Student visa financial requirements Australia

What changed in the Genuine Student requirement from March 2024

The Genuine Student (GS) requirement applies to student visa applications lodged on or after 23 March 2024. Applications lodged before that date are assessed under the previous Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirement instead. If you are preparing a 2026 application, GS is the test that applies to you.

The practical difference between GS and GTE is narrower than much of the marketing around this reform suggests. Under GS, the Department of Home Affairs explicitly recognises that genuine students may develop skills Australia needs and may later choose to apply for permanent residence — and states that these future intentions do not count against an applicant. This is a meaningful shift from the old GTE framing, which put more weight on proving an intention to return home. The GS criterion instead focuses on assessing the student's intention to genuinely study in Australia, considering factors including the applicant's circumstances in their home country, potential situation in Australia, the value of the course to their future, and immigration history.

All applicants must demonstrate that they satisfy either the GS criterion or the GS dependent criterion (for accompanying family members) to be granted a visa. Ministerial Direction No. 106 — Assessing the genuine entry and stay requirements for Student visa and Student Guardian visa applications — is the instrument that governs how the Department applies this test, and it commenced on 23 March 2024. It applies to Subclass 500 (Student) visa applications and Student Guardian visa applications made on or after that date, including matters remitted from the Tribunal (now the Administrative Review Tribunal) or a court.

Official financial evidence: what Home Affairs actually requires

Under the Migration Regulations 1994, the main applicant must have genuine access to funds sufficient to meet the costs and expenses of their intended stay in Australia, and those of each family member who will be in Australia — this is set out at clause 500.214 of Schedule 2 (clause 500.313 applies the same test to family members applying as secondary applicants). That is the legal foundation of the financial capacity requirement: access to funds "of a kind" specified in the regulations, sufficient to cover the applicant's stay.

The financial capacity settings for Subclass 500 and Subclass 590 (Student Guardian) visas are themselves prescribed in a separate legislative instrument — the Evidence of Financial Capacity instrument made under the Migration Regulations. That instrument is where the actual dollar thresholds and accepted evidence types are fixed and updated from time to time, and it is the Department of Home Affairs itself, not agent marketing pages, that publishes the figures once the instrument is in force.

The published annual living-cost figure for the main applicant under this instrument is AUD 29,710. For applications made on or after 2 October 2026, most Subclass 500 applicants can no longer include a partner or child: under Schedule 1 item 1222(3)(da) of the Migration Regulations 1994, family members can apply only in limited groups, such as family of Defence or Foreign Affairs students, of students holding a passport from a Pacific-regional or specified South-East Asian country, of doctoral students and of students fully funded by a foreign government scholarship (LIN 20/158). Where family members can be included, LIN 19/198 sets their annual living costs at AUD 10,394 for a spouse or de facto partner and AUD 4,449 for each dependent child. Read this figure correctly: AUD 29,710 is the living-cost component only. It is not the total amount of funds you need to demonstrate. The Evidence of Financial Capacity framework requires genuine access to funds covering the full cost of your stay, and living costs are one line item within that, alongside course fees, travel and health cover. The complete calculation an applicant should work through before lodging is:

Total funds required = annual living costs (AUD 29,710 for the main applicant, plus AUD 10,394 for a partner and AUD 4,449 for each dependent child where family members can be included) + course fees for the first 12 months of study (or the whole course if shorter), minus any amount already paid + travel expenses for each applicant + AUD 13,502 a year in school costs for each school-age dependant (LIN 19/198, section 6(2)). Overseas Student Health Cover is a separate requirement under clause 500.215 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994.

The tuition and travel components are drawn from the categories of cost that clause 500.214 requires you to be able to meet — "the costs and expenses of the applicant's stay" — rather than from the living-cost figure alone. The specific dollar cost of your tuition and OSHC will be shown on your Confirmation of Enrolment and OSHC policy documents respectively, and these are amounts specific to your provider and cover period, not fixed government figures. The living-cost, partner and child figures are set by LIN 19/198, made under clauses 500.214(4) and 500.313(4) of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994; the version in force since 10 May 2024 sets them at AUD 29,710, AUD 10,394 and AUD 4,449.

What is confirmed alongside the dollar figures is the category of evidence the Department accepts: genuine access to funds, assessed against the costs and expenses of the applicant's stay. When you submit your application in ImmiAccount, the system generates a document checklist, and if evidence of financial capacity appears on that list, it must be attached before submission or the application may be refused.

