Australia bars international students from bringing family under new visa rules

International students and graduate visa holders in Australia will no longer be able to bring partners or children into the country under new visa rules, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced Thursday, as part of a broader push to cut net overseas migration to 225,000 people a year by 2028.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Burke said the change would stop a practice he called "visa hopping," in which people extend their time in Australia by moving between visas and courses rather than pursuing a genuine education.

The restriction applies only to new applications. Families already living in Australia on a student or graduate visa will not be affected, Burke said.

Last financial year, Australia granted 337,427 student visas, including 45,991 to secondary applicants classified as family members or dependants, according to government figures cited during the address.

Exemptions will remain for doctoral and other postgraduate research students, as well as students from Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste, under existing arrangements.

Burke framed the policy as correcting what he called a "double standard" in the immigration system. Australian citizens sponsoring a partner from overseas can wait years for approval, he said, while international students have been able to bring family members almost immediately.

"We will no longer be allowing the attaching of family members for international students or for graduate visas," Burke told the press club.

The announcement drew criticism from the international education sector. Luke Sheehy, chief executive of Universities Australia, said Labor, the opposition Coalition and the right-wing One Nation party were now in "a political race to the bottom" on international student numbers.

Days before Burke's speech, Universities Australia chair Carolyn Evans said the debate over cutting student numbers had become too simplistic and called on the government to be more transparent about the trade-offs involved.

Labor's policy closely mirrors a proposal released this week by One Nation, which also seeks to restrict family visas for international students and skilled migrants.

The government has not set a start date for the new rule. The change will take effect through regulation rather than legislation, after talks between Labor and the Coalition on a broader legislative package broke down, Burke said.