From Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) to Genuine Student (GS) – what will this mean?

Why was the change needed?

The Australian Migration Strategy, released in December 2023 highlighted the need for new measures to improve integrity in the student visa program.

What has changed?

The introduction of a new Genuine Student requirement to replace the old Genuine Temporary Entrant requirement acknowledges that students who come to Australia to study may want to settle in Australia permanently.

The focus has therefore shifted from ‘demonstrating the intention to staying in Australia temporarily’ to ‘demonstrating that the purpose of travel to Australia is only to study’. After the study, pursuing PR would be acceptable. Despite some of the negative commentary about this, we think this is a good change!

When did the GS requirement start?

The new GS requirement applies to all student visa applications lodged on or after 23 March 2024.

How will the GS requirement apply to your family members?

The GS requirement will apply differently to student guardians (parents of under-age students) and student family members (spouse and children). Student guardians will still be required to meet the GTE requirement however, student family members will need to meet the ‘genuine student dependent’ requirement.

Key changes?

At a high level, the main considerations will remain the same for GS as they applied to GTE i.e.

• The applicant’s circumstances.
• The applicant’s immigration history.
• If the applicant is a minor, the intentions of their parent.
• Any other relevant matter.

The most significant change under the GS requirement will be the additional scrutiny that will be applied to student visa applicants who are currently in Australia and are already holding visas including a Tourist (600) visa, a Student (500) visa or a Temporary Graduate (485) visa.L. The government’s intention to stop visa hopping in the student program was highlighted in the Migration Strategy and this is a key measure to implement that approach.

A summary of other changes that previously applied to the GTE requirement is as below:

• Significant incentive to return – instead of focus on whether the applicant has significant incentive to return on completion of their study, the focus now will be whether the applicant has a significant incentive other than to study in Australia J
• Ties to Australia – previously this was seen as a negative and an incentive to remain in Australia after the study, however, this reference has been removed J
• Link of study to future employment – the link of employment prospects in home country has been replaced with a reference to employment prospects in home country or any other country. This suggests it will be acceptable if the applicant claims they are doing the study to improve their employment prospects in Australia J.
• Past immigration history – reference to the amount of time spent in Australia has been removed J. The A reference to applicant taking several short and inexpensive courses in Australia has also been removed J.
• Any relevant matters – this area was previously very broad and mainly left to the case officer’s discretion what they considered relevant. Now there are specific areas of focus such as previous study history, study patterns (starting but not completing courses), deferring courses, changing providers etc. L
• Recognition of the change in intention – the GS requirement recognises the potential for the applicant’s intention to stay in Australia temporarily, to change to an intention to use valid means to remain in Australia permanently J.

So what does the change mean for student visa applicants?

If you are not yet in Australia, your prospects of success will depend on whether you can demonstrate a clear link between your prior study and the proposed study in Australia, or the link between your career progression and the proposed study.

For example, on the positive side might be situations such as:

• students who have just completed Year 12 and wish to study a professional or trade level course in Australia that aligns with the subjects studied in senior school;
• students who have completed a Bachelor Degree in their home country and wish to undertake a Masters in Australia in the same or closely related field;
• students who have been in the fork force for some time in their home country and looking to improve their career prospects by undertaking study in Australia that is at or above their previous study and also complements the previous study.

On the negative side, students looking to change career path, returning to study after a large gap from the previous study, or looking to undertake study in Australia at a level lower than the study in the home country, can expect greater scrutiny.

On the other hand, if you are already in Australia, you should be prepared for:

• almost nil prospects of a new student visa if you have already held a 485 visa
• challenges in getting a further student visa approval if you have already finished multiple low-cost studies on student visas
• greater scrutiny on switching between partners (your spouse becoming main student and you becoming their student dependent).

What does the future hold?

It has been less than a month since the new changes began so it is early to tell how the GS requirement is being applied by case officers. The application numbers, however, were already showing a decline even before these changes were introduced. In February 2024, 21,652 student visa applications were lodged compared to 36,878 in February 2023 (40%).

With a key focus of the Government on reducing the Net Overseas Migration (NOM), we can expect this tightening to continue and possibly higher refusal rates.

So is Australia still a study destination?

Most certainly yes. While it is expected that most of these changes will assist in filtering out those whose intention to study were never genuine (e.g. used the student visa to work), genuine students should not have any problems if they plan well and prepare good applications.

Feedback / Questions?

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If you have any questions of interested to check your eligibility for these visas, specially if some of our predicted changes do occur, you can complete our Free Eligibility Assessment form.