The alternative pathway: annual income instead of bank balance

Showing a lump sum of savings is not the only way to satisfy the financial capacity requirement. The Evidence of Financial Capacity instrument also recognises an annual income threshold as an alternative form of evidence: an applicant can demonstrate that a parent or partner has a personal annual income of at least AUD 87,856, or AUD 102,500 where family members will accompany the applicant to Australia. This is evidenced through official taxation documents — such as a tax assessment notice or equivalent official record showing the income of the parent or partner relied upon — rather than bank statements showing an accumulated balance.

This route can suit applicants whose family income is well-documented through formal employment or business tax records but whose liquid savings do not, on their own, clearly cover the full calculation set out above. Which pathway is more appropriate — the funds-based route or the income-based route — depends on which form of evidence you can support most clearly and consistently; the ImmiAccount checklist generated for your specific application will confirm what has been requested in your case.

How the financial capacity threshold is calculated and verified

The regulatory test is genuine access to funds sufficient to meet the applicant's costs and expenses while the visa is held. In practice this means the Department is not simply counting a bank balance on a single date — it is assessing whether the funds shown are real, accessible, and consistent with the applicant's declared circumstances, against the AUD 29,710 (main applicant), AUD 10,394 (partner) and AUD 4,449 (child) benchmarks set by the financial capacity instrument, as part of the fuller total-funds calculation set out above.

Two elements sit alongside the headline threshold that readers often overlook, and both go directly to how strictly the source of funds is scrutinised:

• Source verification and lump-sum deposits. Bank statements and other financial evidence are checked for consistency with declared income sources. A large, recent, unexplained deposit sitting in an account shortly before lodgement is a pattern that tends to raise questions rather than resolve them, because it does not show a track record of genuine access to funds — it shows a balance that appeared at a convenient moment. To avoid this, applicants should be able to show a longer trail: bank statements covering approximately 3–6 months that demonstrate the funds were held, or built up, over time and are traceable to a credible source such as salary deposits, business income, sale of an asset, or a family member's documented savings. Where funds come from an education loan rather than personal savings, a formal loan sanction letter from the lending institution — showing the loan amount, approval status and disbursement terms — is the kind of document that supports genuine access; an informal assurance of funds or a single-day account top-up is not.
• Risk-based scrutiny. Higher-risk evidence settings can mean bank statements and other financial documents are checked manually rather than accepted at face value, and a manual check is more likely to be triggered by financial evidence that looks recently assembled rather than accumulated over time.

The figures themselves — AUD 29,710, AUD 10,394 and AUD 4,449 — are the ones currently published under the financial capacity instrument.

Dependent family members under the Genuine Student test

Family members accompanying a student are not simply attached to the main application — they are separately assessed. Direction 106 applies to delegates assessing the genuine student criterion, the genuine student dependent criterion, and the genuine temporary entrant criterion (for Student Guardian visas) as applicable. In other words, a dependent family member included on a Subclass 500 application must satisfy the genuine student dependent criterion in their own right, not merely be listed as a relative of the primary applicant. Where family members can be included, each one adds to the funds the main applicant must show — AUD 10,394 for a partner and AUD 4,449 for each dependent child, on top of the main applicant's AUD 29,710 — or the family can rely instead on the AUD 102,500 income threshold (LIN 19/198, section 6).

Where the applicant is a minor, the Department considers the intentions of the parent, legal guardian or spouse when assessing the GS criterion — recognising that a child applicant's study intentions are inseparable from the adults responsible for them.

Family members granted a Subclass 500 visa must be given conditions 8104, 8208, 8501 and 8516, plus condition 8518 (adequate arrangements for education) for a child under 18 and condition 8201 (no more than 3 months of study) for a family member aged 18 or over (clause 500.612 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994). Under condition 8104, a family member cannot start work until the main student has started their course (unless an exception applies) and can then work up to 48 hours a fortnight, with no fortnightly limit where the main student's course leads to a masters or doctoral degree.

Subclass 500 visa application charge and refund eligibility

The visa application charge for Subclass 500 is set by Schedule 1 item 1222 of the Migration Regulations 1994 and is amended periodically. The base application charge rose to AUD 1,600 from 1 July 2024, and since 1 July 2026 it has been AUD 2,500 for most primary applicants, AUD 2,050 for applicants holding a passport from a specified South-East Asian country or enrolling in an ELICOS or non-award course, and AUD 745 for applicants holding a passport from a Pacific-regional country.

