Australia student visa requirements for Indian students (subclass 500, 2026)

Australia’s Student visa rules for Indian applicants tightened through 2026. India went back to the strictest evidence level in January, the visa charge rose to A$2,500 in July, and since 2 October most students can no longer bring a partner or children. Approvals have fallen too: Home Affairs granted 59.7% of Indian higher-education applicants between July and September 2026.

The visa rules below come from the Department of Home Affairs’ own pages, checked on 21 October 2026, with university, clinic and Indian government sources named where we use them. Rupee figures use A$1 ≈ ₹68.

What are the requirements for an Australian student visa from India?

Home Affairs’ Student visa (subclass 500) page says you must apply online from outside Australia, be enrolled in a registered course, and hold student health cover. In full, this is what an Indian applicant needs:

What documents do you need for an Australian student visa? (checklist)

• CoE for a full-time CRICOS course, issued after the university’s Genuine Student checks.
• A copy of your passport, and a certified copy of your birth certificate or national identity card if you have one.
• Genuine Student answers, up to 150 words each, backed by evidence such as mark sheets, degree certificates, transcripts, work letters and documents showing your ties to India.
• English test result, taken at a test centre within two years before you apply.
• Funds: A$29,710, A$2,000 travel and first-year fees, with the source explained; or parents’ or a partner’s income of A$87,856 shown by tax assessments.
• Loan sanction and disbursement letters, if a loan is part of your funds.
• OSHC starting on your arrival date.
• Medical and chest x-ray at a panel clinic, using your HAP ID.
• English translations of any document not in English.
• Welfare arrangements, if you are under 18.
• The A$2,500 visa charge, paid online.

How much does an Australian student visa cost from India?

A$2,500 for the main applicant, about ₹1.7 lakh, since 1 July 2026. Home Affairs says “we will not refund the application charge if we refuse your application.” A separate A$700 charge can apply only if you apply from inside Australia. The other costs before you travel:

• Health cover: RMIT estimates single OSHC at A$590 to A$750 a year for 2026, about ₹40,000 to ₹51,000.
• Medical exam: paid to the clinic. Neither Home Affairs nor the clinics publish a price, so ask when you book.
• Police certificate: ₹750 through Passport Seva, but only if Home Affairs asks for one.

Together, the charge and a year of health cover come to about A$3,090 to A$3,250 (₹2.1 to 2.2 lakh) before the medical. Our Australia cost guide sets out tuition and living costs in rupees.

How much money do you need to show for an Australian student visa?

Twelve months of costs, if your document checklist asks for it: A$29,710 for living (about ₹20.2 lakh), A$2,000 for travel from India and 12 months of course fees. Alternatively, you can show that your parents (both incomes can be combined) or your partner earned at least A$87,856 in the 12 months before you apply, using tax assessments; Home Affairs does not accept bank statements or employer letters for that route.

How you show the money matters as much as the amount. Home Affairs warns that “providing a bank balance certificate across a single day does not show us how you increased your funds,” asks you to explain the source of any deposits, and says the best evidence of a loan “is evidence of disbursement,” not just a sanction letter; our education loan documents guide lists what lenders issue. If the checklist asks for financial evidence and you leave it out, “we may refuse your application without asking you for more information.” Our proof of funds guide covers deposits and parents’ accounts.

What does evidence level 3 mean for Indian students?

More paperwork and closer checks. Home Affairs gives every country and every education provider an evidence level from 1 to 3, based mainly on refusals for fraud, visa cancellations and students who overstay. The two levels together decide whether you must upload financial and English evidence with the application. India’s government told Parliament that “from 8 January 2026, Australian authorities have revised the evidence requirement level for Indian applicants from EL2 to EL3”; Home Affairs does not publish country levels itself.

In practice, most Indian applicants should expect the Document Checklist Tool to ask for both financial and English evidence. Run it yourself with your passport country and your provider’s CRICOS code before you apply; Home Affairs routinely updates it on 31 March and 30 September, and can change it at any time.

What is the Genuine Student requirement?

The test of whether studying is your real reason for coming. It replaced the old Genuine Temporary Entrant test for applications from 23 March 2024. You answer questions in the application form about your circumstances and ties to home, why you chose this course and provider, how it will benefit you, and anything else relevant, in up to 150 words each, with a fifth question if you have held a student visa or are applying in Australia from another visa. Home Affairs says it gives “more weight to statements supported by evidence,” and that an intention to apply for permanent residence later does “not count against an applicant.”

Universities now check this themselves before issuing a CoE. UNSW asks Indian applicants to complete a combined Genuine Student Assessment and Financial Declaration and may interview them, and Federation University wants GS documents at least nine weeks before the course starts. Our Genuine Student guide goes through each question, with worked answers and the evidence to attach.

What English test score do you need for the visa?

IELTS Academic 6.0 or PTE Academic 47 for direct entry, for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, with lower scores if you also take an English course before your degree. Home Affairs accepts nine tests but not any “where an entire test is delivered online.” Your university’s own requirement is usually higher. Our IELTS or PTE guide has the full table.

