Course choice · genuine intent · the long game

Student visas, chosen
for the life after.

A student visa is almost never the goal. It is the first move on a longer board. The course you pick shapes the work rights, the post-study visa, and the residence options that follow. I work on both sides of the Tasman and I put New Zealand first here, because for a household moving together the New Zealand rules are currently the kinder ones. The comparison below says why, in four lines.

AU Migration Agents Registration Number 2418652 NZ New Zealand Licence Number 202400067

New Zealand or Australia

The short version, before you scroll.

Both countries will take you as a student. They treat the family that comes with you very differently, and for most households that is what decides it. Four questions, and every figure below links to the instruction or the fee schedule it came from.

Can your partner work?

Yes, and automatically, if you enrol in a degree at level 9 or 10, so a master's or a doctorate, in any subject. Your partner can apply for a work visa with open conditions for the same period (Operational Manual · WF4.1, Partner of a Student Work Visa). At level 7 or 8 it only follows if the qualification is named on the post-study work list or the Green List (Appendix 13), which is shorter than most course guides suggest.

Only if they can come at all. Since 2 October 2026 a partner or children can only be included if you are a doctoral student, hold a Pacific or ASEAN passport, are fully funded by a foreign government, or are a Defence or Foreign Affairs student. A master's does not qualify, and family can no longer be added after the visa is granted (Student Visa Reform Regulations 2026). Families already in Australia on a student visa keep some protection. The background is in the September 2026 overhaul.

What does school cost for the children?

No tuition at a state school, as long as the children attach to the working partner rather than to the student. Children of a work visa holder are domestic students, and that status runs to the end of the year in which the parent's work visa expires, a school year rather than a visa date (Operational Manual · U8.20, Education (Domestic Student) Notice 2026).

It depends on the state and on the parent's course. On the New South Wales 2026 schedule a coursework master's parent pays A$7,800 a year per child at primary and junior secondary and A$9,000 at senior secondary, while the children of a doctorate parent at a NSW main campus university are exempt, as long as no scholarship covers their school fees (Temporary Residents Program, which carries the 2026 fee fact sheet). Every state sets its own, and they are not close to each other.

What happens the day you graduate?

Three years, any work, any occupation, after a master's or a doctorate studied full time for at least 30 weeks (Operational Manual · WD3.5). A level 7 or 8 qualification carries the time you actually spent studying it instead, which is usually one year. Apply within three months of your student visa ending, or six for a doctorate (WD3.1).

The Temporary Graduate visa checks your age. You have to be 35 or under when you apply, or under 50 if you are using a research master's or a doctorate, you have to be in Australia, and you have to have held a student visa in the last six months (subclass 485). For a career changer in their forties that single line ends the conversation.

What is about to change?

Published, dated, and readable now. From 16 November 2026 a Short-term Graduate work visa arrives for level 5 to 7 qualifications, and the post-study work visa extends to a level 7 Graduate Diploma completed in New Zealand where the graduate also holds a bachelor's degree (Amendment Circular 2026-24). You can plan around a rule you are allowed to read.

Announced, not made. Until the instrument is published nobody can tell you which version of the rules an application lodged today will be assessed under. That uncertainty is not a detail. It is the thing that makes an Australian study plan hard to cost right now.

None of this makes New Zealand the right answer for everyone, and I will tell you when it is not yours. It makes it the better answer for the household I see most: one adult studying, one adult working, children at school, and residence as the point of the whole exercise. That is why New Zealand comes first on this page.

Before the visa

The course is the decision. The visa just follows.

Most refusals on student-visa cases trace back to the same root: the course did not credibly fit the applicant's history, their stated future, or both. Immigration officers in both countries are trained on the Genuine Student (Australia) and Genuine Intent (New Zealand) tests, and they are looking for incoherence, a software engineer enrolling in hospitality, a 35-year-old taking a foundation diploma, a course in a city far from any related industry.

The fix is not a better personal statement. The fix is choosing a course that the rest of your story already supports, and that the visa officer can see leading somewhere realistic afterwards.

New Zealand student pathways

Two visas carry most cases: the Student visa for the course itself, and the Post Study Work Visa once it is finished. The post-study rules shift often, and the level of qualification and the field of study both shape what comes next, so course choice up front matters more than ever.

Student visa

The main study-purpose visa for New Zealand.

This is the visa most people study on in New Zealand. It suits anyone enrolling in a recognised course who can show the study genuinely fits their plans. I help you work out whether your course, funds, and intent hang together before you lodge anything. The current conditions, work rights, and evidence requirements sit with the official source and keep shifting, so check the live documentation: Immigration New Zealand.

Post Study Work Visa

The bridge from study into work.

This visa is for graduates who want to stay and work in New Zealand after an eligible qualification. It suits people looking past the course toward work and, for some, a longer residence pathway. I help you plan the qualification and field with that next step in view. The eligible qualifications, durations, and which fields carry weight sit with the official source and keep shifting, so check the live documentation: Immigration New Zealand.

Australian student pathways

A few subclasses do most of the work: the 500 student visa, the 485 temporary graduate, and the 590 for a parent or guardian accompanying a minor. The decisions that matter are made before the form opens: provider, course level, location, and how the whole picture fits together.