On refunds: under regulation 2.12F of the Migration Regulations 1994, the visa application charge is refunded only in limited circumstances, such as where the application was unnecessary when it was made, was made because of a mistake by the Department, or the applicant died before a decision. Refusal of the application is not one of the circumstances listed in that regulation.

Processing time expectations and risk-tiering framework

Home Affairs assesses student visa applications using evidence settings that vary by an applicant's circumstances, and Direction 106 is the instrument that governs how delegates assess the genuine student criterion for these applications. Higher-risk evidence settings are associated with more manual checking of financial and supporting documents, which in turn affects how quickly an application can be decided — an application requiring manual verification of bank statements, academic records or employer references will generally take longer to process than one where the documentation is accepted without further checks.

Direction 106 governs how the genuine student criterion is assessed, not the order in which applications are processed. Student visa applications lodged outside Australia are processed in accordance with Ministerial Direction No. 111 (applications lodged before 14 November 2025) or Ministerial Direction No. 115 (applications lodged on or after 14 November 2025).

What is established is the mechanism, not the numbers: the more your application depends on further verification — because documents are incomplete, financial evidence is ambiguous, or your GS responses lack supporting evidence — the more likely it is to move into a slower assessment pathway. Lodging a complete, well-evidenced application from the outset, including financial evidence that clearly meets the published AUD 29,710 / AUD 10,394 / AUD 4,449 thresholds (or the AUD 87,856 / AUD 102,500 income alternative) where they apply, and that shows a clean, traceable history of fund access rather than a recent lump-sum deposit, is the one factor within your control.

How to structure your GS statement for visa assessment

Home Affairs prefers applicants to respond to the GS questions directly in the online application form rather than attaching a separate GS statement. Each response in the form has a 150-word limit, and all responses must be in English. This is a structural point competing guides frequently gloss over: a long, separately attached personal statement is not what the Department asks for as the primary vehicle for your GS response — the form fields are.

The Department gives more weight to statements supported by evidence, and considers the applicant's overall personal circumstances. Practically, this means every claim made in your 150-word responses should be traceable to a document you have uploaded to ImmiAccount.

Structure your GS responses around the categories the Department itself lists as relevant:

1. Previous study — your academic history and how it connects logically to the course you are applying for.
2. Previous study in Australia — if applicable, prior enrolments and outcomes.
3. Current employment — your role, employer, and how it relates to your study or career plans.
4. Circumstances in your home country or country of residence — ties such as family, community or employment commitments.
5. Economic circumstances in your home country or country of residence — income sources, business interests, or family financial support.
6. Any other relevant matter — anything else that supports your case that does not fit the categories above.

If there is political or civil unrest, or military service commitments in your home country that create a significant incentive to leave, the Department asks that you give reasons and supporting evidence for this specifically. Note also that the GS criterion explicitly acknowledges post-study pathways are available for those who may be eligible — so stating that your course may lead to skilled migration options is not a mark against you under this test, provided your primary stated intent is to study.

You can review the categories the Department itself uses, and the current conditions attached to a grant, on the official Subclass 500 visa page before you draft your responses.

Complete document checklist mapped to official requirements

ImmiAccount generates a document checklist specific to each application, and the Department is explicit that if evidence of English capacity and financial capacity appear on that list, they must be attached before submission or the application may be refused. Your education provider may also have its own enrolment document requirements in addition to what the Department asks for.

Document requirements vary with each applicant's circumstances and evidence settings, and the Department generates the document checklist for each application rather than publishing one universal list. What can be said with confidence, from the categories the Department itself names, is the broad groups of evidence a GS-based application is built around:

• Evidence supporting your GS responses — academic transcripts, employment records, and documents showing home-country ties.
• Evidence of genuine access to funds sufficient to meet your costs and expenses in Australia, measured against the published AUD 29,710 (main applicant), AUD 10,394 (partner) and AUD 4,449 (dependent child) figures, plus first-year tuition, travel and OSHC as set out above, as required under clause 500.214 — or, alternatively, official tax documents evidencing a parent's or partner's annual income of at least AUD 87,856 (AUD 102,500 with family).
• Bank statements covering a period of approximately 3–6 months, or a formal education loan sanction letter, where funds evidence rather than the income-threshold pathway is used, to demonstrate that funds were genuinely accessible over time rather than recently deposited.
• A current Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) from a CRICOS-registered course — you can check a course's current registration status on the Department of Education's CRICOS course search before you enrol or apply.
• Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) arrangements, as required for the duration of the student visa, and factored into your total funds calculation above.
• Any evidence requested for dependent family members applying under the genuine student dependent criterion.

