The Temporary Graduate visa in plain terms — the six-month deadline, the under-35 rule, what it costs, and the traps that end applications.
Most students who stay in Australia after graduating do it on the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485). It has hard edges — a six-month application window, an age ceiling, and an English-test requirement — that catch people who assume it works like the student visa did.
Nearly every international student has a version of the same plan: graduate, work in Australia for a while, then decide — stay longer, go home, or go elsewhere. The visa that makes the middle step possible is the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), and it rewards people who prepare one semester early.
The 485 is not a PR pathway by itself — it's the window in which you make one happen or don't. Employer sponsorship, state nomination, points-tested visas: all of these are competitive, all shift yearly, and none are guaranteed by having studied here. If permanent residency is your goal, spend the first months of your 485 talking to a MARA-registered migration agent about your occupation and points — and treat anyone selling certainty as selling something else.
Plenty of graduates also use the 485 exactly as designed: two or three years of real Australian work experience, then a strong CV somewhere else in the world. That's not a failure case. That's the visa working.
The Post-Higher Education Work stream covers university graduates: bachelor's and master's graduates generally get 2 years (3 for some qualifications and for some passport holders under specific arrangements); research master's and PhD graduates get 3 years. Vocational qualifications go through a different stream with shorter stays. Exact durations shift with policy — confirm on the Home Affairs page for your situation before planning around a number.
You must apply within 6 months of your course completion date (the date on your completion letter, not graduation ceremony), and you must be under 35 when you apply (under 50 for research master's/PhD graduates and certain passport holders, e.g. Hong Kong/BNO). Miss either gate and there is no 485 for you — no extensions, no exceptions for 'I didn't know'.
You'll need: a valid English test result (e.g. IELTS 6.5 overall / 5.5 each band, or equivalent — tests are valid for 1 year at application for this purpose, so don't sit it too early), an Australian Federal Police check APPLICATION receipt (apply before you lodge), adequate health insurance (OSHC ends with your student status; you'll need OVHC-type cover), and your completion letter from the university.
The base application charge is around $4,600 (as of March 2026) for the primary applicant — plus the English test (~$400), AFP check (~$42), health insurance, and potentially a medical. Call it $5,500+ all-in. Start setting this aside in your final year; the number surprises people at exactly the moment their student income stops.
Lodging a valid application before your student visa expires puts you on a bridging visa with (typically) full work rights once the student visa ends. That means the smart sequence in your final semester is: book English test → order completion letter the day results release → AFP check → lodge. Students who run this sequence calmly convert straight into full-time work; students who improvise often burn months of their eventual 485 time waiting on documents.
Your 2–3 years run from visa grant even if you spend eight months job-hunting. Treat the job search as starting in your final semester, not after graduation — the visa is too short to spend a third of it warming up.
With narrow exceptions, you get one 485 in this stream. If you're considering a second qualification purely to reset visa time, get advice from a REGISTERED migration agent (check the MARA register) — not an education agent with an enrolment commission, and not a group chat.
Course completion is when the university formally notifies results/completion — often weeks before the ceremony. The 6-month window runs from that date. People have missed the window waiting for a graduation ceremony that was itself inside it.