Changes to the Migration Act 1958 affecting some student visa reviews come into effect today.

The changes require the Tribunal to make decisions about reviews of most student visa refusals without holding an oral hearing. 

What this means for your case

Except in very limited circumstances, we must decide your case without a hearing if:

• you have already applied for a review of a student visa refusal, but your case has not yet been constituted (assigned) to a Tribunal member, or
• you lodge a new application for a review of a student visa refusal on and from 1 June 2026.

If you have already applied for a review, we will contact you to give you more information if these changes to the law affect your review.

If you have already received a hearing listing notice from us, your hearing will go ahead as planned.

Next steps

You do not need to contact us about your review if you think your case will be affected. We will write to you to tell you about the next steps as soon as we can.

For more information, you can read the frequently asked questions about these changes.