Temporary visa holders

Information to help you on your journey with TAFE NSW

If you are in Australia on a permanent visa, you can apply to study at one of our campuses. You may enrol into Fee for Service training or you may be eligible to enrol in subsidised training including the New South Wales (NSW) subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program.

If you are in Australia on a temporary visa and that visa allows you to study, you can apply to study at one of our campuses.

The rules that apply to you, though, are different from those for our local students, or international students on a student visa. The way you enrol is different too.

To study with us, you will need to:

• register or apply for the course you've chosen at one of our locations
• speak to a TAFE NSW enrolment officer to discuss your fees
• produce a passport or documentation from the Department of Home Affairs which shows details of your current visa
• complete the TAFE NSW enrolment process, assisted by a TAFE NSW staff member, and indicate your residency status and visa sub-class
• provide a Unique Student Identifier (USI).

We will only enrol you if a place is available and you will also need to meet any entry requirements for the course you choose. Entry requirements are listed in the course information.

Your visa must stay valid during your training

We will only enrol you in courses when your visa is current, and it is your responsibility to provide visa documents which shows the visa remains current throughout your training with us.

If your visa condition says you can only study for a set period across the duration of your visa, for example 3 months, we can only enrol you into study for that period of time.

If your visa has no end date you can still enrol – but we will accept no responsibility if you can't finish a course because the Department of Home Affairs requires you to leave Australia.

You may have to pay fees

If you are on a temporary visa which allows you to study, you may pay the full fee that applies to your course, or you may be on a visa which allows you to enrol in subsidised training including the New South Wales (NSW) subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program.

If you are a visa holder and a NSW Registered Apprentice or Trainee, you can enrol into the NSW subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program.

Since 1 January 2015, NSW subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program has been available to identified humanitarian visa holders, who are also:

• aged 15 years or older, and
• live or work in New South Wales, and
• no longer at school or equivalent (home schooled student are eligible)

From 1 January 2017, access for temporary humanitarian visa holders eligible to enrol in NSW subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program was extended.

The humanitarian visas eligible to enrol into NSW subsidised training under Smart and Skilled, from 1 January 2017, are listed here:

Note: If you have a Bridging Visa (BVA, BVB, BVC, BVD, BVE) you must have a document from the Department of Home Affairs identifying your application for a refugee, asylum seeker or humanitarian visa (as listed) to be eligible for NSW subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program.

From 1 January 2017, if you are on one of the above-listed humanitarian visas, you may be eligible for a fee exemption for training at Certificate I to Certificate IV qualification level. If you enrol into training at Diploma or Advanced Diploma qualification level you will be required to pay the relevant student fee.

For training commencing on or from 1 July 2021, access to Smart and Skilled is extended to Partner (Provisional and Migrant) visa (subclasses 309 and 100) or Partner visa (subclasses 820 and 801) holders, where the other Smart and Skilled eligibility criteria is met, and where they and can provide evidence that their sponsor (partner) holds or held one of the currently accepted *humanitarian visas (see table above). You may be eligible for a fee exemption for training at Certificate I to Certificate IV qualification level. If you enrol into training at Diploma or Advanced Diploma qualification level you will be required to pay the relevant student fee.

If you are a NSW Registered Apprentice or Trainee and a visa holder, and enrolled in NSW subsidised training under the Smart and Skilled program, your fee will be the student apprenticeship or traineeship fee.

Your fees can be paid by instalments.

However, if you haven't paid all the fees and charges that are due, we will not give you your results or any awards you may have earned, and we will take action to recover any outstanding fees.

We check your residency status

You must be truthful about your residency status if you are on a temporary visa – because we will verify it with the Department of Home Affairs.

If you make a false claim about residency status, we may exclude you from our courses.

If your temporary visa changes, or the conditions of your visa change, while you're studying with us, you must tell us. If that happens to you, tell the Temporary Visa Holder Officer at your campus about the change.

You have a responsibility to meet your visa conditions, including maintaining currency of your visa, and TAFE NSW will support you to ensure you do not breach those conditions set by the Department of Home Affairs.

See your Rights and Responsibilities as a student of TAFE NSW