Student visa · subclass 500

The main study-purpose visa for Australia.

This is the visa most people study on in Australia. It suits anyone enrolling in a registered course who can show the study genuinely fits their background and where they want to go. I help you work out whether your course, finances, and story hang together before you commit. The current conditions, work limits, and amounts sit with the official source and keep shifting, so check the live documentation: Home Affairs visa finder.

Temporary Graduate visa · subclass 485

The bridge from study into work.

This visa is for graduates who want to stay and work in Australia after an eligible qualification. It suits people thinking past the course toward a longer-term route, and it is often where a skills assessment and the points pathway begin. I help you plan it from the start so the timing lines up. The eligible qualifications, streams, and durations sit with the official source and keep shifting, so check the live documentation: Home Affairs visa finder.

Student Guardian visa · subclass 590

For a parent or relative supporting a young student.

This visa is for a parent or eligible relative who needs to stay in Australia to support a young student. It suits families where one adult accompanies a child while the rest of the household is arranged separately. I help you check who qualifies and how it fits alongside everyone else's visas. The eligibility and conditions sit with the official source and keep shifting, so check the live documentation: Home Affairs visa finder.

Partners, children and school

Studying as a household.

Most families pick the course first and work the rest out afterwards. In New Zealand that is the wrong order. What the student enrols in decides whether the partner can work at all, and whether the children go to school at domestic rates or international ones. Getting that sequence right is usually worth more than any saving on tuition.

The partner's work visa

A student visa for a level 9 or 10 degree, a master's or a doctorate in any subject, lets the partner apply for a work visa with open conditions for the same period. A level 7 or 8 qualification only does the same if it is specified on the post-study or Green List, which is a much shorter list than most people expect. The conditions, funds and processing times sit with the official source: Partner of a Student Work Visa.

Which of you enrols

A student visa holder cannot support their children's student visas unless they are on an approved exchange, a PhD at a New Zealand university, or a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade scholarship. In most families the children attach to the working partner instead, on a Dependent Child Student Visa. That single rule is what decides which adult studies and which one works.

School fees, and the date they change

Children of a work visa holder are domestic students at state primary and secondary schools, and that status runs until the end of the year in which the parent's work visa expires. It is a school year, not a visa date, and the gap between the two is worth checking against the course length before anyone enrols. I wrote the school system up in full in Schools in New Zealand.

Australia is moving the other way

The family provisions attached to Australian student visas are tightening, and a plan built on one partner working while the other studies is the one most exposed. I set out what was announced, and what is still unpublished, in the September 2026 migration overhaul. Who can be included, and on what conditions, sits with the official source: Home Affairs visa finder.

If you are moving as a family, send me the household rather than the course. Two adults and two children have four visas between them, and they are decided in a particular order.

The New Zealand study pathway, written out.

Study, then a post-study work visa, then residence. It is three visas with three sets of rules, and the joins between them are where plans come apart. Everything I have written on it, in the order you meet it.

Before you enrol

The decisions made before any money changes hands, because they set everything after.

The student visa

The visa itself, what it lets you do, and what changed this year.

Bringing your household

The partner who can work, the children who attach to them, and the school bill.

Schools in New Zealand: Zones, Priority Order, and the Rule People Break by Accident

After you graduate

The post-study years, and the job that has to count at the end of them.

Residence

Where the whole chain is pointing, and the routes that reach it.

I add to this as the rules move, and they have moved three times in three years. If you want the version that applies to your own case rather than to everyone, send me a few details.

How I work on a student case

Start with the after.

A student case worth taking starts at the end, not the beginning. Where do you want to be in five years? What kind of work, what kind of life, what residence pathway? Then we work backwards to the qualification and the city that gets you there, and only then to the visa form.

Honest read on the Genuine Student / Genuine Intent narrative before you enrol anywhere.
Provider and course shortlist that fits your background and the post-study route you want.
Financial-capacity evidence prepared properly, not just bank statements.
Health, character, and OSHC sorted in the right order.
Post-study planning from day one, the 485 / Post Study Work strategy.

Where I'll push back

Honest about course traps.

A handful of patterns turn up again and again, and they almost never end well. I will say so on the first call rather than take the case.

"I'll just do any course to get in", refusals on Genuine Student grounds, every time.
Courses chosen because an agent gets a commission, not because they fit you.
Foundation diplomas after a Master's, the level drop will be questioned.
Provider in a city with no related industry, works on paper, struggles in interview.

★★★★★ On choosing the right visa

Suzanne helped me through the whole process of getting a visa, from my options to what type of visa I should apply for, or which would be my best option. She helped me whenever I had questions and even helped with samples for certificate supplements and improved my explanation cover letter for these.

Dávid Bondár · January 2026 · Trustpilot

"Pick the course that builds the life you actually want, not the cheapest enrolment that gets you a visa. The two look the same on day one and very different in year three."

Send me your background, the course you are eyeing, and where you want to be afterwards. I will write back with what I would actually do.

, Suzanne Tasman Visa

Email Suzanne

Student visas, chosenfor the life after.