Australia has tightened visa rules for Indian students. The level of investigation has been increased from 2 to 3, which will now require more documents. This step has been taken due to placing India in the ‘highest risk’ category.
New Delhi: There is a big news for Indian students dreaming of going to Australia. The Australian government has changed the rules for student visas. Now the level of scrutiny of documents for visa has been increased from level 2 to level 3. This change has come into effect with retrospective effect from January 8, 2026. This means that now the visa process will be more strict and students will have to submit additional documents. The government has re-imposed the old strict rules before September 2025.
This step has been taken after India was put in the ‘highest risk’ category in terms of student visa. The Ministry of External Affairs gave this information in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh told Parliament that despite the tightening of rules, relations between India and Australia in the field of education remain strong. Giving an example of this, he said that Australian universities are opening their campuses in India. He also assured that the government is committed to providing Indian students with opportunities for higher education and research in Australia and efforts will continue at the diplomatic level to ease the travel of students.