Student Visa Subclass 500

If you are a school student (but not participating in a secondary school student exchange program), you must be aged 6 or older to apply for this visa.

You must also be:

• less than 17 years old when you begin Year 9
• less than 18 years old when you begin Year 10
• less than 19 years old when you begin Year 11 
• less than 20 years old when you begin Year 12 

You must include evidence of enrolment in study with your student visa application, or your application will not be valid and can’t be processed.

Providing a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE)

You must be enrolled in a full time course registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

Applying outside Australia: provide a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) for each course of study with your visa application.

Applying inside Australia: provide a CoE or Letter of Offer for all intended courses. You must provide your CoE before we can grant your visa.

Packaged courses and CoEs

If you are applying for more than 1 course in your student visa application you must include all CoE codes in the application form or your visa period may only consider the duration of the course according to the the CoE provided.

You can apply to take 2 or more courses on your Student visa where one course clearly leads to the next.  Course gaps must be less than two calendar months, unless the first course finishes at the end of the standard academic year and the next course commences at the beginning of the standard academic year.

If you are applying for more than 1 course in your student visa application you must include all CoE codes in the application form or your visa may only cover the CoE provided.

Other evidence of enrolment 

You do not need to provide a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) if you are: 

• enrolled in a full-time course of study or training under a scholarship scheme approved by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: provide a letter of support
• sponsored by the Australian Department of Defence: provide a letter of support
• a secondary exchange student: provide an Acceptance Advice of Secondary Exchange Student (AASES) form
• a postgraduate research student who needs to stay in Australia while your thesis is marked: provide a letter from your education provider

If you are applying for a student visa and you are under 18 years of age, you must have adequate welfare arrangements in place while you are in Australia.

If you will be 18 years of age when you arrive in Australia, you must tell us as you might not need to provide some of this information. Learn more about this and welfare arrangements for student visa holders.

You might need to provide evidence of your English language skills at the time you submit your visa application. To find out the evidence you need to provide use the Document Checklist tool.

Note: We can ask you for evidence of your English language skill after you have submitted your application, at any time while we are processing your application, even though the Document Checklist tool shows that you don’t need to provide evidence of your English language skill when you submit your application. 

If you need to provide evidence of your English language skill, you must provide evidence that you:

• have obtained a certain test score in an English language test that the Department has approved, or
• fall into an exemption category listed below
   

You and your family members must have and maintain adequate health insurance for the whole of your stay in Australia. To find out the length of coverage you will require, see student visa grant periods.

You and your family members must be covered by Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) from an approved Australian health insurance provider, unless an ‘Exception’ applies.

Applicants outside Australia

Your cover must start from the day you and your family arrive in Australia, not the day your course starts.

If you have been granted a visa and want to travel to Australia before your course begins, the OSHC start date must be the same as the date you arrive, not the date your course starts. Generally this is a minimum of 1 week to 1 month before your course starts. 

You must: 

• ensure you don’t enter Australia before your OSHC begins, and
• maintain your OSHC until you leave Australia.

You may be refused entry to Australia if you cannot prove you have health insurance in place when you arrive.

Applicants in Australia

Applicants must have OSHC. If your previous visa required you to have health insurance, cover must be continuous with  no gap between your previous health cover and your OSHC.

Exceptions

You do not need to have OSHC if you are:

• a Norwegian student covered by the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme
• a Swedish student covered by Kammarkollegiet
• a Belgian student covered under the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia

How to get Overseas Student Health Cover

To get OSHC:

• find an approved provider
• pay for your policy

Your education provider or agent might arrange OSHC for you. 

If your education provider arranges your OSHC coverage, you will need to know the name of your health insurance provider, the date that your policy starts and finishes and should be aware of the terms and conditions of your policy. Your education provider will also need to include your health insurance information on your Certificate of Enrolment (CoE).

If you arrange OSHC coverage yourself, you will need to know the policy number to include in the visa application.

We will refuse your visa application if you don’t give us this information when you apply for your student visa. 

Insurance for family members

If you have a single OSHC policy and you have family members, including children born in Australia after your arrival, consider getting a family policy. Every member of your family must have health insurance. 

Any family member who joins you after you arrive in Australia must show us they have OSHC for the duration of their stay in Australia.