485 visa family changes from 13 November 2026: can your partner or child still apply?

Registered 12 November 2026 · Applies to applications made from 13 November 2026

If you were planning to lodge your Temporary Graduate visa first and have your partner or child apply once you had settled in Australia, the timing of your applications now matters. From 13 November, the separate subclass 485 subsequent entrant pathway closes. To apply as your dependant, a family member must qualify under one of the new rules and lodge a combined application with you at the same time.

Your partner can still be overseas when you lodge together. The change affects who can apply and when they apply. It does not require the family to travel together.

Which situation is yours?

• You are preparing your first 485. Check each family member’s eligibility before you submit. Naming someone as your partner in the family details is different from including them as a visa applicant.
• You already hold a 485 and your family planned to apply later. An earlier grant to you does not reserve a later application for them. From 13 November they cannot make a separate subsequent entrant application to join you on that grant.
• Your family member already lodged. If their own application was validly made before 13 November, the earlier rules continue to apply to it, even if Home Affairs decides it later. Check their lodgement acknowledgement.

Who can apply with the graduate?

The partner or child must meet the applicable family-unit requirements. In addition, at least one of the following six circumstances must apply under Schedule 1, item 1229(3)(e) of the amended Migration Regulations.

1. Specified passport. The graduate holds a passport from a Pacific-regional country or a country specified in Schedule 1, subitem 1222(5A). The explanatory statement identifies the latter group as ASEAN countries. Check the passport against the statutory list.
2. Completed doctorate. The graduate’s most recent Student visa was granted for a doctoral degree and they have completed that degree.
3. Foreign government funding. Every course covered by the graduate’s most recent Student visa was fully funded by a foreign government. For a package of courses, check the funding for each course.
4. Child born after a visa grant. The child was born after the graduate received their most recent Student or subclass 485 visa. This can qualify the child for inclusion in a combined application. If a baby is born while an application is pending, notify Home Affairs and seek advice about that application.
5. Student visa dependant. The family member holds a Student visa as the graduate’s dependant, held one on 2 October 2026, or held one at some point in the six months immediately before applying. The graduate must be or have been the primary holder of that same visa.
6. Previous 485 dependant. The family member holds a 485 as the same graduate’s dependant or held one at some point in the six months immediately before applying. This matters, for example, when a graduate is independently eligible to apply for a further 485.

Can my partner apply from overseas?

Yes, if eligible. The graduate must be in Australia, outside immigration clearance, when applying. A secondary applicant may apply from inside or outside Australia, also outside immigration clearance. Both applications must be made together.

For example, a graduate in Adelaide is preparing a first 485 while their spouse is visiting family overseas. If the spouse holds a Student visa as that graduate’s dependant, they may satisfy the Student visa history category. The couple can prepare one combined application from their different locations. If the graduate lodges alone and receives the visa, the spouse cannot use that same visa history to lodge a separate subsequent entrant application later.

What if the family member is in Australia?

An onshore secondary applicant must also meet the visa-status requirement at lodgement. This can be a substantive visa, or a Bridging A or B visa granted on the basis of a valid visa application. There is also a narrow provision tied to notification of a specified Administrative Review Tribunal decision concerning a Student visa cancellation, with a 28-day limit. If relying on that provision, have the decision and notification date checked before lodgement.

What else changed?

Primary applicants under 18 must now also meet public interest criteria 4017 and 4018 concerning custody and the child’s best interests. The instrument also removes provisions for the Replacement stream, which had already closed to new applications in 2024.

What should we check before lodging?

Put the visa grant letters for each person side by side. Identify who was the primary holder, who held a visa as a dependant, and the dates each visa was held. Gather relationship or birth records and the documents for the category you rely on, such as doctoral completion evidence or government funding letters. If you have already applied, locate the acknowledgement showing who applied and when.

For the graduate’s stream, study and timing requirements, see the A2MS subclass 485 guide. For advice on your family’s circumstances, contact A2MS about a consultation with Sunil Choudhary, Registered Migration Agent (MARN 2418425).

Official sources. Migration Amendment (Temporary Graduate Visa Reform) Regulations 2026, section 2 and Schedule 1, particularly items 7, 13 and 17–19. See also the explanatory statement, Attachment B.