Australia 485 Visa for Nepali Students

The 485 visa is a temporary visa that lets international students stay and work in Australia after they finish their course.

Its official name is the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), and most people simply call it the post-study work visa. Temporary Graduate visa means a visa for people who have just graduated, and because it is temporary, it has an end date. While you hold it, you can work as many hours as you like, for any employer, in any kind of job. That is a big change from your student years, when your work is limited during term, as our guide to working hours for students in Australia explains.

For many Nepali students, this visa is one of the main reasons they choose Australia. It gives you time to earn back some of what your family spent, to get work experience in your field and to decide your next step without rushing. Still deciding whether Australia is right for you? Our guide to study in Australia from Nepal takes you through the cost, the student visa and student life.

The Temporary Graduate visa 485 has three streams, and the one you apply for depends on what you studied:

Keep in mind that you choose the stream when you apply, and you cannot change it afterwards. So it is worth reading the rest of this guide before you lodge, especially the study and English rules.

You usually get 2 years after a bachelor’s or a coursework master’s, 3 years after a research master’s or a PhD, and 18 months after a diploma.

The length depends on the qualification you use for the visa, not on how many years you spent in Australia. The Post-Higher Education Work stream page sets it out like this:

Most Nepali students who go for a master’s choose the coursework type, so 2 years is the figure to plan around. The visa starts on the day it is granted, not on the day you finish your course, and it cannot be extended.

The only way to get more time on a 485 is the Second Post-Higher Education Work stream. It is open to degree graduates who studied at a campus in a designated regional area. They must then have lived only in a regional area for at least 2 years on their first 485. If you lived in a Category 2 area (cities and major regional centres), you usually get 1 more year, or 2 in Tasmania. If you lived in a Category 3 area (regional centres and other regional areas), you get 2 more years. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane do not count for either, so a student who studies or lives there cannot use this stream.

That is why some Nepali students pick a regional university from the start, because the fees and rent are often lower too. Our guide to regional study in Australia explains the other benefits, so you can decide whether it suits your course and your plans.

You are eligible if you are 35 or under, hold or recently held a student visa, and finished an eligible Australian course in the last 6 months.

Each of these rules can stop an application on its own, so let us go through them one by one.

The age limit is 35 on the day you apply. If your visa is based on a master’s by research or a PhD, you only need to be under 50. This helps Nepali students who join a PhD in Australia after some years of work. If you are starting a master’s in your early thirties, count your age on the day you will finish and apply, not the day you start.

You must be in Australia when you lodge your application, and you must apply within 6 months of completing your course. Home Affairs says late applications cannot be accepted. So do not plan a long trip home to Nepal before you apply. Lodge first, and check the conditions of your bridging visa before you travel anywhere.

Your course must be registered on CRICOS, the government’s list of courses open to international students. It must also be taught in English and studied in Australia while you held a visa that allowed you to study. For the degree stream, any subject is fine. For the diploma stream, you must name an occupation on the skilled list that closely matches your diploma. You also need a skills assessment from the body that checks that occupation, as the Post-Vocational Education Work stream page explains. Our guide to diploma courses in Australia shows which diplomas Nepali students usually choose.

You also need to meet the health and character requirements. And if you have already held a 485 as the main applicant, you cannot get a second one in the first two streams.

Your study in Australia must add up to at least 2 academic years, which means 92 weeks of registered study over at least 16 months.

This is the rule Nepali students most often miss, and you need to check it before you choose a course, not after you graduate. The 485 study requirement page counts the weeks your course is registered for on CRICOS, not the time you actually took. A 3-year or 4-year bachelor’s easily meets it, and so does a 2-year master’s. But some master’s courses of about 1.5 years are registered for less than 92 weeks, and a course like that will not be enough on its own.

Credit can cause trouble too. Your university may give you credit for your bachelor’s from Nepal and shorten your master’s. The credited part does not count towards the 92 weeks, because study done outside Australia cannot be used. You can also fall short if credit brings your actual time studying in Australia under 16 months. English language courses and enabling programs do not count either, and failed subjects are left out.

So before you accept an offer, look up the course on the CRICOS register and check its length in weeks. You can also ask the university in writing whether it meets the 485 study requirement. If you choose a shorter master’s, you can sometimes add a second related course, such as a graduate diploma before the master’s, to reach 92 weeks. Home Affairs does not check this for you before you apply, so the checking is up to you. Our guide to the requirements to study in Australia from Nepal covers the entry side of choosing a course.

For tests taken from 7 August 2025, you need IELTS 6.5 (5.5 in each band), PTE Academic 55 or TOEFL iBT 81, from the last 12 months.

This is higher than the score you needed for your student visa, so plan for it early. Many Nepali students arrive with IELTS 6.0 or PTE 47, the minimums on our Australia student visa requirements page. So they need a new test before they graduate. Here is what Home Affairs asks for the 485:

Students often ask how long a PTE score stays valid for the 485 visa. For the visa, what matters is that you took the test in the 12 months before the day you apply. So a PTE you took in Nepal before your course started will almost always be too old, and the same goes for IELTS.

