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The Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, announced a significant change to the Australian Visitor visa program on 17 September 2026, being that visitor visas will now be granted with Condition 8503 – “No Further Stay” attached. Minister Burke explained the primary purpose of No Further Stay conditions being placed on visitor visas will be to stop non-citizens from lodging Partner visas inside Australia, although the impact of this change will be broader.
Condition 8503 “No Further Stay” prevents visa holders from making onshore applications for visas, other than bridging visas and protection visas. This condition may only be waived in exceptional circumstances – where compelling and compassionate circumstances arise following the grant of the visa that were out of the person’s control and caused a major change in their circumstances.
The Australian visitor visa program has three streams – the subclass 600 Visitor visa (open to all applicants), and the subclass 601 Electronic Travel Authority visa and subclass 651 eVisitor visa. Currently, Condition 8503 is only a mandatory condition in the Approved Destination and Sponsored Family streams of the subclass 600 Visitor visa, and discretionary in the Tourist and Business Visitor streams. Under the current law it cannot be imposed on the other two visa subclasses. Minister Burke’s Press Club announcement did not specify whether all visas in these subclasses were to face this new visa condition, but it can be assumed that at minimum, all subclass 600 Visitor visas, in any stream, will come with Condition 8503 attached. It would be consistent with Minister’s Burke’s purpose of preventing the lodgement of onshore Partner visas for changes to be made such that Condition 8503 is placed on all visitor visas.
The most obvious consequence of this is that non-citizens can no longer travel to Australia on a visitor visa, make an onshore Subclass 820/801 Partner visa application, and remain in Australia on a bridging visa for the processing period, which currently extends for years. This will push people towards the offshore Partner visa, which has been de-prioritised for processing under Ministerial Direction 117. Offshore applicants will then need to apply for visitor visas to travel to Australia to visit their sponsor during the processing period. In some circumstances these applicants will be able to remain in Australia on Bridging visas, but many will be forced to spend limited amounts of time in Australia without permission to work during the processing of their offshore Partner visas.
It is of note that Minister Burke did not announce that the Australian Government will be removing the onshore Partner visa altogether, but only limiting the circumstances in which it can be utilised. The change will not prevent Partner visas being lodged onshore by holders of other temporary visas, such as Student visas and temporary work visas. There will also be some individuals on Visitor visas who will lodge onshore Partner visas after obtaining a waiver of Condition 8503 No Further Stay, although the Department of Home Affairs long-standing position that pregnancy is insufficient to justify a No Further Stay waiver emphasises how limited this waiver is.
Increasing the use of No Further Stay conditions on Visitor visas will not only impact Partner visa processing. The processing times for other visas under the Family Migration Stream, such as Parent visas, Carer Visas and Remaining Relative visas, are so long that these visas are practically unattainable for the vast majority of applicants. The ability of individuals to apply onshore for Aged Parent visas, Aged Dependent Relative visas, Remaining Relative visas and Carer visas means that, at least, applicants who qualify for these visas can be present in Australia with family members as holders of Bridging A visas. If Condition 8503 is placed on all Visitor visas the overwhelming majority of family visas will no longer be able to be lodged onshore. Offshore processing times mean that lodging these visas offshore has no utility.
Christopher Shen, Solicitor
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