Australia has unveiled a wide-ranging migration overhaul that will tighten rules for international students, visitor visa holders and working holiday makers, while giving faster priority to skilled migrants needed in sectors such as healthcare, construction, education and agriculture.
Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke announced the package at the National Press Club in Canberra on 17 September 2026, describing the changes around three questions: who arrives, who stays and who leaves. The government says the measures are intended to bring greater control to temporary migration and help keep net overseas migration on its forecast path towards 245,000 in 2026–27 and 225,000 in 2027–28.
The changes are particularly significant for international students hoping to bring dependants, people trying to move from one temporary visa to another while remaining in Australia, visitor visa holders seeking a longer stay, and backpackers planning second or third working holiday visas.
Student Families
One of the biggest changes affects international students and graduate visa holders.
Burke said Australia would no longer allow new international students or graduate visa holders to automatically attach family members to their visas. SBS reported Burke saying the government would stop the attaching of family members for international student and graduate visas.
However, the government does not intend to break up families already living together in Australia. Burke said people already in Australia with their families would be allowed to remain under their existing arrangements until they leave Australia or move onto another visa for which they qualify.
This means the announced restriction is principally aimed at future additions to the student and graduate visa population, rather than separating existing families.
The scale of the change could be substantial. In the last financial year, Australia granted more than 337,000 student visas, including roughly 45,000 secondary applicants, meaning dependants or family members attached to the primary student applicant.
Some reporting on the announcement indicated exceptions may apply for particular groups, including certain students from Pacific and ASEAN countries and PhD students. Because the full legal instrument and detailed eligibility rules were not yet available in the official material reviewed at the time of writing, applicants in those categories should wait for the final Home Affairs rules before relying on an exemption.
Visa Hopping
The government is also targeting what it calls “visa hopping”.
This generally refers to temporary visa holders repeatedly moving from one visa or course to another primarily to remain in Australia rather than because of a genuine education, employment or other migration purpose.
Burke made an important distinction during his speech. He said the government was not trying to block genuine pathways in which a student finishes a qualification, moves onto a graduate visa, finds skilled employment, receives employer sponsorship and later qualifies for permanent residence. He described that type of pathway as the migration system working as intended.
Instead, the government says it wants to stop cases where people repeatedly enrol in courses or use appeal processes to extend their stay even though they would not otherwise qualify for permanent migration.
Under the announced approach, students will be able to move up the qualification scale, but movement down into lower-level courses will be restricted where authorities believe the change is being used mainly to prolong a person’s stay.
This is particularly relevant to students considering moving from university-level study into lower-level vocational programs after completing their original course.
Australia had already tightened this area before the latest announcement. Since 2024, visitor visa holders and Temporary Graduate visa holders have faced restrictions on applying for student visas while in Australia. The latest package extends the government’s broader effort to prevent temporary visas being used simply as a chain of onshore extensions.
Visitor Visas
Visitor visas are also set for a major change.
The government announced that a “No Further Stay” condition will be applied to all visitor visas, with the intention of ensuring visitor visas are used for genuine short-term visits rather than as an entry route followed by another onshore visa application.
A No Further Stay condition can prevent a visa holder from applying for many other substantive visas while remaining in Australia, subject to the Migration Regulations and any circumstances in which the condition can legally be waived.
The practical significance is potentially considerable. A person travelling to Australia on a visitor visa should no longer assume they will be able to enter as a visitor and then freely switch to another visa category from inside Australia once the new rules apply.
The detailed legal wording and commencement arrangements will be particularly important here. Until the government publishes the final instrument, visa holders should check the conditions attached to their actual visa grant rather than relying only on the announcement.
Working Holidays
The Working Holiday Maker program is also being redesigned.
The government announced a ballot system for second and third-year working holiday visas where regional work requirements apply. It also said processing times for Working Holiday Maker applications would be stabilised at around three months.
The purpose of the regional requirement is to support labour needs outside major cities while giving the government more control over the number of people extending their stay for additional working holiday years.
The United Kingdom is a special case because of the Australia–UK Free Trade Agreement.
Burke said British working holiday makers are not subject to the same regional-work requirement. He noted that the number of UK backpackers in Australia had risen sharply — from a previous pre-pandemic high of around 35,000 to just under 80,000 — and said processing for that cohort would continue more slowly while Australia discusses the issue with the UK government.