Home Affairs accepts an IELTS One Skill Retake, as long as you finish the retake before you lodge. Citizens of the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland do not need a test, but Nepali passport holders always do. If you need to raise your score, our guide to the minimum IELTS and PTE for Australia compares the two tests and helps you choose.

The visa fee starts at AUD 5,750 (about Rs 5.2 lakh) for the main applicant, and AUD 2,265 (about Rs 2 lakh) for the second regional stream.

Rupee amounts here are rounded, so check today’s rate with our AUD to Rs forex converter. To work out the exact fee for you and your family, use the Home Affairs Visa Pricing Estimator. Each family member who applies with you pays an extra charge, and a partner or child who joins you later pays the full fee as a new applicant.

The fee is only part of the cost. On top of it, plan for:

• a new English test, if your last score is too old or too low
• an Australian Federal Police (AFP) check
• a health exam, if Home Affairs asks for one
• health insurance for your whole stay
• a skills assessment, if you apply in the diploma stream

Most Nepali students pay for all of this from their part-time work savings in Australia. So start putting money aside in your final semester, rather than asking your family in Nepal at the last minute. It is less than the student visa and tuition your family paid, but it comes at a busy time, when you are finishing assignments and looking for work. Planning your whole budget from Nepal? Our guide to the total cost to study in Australia from Nepal shows tuition and living costs for each level of study.

You apply online in ImmiAccount from inside Australia, once your university confirms you have completed your course and within 6 months of that date.

The best time to start preparing is your last semester. This is the order that works for most Nepali students:

1. Check the study requirement and your age while you still have time to fix a course that is too short.
2. Take your English test so the result is less than 12 months old on the day you lodge.
3. Arrange health insurance that covers you after your student visa ends. Your OSHC in Australia is cover for students. Ask your insurer whether it can continue, or switch to a visitor policy that meets the adequate health insurance rule.
4. Apply for the AFP police check at least one day before you lodge. Home Affairs does not accept an AFP application made on the same day, or one made more than 12 months earlier.
5. Apply for your skills assessment if you are in the diploma stream. If the result has not come yet, attach proof that you applied.
6. Get your completion letter and transcript from your university.
7. Lodge and pay in ImmiAccount, and choose your stream carefully.

Home Affairs may also ask for a police certificate from each country you lived in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years since you turned 16. For a Nepali student, that means a Nepal police report, and our guide to the police clearance report in Nepal explains how to get one. Scan every document in colour, and have any document in Nepali translated into English.

When you lodge, you get a bridging visa that keeps you lawful in Australia after your student visa ends, so do not cancel your current visa. Processing times change through the year, so check the global visa processing times tool rather than trusting a number you hear from friends. Home Affairs does not give status updates within the normal timeframe, so keep an eye on your ImmiAccount for any request for more information and answer it quickly.

Most graduates start in an entry-level job in their own field, and build the experience they need for their next visa.

You have to find your own job, and you get the same workplace rights as Australian workers, including minimum pay, which Fair Work explains. Common jobs for Nepalis in Australia after graduation depend on the course you studied. The table shows where graduates in each field often start and the usual full-time pay for those jobs. The pay ranges are median weekly earnings before tax from Jobs and Skills Australia. Each range runs from the first job in the row to the professional job in the same field.

These are medians for all experience levels, so a new graduate usually starts near the lower end. The figures are before tax, and living costs in Australia are much higher than in Nepal, so do not compare them directly with salaries at home. To give you an idea, AUD 75,000 a year is about Rs 68 lakh before tax. The links open job searches on Workforce Australia, the Australian Government’s free job board, so they always show the jobs advertised today. Most employers also post on SEEK and Indeed, so search the same job titles there too. If you studied nursing, our guide to nursing in Australia explains the registration you need for nursing jobs.

Besides work, the 485 lets you study, travel and bring your family. Since 2 October 2026, most new student visa applicants can no longer include a partner or children, as Home Affairs explains on its student visa changes page. On a 485, however, your partner and children can apply to join you as subsequent entrants, from Nepal or from inside Australia, once your visa is granted. Each of them pays the full fee and must meet the health and character rules.

The 485 is not permanent residence, but many graduates use these years to gain skilled work experience and points for a skilled visa. Only courses linked to jobs on the skilled lists help with that. So read our guide to PR courses in Australia before you choose, and our guide to the 491 visa if you are thinking of a regional state.

Graduates who make the most of their 485 avoid a few common mistakes:

• Waiting to look for work. Start applying in your final semester, because employers value Australian experience in your field.
• Staying in a survival job. Café or cleaning work pays the bills, but only work related to your field helps your career and a later skilled visa.
• Ignoring regional cities. They often have less competition and lower rent, so you can save more of what you earn. Our guide to the best cities in Australia for Nepali students compares them.
• Letting your insurance lapse. Home Affairs asks you and your family to keep adequate health insurance for your whole stay.

Planning for the 485 from the start makes a real difference. You can get advice wherever you live in Nepal, even in a town like Dhangadhi. Our branches in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Chitwan, Itahari and Pokhara can help you choose a course that keeps the 485 open, so talk to a Goreto counselor before you apply.