Beyond individual document types, providers registered to teach overseas students operate under obligations set out in the ESOS framework and the National Code — you can review the Department of Education's ESOS regulatory information for the regulatory context that governs your provider's obligations to you, separate from your own visa application obligations to the Department. You can also review current Subclass 500 requirements directly on the Department's Subclass 500 visa page.

One further point of clarification: bank statements, loan agreements and scholarship letters are the kinds of financial evidence the framework contemplates, but many commonly recommended items — such as tuition-fee payment receipts covering many months, or supplementary sponsor letters — are supplements agents recommend rather than documents the Department has confirmed as mandatory in every case. Whether a single strong document (for example, one clear bank statement showing sufficient funds against the AUD 29,710 threshold) is enough, or whether multiple documents spanning 3–6 months are needed, depends on the evidence settings applied to your specific application — which is precisely why the ImmiAccount checklist generated for your application, not a generic list, is the document that governs what you must attach.

What happens if you don't meet the requirement

If a delegate is not satisfied that you meet the GS criterion (or the GS dependent criterion for a family member), the visa application can be refused. Direction 106 is a direction under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958, which decision-makers must comply with, so the same framework applies whether your application is decided by the Department or reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal (which replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 14 October 2024), including matters remitted by a court. The Department has stated that it gives more weight to GS statements supported by evidence, which is the strongest practical indicator available: a claim made in your 150-word response without a matching document behind it carries less weight than one that does. The same principle applies to financial evidence — funds that fall short of the full calculation set out above (living costs, tuition, travel and OSHC), that cannot be traced to a credible source over a reasonable period, or that appear as a single unexplained lump-sum deposit, weaken an application in the same way an unsupported GS claim does.

Next steps

Before you lodge a Subclass 500 application:

• Confirm your intended course is currently CRICOS-registered using the CRICOS course search — a lapsed or deregistered course affects your CoE and therefore your visa eligibility.
• Draft your GS responses against the six categories the Department names, keep each to 150 words, and attach a specific supporting document for every factual claim you make.
• Work out your total funds requirement, not just the headline living-cost figure: AUD 29,710 (plus AUD 10,394 for a partner and AUD 4,449 for each dependent child where family can be included), first-year course fees not yet paid, travel expenses, and AUD 13,502 a year for each school-age dependant — or show instead that a parent or partner meets the AUD 87,856 (AUD 102,500 with family) annual income threshold through official government income documents (LIN 19/198, section 6).
• If relying on savings, assemble 3–6 months of consistent bank statements, or a formal education loan sanction letter, rather than a single recent lump-sum deposit — this is the evidence that demonstrates genuine access rather than a one-off balance.
• Budget for the visa application charge set by Schedule 1 item 1222 of the Migration Regulations 1994: a base charge of AUD 2,500 for most primary applicants (AUD 2,050 or AUD 745 for the passport and course groups that pay a lower rate), plus an additional applicant charge for any family member who can be included.
• Do not assume the charge will be refunded if the application is refused: regulation 2.12F of the Migration Regulations 1994 limits refunds to specific circumstances, and refusal is not one of them.
• If dependants are included, confirm what the genuine student dependent criterion requires for each family member and what conditions will attach to their visa grant specifically, rather than assuming a general rule applies.

For an assessment of your specific circumstances against the current Genuine Student requirement, financial evidence settings and document checklist, Global Migration & Education Solutions can review your application before lodgement.

Sources

Department of Home Affairs, Genuine Student requirement; Ministerial Direction No. 106; Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2, clauses 500.214 and 500.313; Migration (Evidence of financial capacity — Subclass 500 and 590) instruments; Department of Home Affairs, Disclaimer for Document Checklist Tool. Official references: Department of Home Affairs, Subclass 500 (Student) visa page; Department of Education, CRICOS course search; Department of Education, ESOS regulatory information. The visa application charge is set by Schedule 1 item 1222 of the Migration Regulations 1994; tuition fees and Overseas Student Health Cover premiums are set by the education provider and the insurer, and travel costs are not fixed by any legislative instrument.