Australia maintains post-PhD work visa age limit of 50

After receiving much feedback on the impact of the reduced age requirement on postgraduate research students, Australia decided to keep the age limit for post-PhD visas at 50.

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs after updating changes due to come into effect on July 1st, announced that the age limit for post-study work visas will remain at 50 years old for research students.

The department published in May details of the government's planned changes to the Temporary Graduate Visa Program from July 1st 2024. It was announced that the maximum age for all streams under the Temporary Graduate 485 visa would be reduced from 50 to 35 years old with the exception of British National Overseas and Hong Kong overseas passport holders.

However, in the updated statement the age limit is kept at 50 for the research students.

"The maximum eligible age for Post-Higher Education Work stream applicants will reduce to 35 years of age or under at the time of application. Masters (research) and doctoral degree (PhD) graduates and Hong Kong and British National Overseas passport holders will still be eligible if they are under 50 years of age.," said the government's updated statement.

Ly Tran professor at Deakin University said on LinkedIn, "Good news amid turbulent time: International PhD and Master by research students will be exempt from the new policy reducing the maximum age cap for international graduate eligibility for post-study work visas (subclass 485) to 35 years old, effective from 1st July."

"The minimum age limit for post-study work visas for int'l PhD and research masters students in Australia will remain at 50, reversing an earlier gov't decision," said Deakin Media on X Platform.

Stay periods changes for Post-Higher Education Workstream

The post-Higher Education Workstream formerly known as the Post-Study Work stream stay periods changes to the following:

• Bachelor degree (including honours) – up to 2 years
• Masters (coursework and extended) – up to 2 years
• Masters (research) and doctoral degree (PhD) – up to 3 years.

Stay periods for Indian nationals, as agreed in the Australia India – Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (AI-ECTA), remain as:

• Bachelor degree (including honours) – up to 2 years
• Bachelor degree (with first-class honours in STEM, including ICT) – up to 3 years
• Masters (coursework extended and research) – up to 3 years
• Doctoral degrees (PhD) – up to 4 years.

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