Australia Allows Study for Certain Visa Holders Without Student Visa

Australia's Department of Home Affairs has announced that holders of the Subclass 417 Working Holiday visa and the Subclass 462 Work and Holiday visa can pursue studies in Australia without needing a student visa. This arrangement is part of the Working Holiday Maker programme and is governed by visa condition 8548, which limits study to a maximum of four months during their stay.

This condition applies to visa holders who applied on or after July 1, 2006, and is intended to ensure that study is incidental to their primary purpose of being in Australia. Importantly, the four-month study allowance resets with each new visa grant, allowing holders to undertake a fresh study period with subsequent visas.

Additionally, correspondence and online courses from overseas institutions do not count against the four-month limit, and workplace-based training is entirely exempt from this limitation. The department advises that processing times for WHM visa applications are currently around three months.