Australia Student Visa (Subclass 500): Official Listing, Charge, Genuine Student

Quick Summary Matrix

Item	Home Affairs / Education (retrieved 27 August 2026)
Visa	Student visa subclass 500
Stay	Up to 5 years, in line with enrolment
Charge from 1 July 2026	From AUD 2,500.00 (concessions apply)
Estimator	Visa Pricing Estimator — does not include tuition, OSHC, flights
Genuine Student	Required — official GS page, not a Zinjet score
Lodged before 14 Nov 2025	Ministerial Direction 111
Lodged on/after 14 Nov 2025	Ministerial Direction 115
2026 commencements plan	NPL 295,000 — NPL guide

Official listing: Student visa (subclass 500)

Zinjet lists AU programmes; we are not the visa office.

Official source first

Australia’s student visa is subclass 500. Fees, proof of funds, Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC), and the Genuine Student requirement are set by the Department of Home Affairs, not by Zinjet.

Read and apply from the official listing. Use the estimator for your charge. Confirm funds and document lists on the same site.

Step-by-step

1. Pick a CRICOS-registered course — browse Australia programmes. Tuition and intakes stay blank when the school did not list them.
2. Offer / CoE — the school issues a Confirmation of Enrolment for a full-time registered course. No CoE, no 500.
3. NPL / provider allocation — the school must have commencement places under the 2026 National Planning Level. If their PRISMS allocation is used, they cannot commence you. NPL 2026.
4. OSHC — health insurance for the visa period. Home Affairs requires it; Zinjet does not sell policies.
5. Genuine Student — read GS. Prepare evidence that matches your circumstances. We do not run a GS score.
6. Funds — whatever Home Affairs lists this week for living, travel, and remaining tuition. Do not paste a 2024 blog number into ImmiAccount.
7. Pay the visa charge — from AUD 2,500 from 1 July 2026. Concessions: eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens, eligible ASEAN citizens, some ELICOS / Non-Award lodgements. Run the estimator.
8. Lodge in ImmiAccount. Processing follows MD 115 if you lodge on or after 14 November 2025.
9. Use the processing-time tool on Home Affairs. It is a guide for recently decided files, not a promise.

Visa charge (Home Affairs)

The listing says the visa application charge increased from 1 July 2026 and the cost is from AUD 2,500.00.

A lower visa cost applies to:

• eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens
• eligible ASEAN citizens
• applicants in the ELICOS and Non-Award sector who lodge a valid Student visa application

See “About this visa” on the listing. Work out your charge with the official estimator.

Nigeria is not on the Pacific/Timor concession. ASEAN concession is for eligible ASEAN citizens, not “anyone applying from Lagos.”

Genuine Student

Home Affairs requires applicants to meet the Genuine Student criterion. That is a Home Affairs assessment of whether you are a genuine student — course choice, study history, circumstances in your home country, and the rest of their page.

Genuine Student requirement

Zinjet does not:

• sell “GS templates”
• score your chances
• invent a word-count for your statement

If a counsellor guarantees GS, they are not Home Affairs.

Ministerial Directions 111 and 115

On the same listing:

• applications lodged before 14 November 2025 follow Ministerial Direction 111
• applications on or after 14 November 2025 follow Ministerial Direction 115

That is processing priority across providers and sectors, not a secret Zinjet queue. New 2026 lodgements are MD 115.

Stay, work, family

Home Affairs: stay up to 5 years and in line with your enrolment. A one-year master is not a five-year visa just because 5 is on the overview.

Work hours, family, and condition 8202/8105 live on the “When you have this visa” section of the listing. We will not invent hour caps here if we have not re-quoted them from that section in this retrieval. Open the listing.

Proof of funds — what we will not print

Older articles quote a single savings figure as if it were eternal. Home Affairs updates living-cost settings. This page does not copy a funds number that we cannot re-verify on the live listing in this session.

What you should do:

1. Open the subclass 500 page.
2. Open the documents / financial-capacity section.
3. Use that amount plus remaining tuition plus travel.
4. Keep evidence that the money is yours or a listed sponsor’s, with a source.

If a blog still quotes a single frozen savings figure from a previous year, treat it as unverified until Home Affairs shows it.

How this sits with the NPL

The National Planning Level (295,000 new overseas student commencements in 2026) is a Department of Education planning number. It is not the visa. A grant of subclass 500 does not help if the provider has no commencement allocation left. Read Australia 2026 NPL.

Refusal patterns

1. No CoE, or CoE for a course that is not CRICOS-registered.
2. Provider out of NPL allocation — they should not have issued the CoE.
3. GS statement that is generic (copy-paste “I love Australia”).
4. Funds evidence that does not match the current Home Affairs setting.
5. Using a Pacific concession when you are not eligible.
6. Lodging on the wrong passport / wrong name vs CoE.

Real-world scenarios

One-year master, Nigeria passport, lodge 2026

Pay from AUD 2,500 unless a listed concession applies (it likely does not). MD 115. GS + current funds. School must have 2026 NOSC allocation.

ELICOS then bachelor

ELICOS may have a lower visa charge if you meet the listing’s ELICOS/Non-Award concession. The bachelor CoE is a separate enrolment. Do not assume one visa charge covers a packaged three-year degree without reading the estimator.

ASEAN citizen applying from Lagos

If you are an eligible ASEAN citizen, the listing says a lower cost may apply. Citizenship, not the city you lodged from, is the test. Confirm in the estimator.

Checklists

Before you pay the school

• Course is CRICOS-registered
• School still has 2026 commencement allocation
• Offer / CoE name matches your passport

Before you lodge ImmiAccount

• CoE in hand
• OSHC arranged for the visa period
• GS evidence is yours, not a template
• Funds from the live Home Affairs page
• Estimator run the same week (AUD 2,500 floor unless concession)
• You know you are on MD 115

OSHC, CRICOS, and CoE — three acronyms that block lodgement

• CRICOS — the course must be registered for international students. A domestic-only degree cannot carry a 500.
• CoE — Confirmation of Enrolment from that CRICOS course, name matching the passport.
• OSHC — health cover for the proposed visa period. Home Affairs requires it. Buy from a provider the school or Home Affairs recognises; we do not name a brand here.

If any of the three is missing, ImmiAccount will not save you.

Processing-time tool vs “my agent said 10 days”

Home Affairs publishes a guide based on recently decided applications. It is not your personal SLA. MD 115 changes priority, not physics. Lodge complete. Incomplete GS or funds evidence sits.

After a grant

Read the visa grant notice. Conditions (work, study load, no further stay) are on that notice and on “When you have this visa.” Arrive in line with enrolment. If the provider is out of NPL allocation between grant and start, email the school immediately — a visa in the passport cannot commence you against PRISMS.

How Zinjet fits

• Browse Australia programmes
• Blanks stay blank
• After an offer, visa filing is yours (or a licensed adviser)
• Get started · Contact

Related resources

• Australia 2026 NPL
• Subclass 500 listing
• Genuine Student
• Visa Pricing Estimator