The exact ballot arrangements, quotas and country-specific rules will therefore be important when the operational details are released.
Skilled Migration
While several parts of the package tighten temporary migration, the government is simultaneously trying to direct skilled visas towards occupations it says Australia needs most.
Ministerial Direction 119 will be updated to prioritise visa processing for applicants in sectors including:
| Priority sectors |
| Healthcare |
| Construction |
| Education |
| Law enforcement |
| Defence |
| Resources |
| Agriculture |
| Aquaculture |
| Fishing |
These sectors were specifically identified by the government as priorities under the new approach.
Housing construction is receiving particular attention.
Burke announced changes to the skilled migration points test so that certain housing trade qualifications can receive the same points recognition as a university qualification. The government argues that this will help Australia attract workers needed to build more homes.
Construction, agriculture, fisheries, resources and teaching are also being added or strengthened within priority processing arrangements.
This means the package is not simply a broad reduction in migration. It combines tighter conditions in some temporary visa streams with more favourable treatment for migrants whose skills match identified labour shortages.
Visa Overstayers
Enforcement is another major part of the plan.
The government says it will strengthen compliance measures against people who remain in Australia without a valid visa. SBS listed unlawful non-citizens as one of the six groups directly targeted by the reform package.
Earlier in 2026, Burke discussed a figure of around 77,000 people living in Australia after overstaying or otherwise lacking a valid visa. He stressed at the time that the group is not uniform: some cases involve administrative complications, while others involve people the government believes have deliberately tried to remain in Australia without lawful status.
The latest package includes stronger compliance activity designed to identify and remove people who have no lawful basis to remain.
The government is also targeting migration agents who knowingly assist applicants with visa applications that have no genuine merit.
Character Rules
The overhaul also includes a change to Ministerial Direction 110, which guides visa cancellation and refusal decisions involving character issues.
The government says the direction will be updated to provide stronger protection for children who are victims of crime and people affected by domestic and family violence.
This sits alongside the broader immigration package but deals with character and visa decision-making rather than migration numbers themselves.
Migration Falls
The announcement came on the same day new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed that net overseas migration had fallen to around 292,000 in the year to March 2026, down from approximately 299,000 in the year to December. SBS reported the annual figure was 17,400, or 5.6%, lower than a year earlier.
Australia’s net overseas migration rose sharply after the country reopened following the pandemic before declining over subsequent quarters.
The 2026–27 Federal Budget forecasts net overseas migration of 295,000 in 2025–26, 245,000 in 2026–27 and 225,000 in 2027–28, with 225,000 also assumed in the following two years.
That is an important distinction: 225,000 is a net overseas migration forecast or target path, not the size of Australia’s permanent migration program.
Australia’s permanent migration program is a separate system. The government previously set the 2025–26 permanent program at 185,000 places.
Net overseas migration measures the balance between people entering and leaving Australia for long-term stays and includes many temporary migrants, as well as other movements. SBS reported that temporary visa holders accounted for around 70% of NOM in 2024–25.
What Changes Now
For migrants, students and prospective applicants, the most important point is that the government has now formally announced the direction of the reforms, but not every operational detail was available immediately.
The policy package covers student dependants, graduate visas, visitor visas, working holiday makers, skilled migration priorities, unlawful non-citizens and migration agents. Some changes can be made through regulations, visa conditions or ministerial directions without passing a new Act of Parliament. Reporting ahead of the announcement said the government turned to these regulatory options after failing to secure support for broader legislative measures.
Applicants should therefore pay close attention to the Department of Home Affairs as the government publishes commencement dates, legal instruments, country-specific exemptions and transitional rules.
For existing student families, Burke has already given a clear assurance that the government does not intend to separate families currently together in Australia. For future student applicants, however, the ability to bring a partner or children is set to become considerably more restricted.
Likewise, visitor visa holders should expect much tighter limits on switching status after arrival, while people seeking second or third working holiday visas may face ballots and regional-work requirements depending on their nationality and bilateral arrangements.
The overall direction is clear: Australia is tightening pathways that allow temporary migrants to extend their stay repeatedly, while giving greater priority to workers in sectors the government identifies as economically important.