australians go to another country they do not believe they have some God-given right to hop around from visa to visa for years or decades and game other nations’ appeals and courts systems – and neither should guests in our country,” Hill said.

In a social media post, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said: “As of today there are new rules to put an end to student visa hopping. It’s all about ensuring we have a migration system that Australians can be confident in.”

The changes are part of a broader reform package to lower net overseas migration, but the government has been forced to amend rules without separate legislation, because it does not have the support of the Coalition or the Greens.

Labor wants to bring net overseas migration down from its current annual level of almost 300,000 to 225,000 by 2028.

Separately, there are now more than 400,000 people on bridging visas, a temporary visa that can be issued if a visa expires and the person waiting for a decision on their next application, or for asylum seekers or non-citizens. A large cohort of these can be international students applying for a different visa – the government is trying to bring this number down.

Hill said from 1 July 2027, a student’s visa will not be extended even if they are transferring into a different course, to prevent “rorting and ensures students can’t just not turn up for the first 6 months, fail their subjects then go to a cheaper provider”.

In the interim, a student won’t be able to transfer within 12 months of beginning a course.

Migration agents and lawyers selling “false hope” by helping individuals to pursue baseless visa claims to help them stay in Australia longer will also be targeted under new rules.

The government is proposing changes to ban migration agents assisting with an application “they know, or reasonably ought to know, does not have a reasonable factual or legal basis”.

Hill said the department of home affairs will consult on how to ensure migration lawyers are also held to account for similar poor practices.

“Increasingly sophisticated forms of migration-related misconduct and a small number of bad actors cause disproportionate harm, often targeting people at vulnerable points in their lives when they are highly susceptible to misleading claims, false promises and unrealistic assurances,” Hill said.

“Taking cash in those circumstances is not helping people – it’s exploiting them and selling false hope.”

Hill said one lawyer specifically submitted an application with the intention of it being refused, it could then go to the administrative appeals tribunal and be refused again and then ultimately be submitted for a ministerial intervention.

“We have also seen some pretty outrageous online advertising by lawyers. Ads that appear to coach people on how to claim they’re bisexual when they’re not, or how to convince the Department they’re being persecuted when they’re not, in order to support a protection claim,” he said.

“The current system for lawyers authorises and arguably requires them to act for clients in ways that damage the administration of and public confidence in Australia’s migration system.”