What it is
Section 48 of the Migration Act 1958 stops a person who is in Australia, does not hold a substantive visa, and has had a visa refused or cancelled since their last arrival, from applying for most other visas while still in the country. It is commonly called the section 48 bar.
A substantive visa is any visa other than a bridging, criminal justice or enforcement visa. That distinction matters because a person can hold a visa and still be caught by the bar, if the only thing they hold is a bridging visa.
The bar itself sits in the Migration Act. The detail of which visas stay open despite it is carried separately, in the Migration Regulations 1994, and that list has been amended more than once since the provision was introduced.
How it works in practice
The bar switches on when three things line up: the person is physically in Australia, they hold no substantive visa, and somewhere since their last entry a visa application was refused or a visa was cancelled. It does not matter how long ago that refusal or cancellation happened. If none of the later facts have changed, the bar keeps applying.
It switches off the moment the person is granted a new substantive visa, and it does not operate at all once the person has left the country. Leaving and lodging from outside Australia is the option agents come back to again and again, because it removes section 48 from the equation entirely. It brings its own logistics and, for some visas, separate offshore-only settings to work through.
While the bar is on, the Regulations preserve a defined list of visas that can still be lodged onshore. That list has consistently included Partner, Protection, Bridging, Medical Treatment, Child and Resolution of Status visas, and it has been expanded before to bring in additional subclasses. Because the exact visas on the list are amended from time to time, the current list published on the Home Affairs website and in the Regulations is the only thing worth relying on for a live matter, not what applied in an earlier case.
There is a harsher variant. Where the refusal or cancellation was on character grounds, the Protection visa is the only visa that can be applied for onshore. Working out whether character was the ground, or something else, is the first fork in the road whenever section 48 is in play.
How an agent approaches it
The first question is factual, not legal: has this person actually had a visa refused or cancelled since their last arrival, and what do they currently hold. Confusion often comes from treating a bridging visa as proof that things are fine, when a bridging visa is not substantive and does not clear the bar on its own.
From there the questions run in sequence. What was the ground for the refusal or cancellation, and was character involved. What visa, if any, is now being considered, and does it sit on the current prescribed list. If it does not, is departure and an offshore application realistic given the person’s circumstances, visa history and any exclusion period that might separately apply. If a Partner or Protection application is the route under discussion, does the case stand on its own facts, or is it being reached for mainly because the bar allows it. Those are two different starting points for preparing a matter.
Timing sits underneath all of this: how long the person has been on a bridging visa or without status since the refusal, what that does to any future application, and whether a ministerial intervention request is worth lodging in parallel while other options are worked through.
What typically goes wrong
The most common failure is treating a bridging visa as evidence the bar does not apply. It is usually the opposite: holding only a bridging visa is often exactly why the bar is live.
The second is relying on a prescribed list remembered from an earlier matter, or from an older article, instead of checking the current Regulations and the Home Affairs website. The list has changed before and can change again, and the settings a practice used last year are not a safe substitute for checking today’s.
The third is lodging an application for a visa that is not on the current list without realising the consequence is an invalid application, not a refused one. That wastes the current visa application charge on the Home Affairs website and can cost time that matters if a bridging visa is close to ceasing.
The fourth is missing the character-ground variant and assuming the general prescribed list applies when, in fact, only a Protection visa is open.
The last is treating departure as a simple way around the bar without checking what follows a person out of the country: any exclusion period tied to the original cancellation, outstanding matters with the Commonwealth, and whether the visa now being sought from offshore carries its own separate criteria that are harder to meet from outside Australia.
Common questions
Does holding a bridging visa mean the section 48 bar does not apply?
No. A bridging visa is not a substantive visa, so holding one is usually a sign the bar is active rather than a way around it. Whether it applies in a given case depends on the person's full visa history, which a registered migration agent reviews as part of a case assessment.
Which visas can still be applied for onshore if the section 48 bar applies?
The Migration Regulations prescribe a specific list of visas that remain open onshore, including Partner, Protection, Bridging, Medical Treatment, Child and Resolution of Status visas, with other subclasses added to the list over time. The current list on the Home Affairs website is the only reliable reference, since it has been amended before.
What happens if someone applies for a visa that is not on the prescribed list while the bar is in place?
An application for a visa outside the prescribed list is not a valid application while the bar applies, which is a different outcome to an application being refused. That distinction carries its own consequences worth discussing with a registered migration agent before anything is lodged.
Is leaving Australia the only way around the section 48 bar?
Leaving Australia removes section 48 from consideration, because the bar only operates while a person is in the country. It is one option among several a registered migration agent would weigh against the visa being sought, timing, and any other restrictions tied to the original refusal or cancellation.