What are the Temporary Graduate - 485 visa requirements?

Amasha
January 12, 2024
Last updated October 11, 2025
4 min read
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The streams available for this visa

The Temporary Graduate Visa SC 485 has 4 streams from which you can apply through. They are:

  1. Post-Vocational Education Work stream

  2. Post-Higher Education Work

  3. Second Post-Higher Education Work

It’s important that you select the correct stream depending on your circumstances for a successful visa outcome.

Requirements for specific streams

In addition to the general eligibility criteria, there are specific requirements to be fulfilled for the respective streams.

  • Post-Vocational Education Work stream

    • Be under 35 years of age or can be under 50 years of age if you hold a Hong Kong or British National Overseas passport.

    • Have at least a diploma or a trade qualification

    • Nominate an occupation on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL)

    • Have a positive skill assessment

  • Post-Higher Education Work stream 

    • Be under 35 years of age or can be above 50 years if you have a Masters (research) or Doctoral Degree (PhD) or hold a Hong Kong or British National Overseas passport.

    • Have a bachelors, masters or doctoral qualification

  • Second Post-Higher Education Work stream 

    • Be under 35 years of age or can be above 50 years if you have a Masters (research) or Doctoral Degree (PhD) for the grant of your first SC 485 visa or hold a Hong Kong or British National Overseas passport.

    • Have a bachelors, masters or doctoral qualification

    • Have studied at an education provider that is in a designated regional area.

    • Must have studied, lived and worked in regional area for at least 2 years

What is the Australian Study requirement?

Fulfilling the Australian Study requirement means meeting the criteria set out by the department. You must essentially:

  • Have a degree, diploma or a trade qualification

  • Have a CRICOS-registered course

  • Have successfully completed all course requirements

  • Course be taught in English

  • The course must be for at least two academic years (92) weeks

  • Complete the course in Australia in not less than 16 calendar months

  • Have held an Australian visa that allows to study.

What are the designated regional areas in Australia in relation to the SC 485 visa?

For migration purposes, the majority of Australia's areas outside of the country's three largest cities; Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are categorized as designated regional areas. There are two categories of regional areas Category 2 and Category 3.

Category 2 have ‘Cities and Major Regional Centres’ of Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, Wollongong/Illawarra, Geelong and Hobart.

Anyone who belong to the Category 2 will enjoy benefits of priority processing of their visas, access to regional occupation list and get an extra year a on a post-study work visa if you have a degree.

Category 3 have ‘Regional Centres and Other Regional Areas’ with dedicated 11,200 regional places. The post codes can be accessed here.

Individuals who belong to Category 3 will enjoy the benefits same as individuals in Category 2. They will have additional benefits like an extra 2 year on a post-study work visa if you have a degree and have priority in negotiating region-specific Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs).

What are the required documents?

  • Identity documents

  • Academic documents

    • Transcripts

    • Completion letter from the Australian education institution

  • English language proficiency documents

    • IELTS/PTE/TOEFL etc

  • Health insurance documents

    • Overseas Visitor Health Cover

    • Medicare card or proof of your enrolment with Medicare

  • Skill Assessment documents

  • Character documents

    • Police certificates from each country you've resided in for 12 months or more during the past 10 years.

    • Police certificate from AFP

    • Form 80 Personal particulars for character assessment

    • Form 1221 additional personal particulars information

  • Family documents

    • Marriage certificate or de facto registration certificate

    • Passports of your spouse/de factor partner and children

    • Birth certificates of your children

Keith James

Keith James

Keith is a graduate of Monash Law School. He moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2014 and has a passion for working with migrants, who aspire to call Australia their dream home. Being a migrant himself, he has a tremendous capacity to empathise with the problems his clients face and focuses on providing them with outcomes that leads to Permanent Residency in the shortest possible time.

Keith practices in all aspects of Migration law, with a particular focus on Skilled Migration and Family visas. He stays abreast on the latest updates in state nomination criteria and has a wide range of options available to assist his clients navigate their migration aspirations.

  • LLB (Monash University, Australia)
  • Member (Law Institute of Victoria)
  • Member (Migration Institute of Australia)

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