Subclass 485: Temporary Graduate visa

Written by Jagroop Gill, Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2318039.

Reviewed against current law, 16 July 2026 · MARN 2318039

The information on this site is general information only. It is not immigration assistance or advice for your circumstances. Eligibility for any visa is assessed by a Registered Migration Agent in consultation, and decisions rest with the Department of Home Affairs.

What the subclass 485 visa is

The Temporary Graduate visa is a temporary visa for people who have recently finished a qualification in Australia on a student visa. It lets a former student stay on and work, generally without a job offer or sponsoring employer attached to the grant, for a period tied to the stream and qualification involved. It sits in the temporary visa category, not a pathway to permanent residence in its own right.

What it is not: a study visa extension, an automatic route to permanent residence, or a visa that renews indefinitely. For most applicants it is closer to a single window the Department opens once, after study finishes, so a qualification already earned can be put to use in the Australian labour market before any further migration step is considered. The Regulations do allow a second grant in a narrow set of cases tied to living, working and studying in a designated regional area, and an agent checks eligibility for that separately. Clients often arrive assuming a 485 grant is the first stage of a set pathway. It is not built that way. Whether time on a 485 later supports a skilled visa depends on separate criteria, assessed under a different visa program, at a later date, on its own terms.

There are two active streams for new applications, restructured from 1 July 2024: the Post-Higher Education Work stream, for bachelor, master and doctoral graduates (the Regulations also recognise certain closely linked graduate diplomas), and the Post-Vocational Education Work stream, for people whose completed associate degree, diploma or trade qualification is tied to an occupation on the relevant skilled occupation list. Which stream applies is set by the qualification completed, not by preference or how a course was marketed.

The factors an agent assesses

The Australian study requirement

An agent checks that the qualification was completed at a CRICOS-registered institution, taught in English, and undertaken while the person held a valid student visa. The study period has to span two academic years across a minimum stretch of calendar time in Australia. Credit transfer, recognition of prior learning, and gaps between enrolments all affect whether the requirement is genuinely met. This is one of the most common points a case is built or lost on.

Age

Both streams carry an age ceiling, and the general threshold was reduced from 1 July 2024. Narrow exceptions apply to particular passport holders and to research masters and doctoral graduates, set out in the Regulations rather than left to discretion. An agent checks date of birth against the criteria current at the date of application, not the date the course finished.

English language ability

A set English language standard applies, met through an approved test result or an accepted exemption, for example study conducted in English in particular countries. The Department sets which tests, scores and exemptions count, and an agent checks these against the settings current at lodgement.

Timing of the application

A fixed window applies after a course finishes within which the application has to be lodged, and it does not extend for personal circumstances. An agent also checks the position of any current visa. Lodging before an existing substantive visa expires generally preserves lawful status through a bridging visa. Lodging after it has expired creates a separate, harder problem that a later 485 grant does not undo.

Occupation and skills assessment (Post-Vocational Education Work stream only)

This stream additionally requires the qualification to be closely related to a nominated occupation on the relevant skilled occupation list, evidence at lodgement that a skills assessment has been applied for, and a suitable skills assessment from the relevant assessing authority. Neither requirement applies to the Post-Higher Education Work stream.

Where it sits in a pathway

Before a 485, the client has almost always held a student visa, and the study completed on that visa is the foundation of the case. An agent sometimes sees a client move from a 485 into employer-sponsored work through the Skills in Demand visa program, or use the work period to build the experience, occupation match and English result a points-tested visa under the General Skilled Migration program later requires. None of this is built into the 485 grant itself. The visa buys work rights and time. What happens inside that time is what any later application turns on.

Some clients hold a 485 and use it only for casual work. Others use the period deliberately, lining up a skills assessment, confirming an occupation match, and sitting an English test before the visa’s work rights run out. An agent’s role here is often less about the 485 application itself and more about what needs to happen during its life.

What typically goes wrong

The study requirement doesn’t add up. Deferred semesters, transferred credit, or a course finished just short of the required stretch of Australian study time all surface here. Clients rarely notice this and assume finishing the course is enough on its own.

The application window is missed. A course completion date is fixed by the institution’s own records, not by a graduation ceremony or the date a transcript is collected. Clients who wait on a graduation date, a job offer, or an unrelated family decision before lodging sometimes find the window has already closed.

The wrong stream is chosen. Diploma holders sometimes apply as though they hold a degree, or the reverse, based on how a course was marketed rather than its accreditation level. The Department applies the criteria matching the qualification actually held.

Bridging visa status is left exposed. Lodging after a current student visa has expired, even briefly, creates a period of unlawful status that a later 485 grant does not retrospectively repair.

The 485 period is treated as an end point rather than a working period. Clients who do not track occupation lists, skills assessment validity, or English test expiry during the life of the 485 sometimes reach its end with no next step ready, and the expiry date does not wait for that.