The Department of Home Affairs has quietly upgraded India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan from Evidence Level 2 to Evidence Level 3 under Australia’s Simplified Student Visa Framework (SSVF), according to a briefing leaked on 13 January 2026. The shift, which took effect on 8 January, means applicants from those countries must now provide far more extensive financial and academic evidence, and they face longer processing times.(english.sunonews.tv)
India alone supplies almost 140,000 of Australia’s 650,000 international students. Migration agents say the new rating has already triggered additional document requests—bank-statement verification, telephone interviews and authenticity checks on English-language certificates. Processing times for offshore higher-education visas have jumped from three to as much as eight weeks for some Indian and Nepalese applicants.(english.sunonews.tv)
Home Affairs sources cite “emerging integrity risks”, including a spike in falsified financial statements and phantom college enrolments designed purely to secure work rights. The move follows a year of tightening across the student-visa program: higher English-language thresholds, a 15 per cent fee increase and caps on low-quality vocational providers. Education Minister Jason Clare has warned that net migration must return to “sustainable levels”, and the risk re-rating is viewed internally as the quickest lever to slow inflows.(english.sunonews.tv)
![Canberra Reclassifies India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan as Highest-Risk Student-Visa Markets]()
For students and agents now navigating these tougher requirements, VisaHQ’s Australia hub (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) offers a real-time checklist builder, document-preparation guidance and consultation services that help ensure applications meet the new Evidence Level 3 standards on the first submission—saving precious weeks in processing queues.
Universities and pathway colleges face immediate revenue pressure. Some mid-tier institutions derive more than 35 per cent of earnings from Indian enrolments; one Melbourne-based university told consultants that a two-week visa delay can cost A$4 million in lost tuition and accommodation revenue. Providers are rushing to diversify recruitment toward Southeast Asia and Latin America, but agents warn that visa pipelines there cannot scale fast enough for the July 2026 intake.(english.sunonews.tv)
For corporate mobility teams the implications are twofold. First, dependants included on student visas—spouses who often take up part-time roles—may arrive later than planned, affecting workforce rosters in hospitality, aged care and IT. Second, employers that sponsor graduates for Skills-in-Demand visas will need to adjust timelines: if fewer Indian students start courses in 2026, the graduate-talent pool in 2028 will shrink. Organisations are advised to map critical skills to alternative sourcing channels now.(english.sunonews.tv)
India alone supplies almost 140,000 of Australia’s 650,000 international students. Migration agents say the new rating has already triggered additional document requests—bank-statement verification, telephone interviews and authenticity checks on English-language certificates. Processing times for offshore higher-education visas have jumped from three to as much as eight weeks for some Indian and Nepalese applicants.(english.sunonews.tv)
Home Affairs sources cite “emerging integrity risks”, including a spike in falsified financial statements and phantom college enrolments designed purely to secure work rights. The move follows a year of tightening across the student-visa program: higher English-language thresholds, a 15 per cent fee increase and caps on low-quality vocational providers. Education Minister Jason Clare has warned that net migration must return to “sustainable levels”, and the risk re-rating is viewed internally as the quickest lever to slow inflows.(english.sunonews.tv)
For students and agents now navigating these tougher requirements, VisaHQ’s Australia hub (https://www.visahq.com/australia/) offers a real-time checklist builder, document-preparation guidance and consultation services that help ensure applications meet the new Evidence Level 3 standards on the first submission—saving precious weeks in processing queues.
Universities and pathway colleges face immediate revenue pressure. Some mid-tier institutions derive more than 35 per cent of earnings from Indian enrolments; one Melbourne-based university told consultants that a two-week visa delay can cost A$4 million in lost tuition and accommodation revenue. Providers are rushing to diversify recruitment toward Southeast Asia and Latin America, but agents warn that visa pipelines there cannot scale fast enough for the July 2026 intake.(english.sunonews.tv)
For corporate mobility teams the implications are twofold. First, dependants included on student visas—spouses who often take up part-time roles—may arrive later than planned, affecting workforce rosters in hospitality, aged care and IT. Second, employers that sponsor graduates for Skills-in-Demand visas will need to adjust timelines: if fewer Indian students start courses in 2026, the graduate-talent pool in 2028 will shrink. Organisations are advised to map critical skills to alternative sourcing channels now.(english.sunonews.tv)
