Student visa processing shuffle – Ministerial Direction 115 commences 14 November 2025
/The processing of student visas is a contentious issue for the current government. Criticism of increased immigration affecting costs of housing and access to infrastructure, and claims of integrity concerns in the overseas education industry, required a response. One of them was to regulate how offshore student visas are processed as overseas students contribute significantly to Australia’s net overseas migration in major cities.
It was less than a year ago that Ministerial Direction 111 was implemented to put the brakes on excessive student visa applications.
It was announced this week by the Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs, and Assistant Minister for International Education that because of Ministerial Direction 111, student lodgements were down by over 26 per cent and commencements down by 16 per cent compared with last year.
A new Ministerial Direction 115 will commence today to make it more equitable for all education providers, however, for any student visa application lodged before 14 November 2025, the direction in force at the time will apply. The new direction will also not apply to refused applications processed by the Administrative Review Tribunal.
This direction, as with direction 111, only applies to offshore student visa applications. This is because onshore student visa applications should generally not be time sensitive, as onshore visa applicants are likely to be able to study on a bridging visa while awaiting a decision.
Under Ministerial Direction 115, there are three priority levels.
Priority 1 is any offshore student visa application with a provider in the higher education and vocational education and training sectors where the course commencement would be less than a provider's prioritisation threshold for a particular year. The prioritisation threshold is up to 80 per cent of student visa allocations for that education provider for a particular year.
This threshold will reset every calendar year, with applications counting toward the threshold on the date they are lodged unless an application is lodged between 15 November and 31 December. In that case, it will apply to the following year.
Any applications from the below are also Priority 1:
School students
Non-award sector students
Standalone ELICOS students
Students enrolled with a defined TAFE provider
Students enrolled in a certain pilot training courses
Students enrolled in postgraduate research courses
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) sponsored students
Department of Defence sponsored students
Foreign and Australian government scholarship students
Students from certain Pacific countries and Timor-Leste
Transnational education students, and
Subsequent student visa applications where the application includes a child less than 18 years old
Priority 2 is for all offshore student visa applications with a provider in the higher education and vocational education and training sectors where the education provider has reached 80 per cent of their threshold for the year, or subsequent entrants where the application does not include a minor.
Priority 3 is for all applications associated with providers who have exceeded their threshold by at least 15 per cent.
Where packaged courses are involved, which is when more than one course from one or more education providers, is listed in a student visa application, it is the main course that is applied to the threshold.
The current visa prioritisation status can be found on the Department of Education’s website.
This policy should curtail excessive applications to education providers, but is unlikely to prevent seasonal surges in applications, as most offshore applications are probably lodged at the end of the calendar year for a new year’s start.