Australia's Subclass 485 Temporary Graduate Visa Explained (2026)

A lot of Temporary Graduate visa content hasn't caught up to the single biggest 2026 change: a fee increase that doubled the application charge for the primary applicant, from $2,300 to $4,600, overnight and with no advance notice, according to a university's own letter to the relevant ministers. If you've been budgeting off a figure from a 2025 guide, that number is no longer current, and the gap matters enough to plan around before you lodge anything.

What the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) is

The subclass 485 lets eligible graduates of Australian study stay on in Australia temporarily after finishing their qualification, generally to work, gain experience, or in some cases pursue a skills assessment toward a points-tested migration pathway. It's split into two separate streams depending on your qualification type, and which stream you fall under changes both the eligibility rules and, in some guides' telling, the visa's duration.

The two streams, and why confusing them matters

The Post-Higher Education Work stream is for graduates of an eligible bachelor's degree or higher. It doesn't require a nominated occupation or a skills assessment at the point of lodging, your field of study is open rather than tied to an occupation list. The Post-Vocational Education Work stream is for graduates of vocational qualifications, an associate degree, diploma, or trade qualification, that's linked to a specific nominated occupation appearing on a relevant skilled-occupation list. A bachelor's or postgraduate degree holder should generally be looking at the Post-Higher Education Work stream, not the vocational one, and getting this wrong at application stage can mean applying under the wrong eligibility criteria entirely.

The March 2026 fee increase

On 1 March 2026, the primary applicant's visa application charge rose from $2,300 to $4,600, implemented through the Migration Amendment (Temporary Graduate Visa Application Charge) Regulations 2026. Charges for secondary applicants, meaning dependants included on the same application, roughly doubled as well. Eligible applicants from Pacific countries and Timor-Leste are specifically carved out from this increase and continue paying the earlier, lower fee. At least one law firm has reported a further fee rise in force since 1 July 2026, though we could only confirm the March increase across multiple independent sources, so verify the exact current fee on the Department of Home Affairs' own fee schedule before budgeting around either figure.

How long the visa actually lasts, honestly

Most sources agree bachelor's degree (including Honours) and coursework master's graduates get 2 years on the Post-Higher Education Work stream. Where sources genuinely diverge is research master's and PhD graduates: some guides list both at 3 years, treating research degrees as a step up from the coursework figure, while others describe a broader range of 2 to 4 years depending on the specific qualification, without giving a single confirmed number. We couldn't verify an exact PhD duration figure against an official Department of Home Affairs page, so if your own visa length is central to your planning, confirm it directly with the Department rather than treating any guide's number, including the ones summarized here, as final.

English requirements tightened in 2024, and they're still in force

In March 2024, the minimum English test score for Temporary Graduate visa applicants rose from IELTS 6.0 to 6.5 (or the equivalent score on another accepted test), and the validity window for that test result was shortened from 3 years to just 1 year. Both changes remain current. If your English test result is more than a year old by the time you lodge, it may no longer count even though it would have under the older, longer validity window, so timing when you sit the test matters as much as the score itself.

You can't switch to a Student visa from inside Australia on a 485

Holders of the subclass 485 cannot apply onshore for a Student visa, a restriction reported as having been in place since 1 July 2024 and reaffirmed through 2026 regulatory updates. If your plan involves returning to study in Australia after your Temporary Graduate visa period ends, factor in that you'd generally need to lodge that Student visa application from outside Australia, not as an onshore switch at the end of your 485.

Using the window for a funded research path instead

Some PhD and research master's graduates use their 485 period to pursue a further funded research position in Australia rather than general employment, which runs on the same direct-outreach approach covered in our Australia PhD supervisor guide. GradScoutFunding searches professors by field and country, confirms they're actively publishing, and drafts a personalized first email grounded in their real recent paper for you to review and send yourself, it never sends anything automatically. The free tier gives you 100 credits with no card required, and paid credit packs are one-time purchases that never expire.

Confirm specifics before you plan around them

Several of the figures above, the second fee increase, the exact PhD duration, come from sources that disagreed with each other, and we've flagged those disagreements rather than picking a number to sound authoritative. Confirm your specific visa duration, current fees, and stream eligibility directly on the Department of Home Affairs website before relying on any of this for a real application.

Common questions