Australian National University

Work during study

Student visa (subclass 500) holders may work up to 48 hours per fortnight while their course is in session — a limit that applies during study terms and semesters (including exam periods), before the course starts (unless a different visa already permits work), and when taking a term-break course that counts toward the main course (unless CRICOS requires it). Working more than 48 hours a fortnight during these periods breaches the visa condition and can lead to visa cancellation. At other times — including scheduled course breaks — there is no work-hour limit on a student visa. A student who has started a Master's by Research or Doctoral degree has no work-hour limit at any time once the course has started.

Post-study work visa

Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) — Post-Higher Education Work stream . Up to 3 years
For international students who have recently graduated with a degree-level qualification or higher (bachelor's, master's or doctoral) in a CRICOS-registered course from an Australian institution. Applicants must generally be aged 35 or under and have held a Student visa in the last 6 months. Grants the right to live, work (unrestricted hours, any sector) and study in Australia temporarily, usually for between 2 and 3 years depending on the qualification (Hong Kong and British National (Overseas) passport holders may be granted up to 5 years). A separate, shorter Post-Vocational Education Work stream (up to 18 months) exists for associate degree, diploma or trade-qualification graduates whose qualification is tied to a nominated occupation on the skilled occupation list.

Route to permanent residence

Australia does not grant permanent residence automatically at the end of a Temporary Graduate visa. A graduate must separately qualify for one of the permanent or provisional skilled-visa programs gated by the country's combined list of eligible skilled occupations — for example the points-tested Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), the state/territory-nominated Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190), employer-sponsored routes such as the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186), or the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) Core Skills Stream, which an eligible Temporary Graduate visa holder who finds skilled work may be able to apply for while still in Australia. Each program requires the applicant's nominated occupation to appear on the relevant occupation list for that specific visa.

Route to citizenship

Australian citizenship by conferral is granted by the Department of Home Affairs, the same department that runs the visa system. The general residence requirement is having lived in Australia on a valid visa for the 4 years immediately before applying, holding a permanent visa (or a New Zealand citizen's Special Category subclass 444 visa) for the last 12 months of that period, and not having been absent from Australia for more than 12 months in total across the 4 years, including no more than 90 days in the 12 months immediately before applying. Applicants must also meet separate character, 'knowledge of Australia,' English-language and 'close and continuing link to Australia' requirements (most commonly demonstrated through the citizenship test). Australia has permitted dual citizenship since April 2002: on the Department's own dual-citizen travel page it states plainly that Australia allows a person to have dual citizenship, while noting some other countries do not, so becoming an Australian citizen does not require renouncing another nationality.

What the government currently prioritises

Australia's skilled-visa programs gate eligibility by occupation, using a combined list of eligible skilled occupations coded to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). Depending on the specific visa, the relevant list is the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL, used for the Skills in Demand visa's Core Skills Stream), the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) or Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) used by the points-tested and state/territory-nominated skilled visas, or a Regional Occupation List (ROL) for regional visas. Which list an occupation sits on — or whether it is on any list at all — can change; the current lists are published in each visa's legislative instrument rather than in one fixed table on this page. Reading the Department's own published CSOL directly (a 456-occupation ANZSCO table) confirms engineering and ICT occupations are heavily represented, as StudyPath’s brief expected: named engineering occupations include Chemical, Materials, Civil, Geotechnical, Structural, Transport, Electrical, Electronics, Industrial, Mechanical, Production/Plant, Mining, Petroleum, Aeronautical, Agricultural, Biomedical and Environmental Engineer, plus Engineering Technologist; named ICT occupations include ICT Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Web Developer, Analyst Programmer, Developer Programmer, Software Engineer, Software Tester, Cyber Security Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Penetration Tester, Database Administrator, Systems Administrator, several named cyber-security specialisms, and Computer Network and Systems Engineer. Being on the CSOL is necessary but not sufficient on its own — which visa (if any) it actually unlocks depends on the specific programme (see residencyRoute) — and it is a list of eligible occupations, not a job or salary guarantee.