Do you need a medical exam for an Australian student visa?

Yes, for a stay of six months or more. India is not on Home Affairs’ list of countries with a low risk of tuberculosis, so you need a medical examination and a chest x-ray (from age 11), plus a kidney blood test from age 15. Students training for health jobs need extra tests. The exam must be done by a Home Affairs panel physician, using the HAP ID from your ImmiAccount, and you can do it before you apply. Results are usually valid for 12 months.

In Chennai the only panel clinic is Apollo Hospitals on Wallace Garden 1st Street, off Greams Road. It takes appointments by phone only and asks for your passport, a copy of its bio-data page, three photos and the letter with your HAP ID. In Tamil Nadu, KG Speciality Centre in Coimbatore is also on the list.

Do Indian students need biometrics or a police certificate?

Usually neither. India is not part of Australia’s biometrics programme: the High Commission in New Delhi says “Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal are included in the biometrics program from this region”. Home Affairs can still ask for biometrics, and gives 14 days. A police certificate is needed only if Home Affairs asks, usually for each country, India included, where you have lived for at least 12 months in the past ten years, if you are over 17. If asked, apply through Passport Seva; the certificate is valid for 12 months.

How do you apply for an Australian student visa?

• Accept your offer and pay the deposit, after your university’s Genuine Student checks, to get your CoE.
• Buy OSHC starting on the day you will arrive, usually through your university.
• Run the Document Checklist Tool and gather passport, CoE, English and financial evidence.
• Apply in ImmiAccount, answer the Genuine Student questions, attach up to 60 documents and pay A$2,500.
• Do your medical with the HAP ID, if you have not already.
• Stay outside Australia until the decision: if you applied from India, you must be outside Australia when the visa is granted.

Do not book travel until the visa is decided. If it is granted, the visa is linked to your passport digitally.

How long does an Australian student visa take?

Home Affairs does not publish times for India. Worldwide, half of higher-education applications were decided within 16 days and 90% within 4 months, in its figures to 31 August 2026. Vocational courses took much longer: 53 days for half and 7 months for 90%.

How soon your file is picked up also depends on your provider. Under Ministerial Direction 115, applications for providers that have not reached 80% of their allocation of new students are Priority 1, which Home Affairs aims to start processing within 1 to 4 weeks; for providers at 80% it aims for 5 to 8 weeks, and above 115%, 9 to 12 weeks, though these targets are based on 2025 lodgements and can change. Apply as soon as your CoE, health cover and medical are ready.

Can you bring your spouse to Australia on a student visa?

Not in most cases, for applications from 2 October 2026. Home Affairs’ Student visa page says “Most Student visa applicants can no longer include family members,” and family “cannot apply as a subsequent entrant” later. PhD students (not master’s by research), students sponsored by Australia’s foreign affairs or defence departments, and holders of fully funded foreign government scholarships are exempt. A self-funded master’s student from India cannot bring a partner or children.

Can you work on an Australian student visa?

Yes, up to 48 hours a fortnight while your course is in session, and without a limit in scheduled breaks, but not before your course starts. The visa conditions also require you to:

• stay enrolled in a registered course and keep up satisfactory attendance and progress;
• keep OSHC for your whole stay;
• tell your provider your address within 7 days of arriving, and within 7 days of any change.

Unpaid work experience counts towards the 48 hours unless it is a required part of a registered course.

Is it hard to get an Australian student visa from India?

Harder than it was. By our sum of Home Affairs’ published data, 59.7% of Indian higher-education applicants were granted a visa in July to September 2026, against 82.8% in 2024-25, and only 49.1% of those who applied from outside Australia; for vocational courses the rate was 38.0%. Home Affairs calls the figures provisional, and single months swing widely: the higher-education rate was 51.6% in July and 76.6% in September, but September was mostly decisions on people already in Australia. For applicants outside Australia it stayed near half, at 47.6% in July and 51.5% in September.

If you applied from India and are refused, there is no right of review: the Migration Act allows review only of applications made in Australia. You lose the A$2,500 and can only reapply. Your university cancels the CoE and should refund prepaid tuition, keeping no more than 5% or A$500, whichever is less, as Victoria University’s refund policy sets out.

False documents carry a much heavier cost. Home Affairs warns against documents altered with “digital editing tools, artificial intelligence (AI), or any other method,” and a refusal for a bogus document or false information can stop you getting most Australian visas for three years, or ten years if you were refused because you could not prove your identity, unless you were under 18 when you applied. That applies even if an agent prepared the file.

What visa do you get after studying in Australia?

The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485). Under the India–Australia trade agreement, Indian graduates get three years after any master’s, four after a PhD, two after a bachelor’s and three after a bachelor’s with first class honours in STEM. You must apply in Australia, be 35 or under (under 50 after a research master’s or PhD), and pay A$5,750, about ₹3.9 lakh.

If you would like the file checked before you lodge it, our student visa team in Egmore, Chennai, goes through each document with you, and our Australia page covers courses and costs.