Just graduated from UQ, QUT or Griffith? BYD’s registered agents at Eight Mile Plains help Brisbane graduates apply for the 485 temporary graduate visa. Call us.
The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) lets international students who’ve finished a qualification in Australia stay on to live and work here temporarily after they graduate. If you’ve just wrapped up a degree at UQ, QUT, Griffith or one of Brisbane’s other institutions, the 485 is usually the visa that keeps you here while you gain work experience and plan your next move. BYD Education & Immigration Consultants helps Brisbane graduates get it lodged properly, from our office at Eight Mile Plains.
Our migration work is led by a registered migration agent (MARN 1794201), and our education side means we understand the study-to-work journey from both ends.
The 485 is a temporary visa for recent graduates of Australian courses. It gives you full work rights for a set period, so you can build real professional experience, which often feeds straight into a permanent residency plan later. There are different streams depending on your qualification and field, and the length of stay varies with the type of degree you completed.
Broadly, you’ll generally need to:
Have recently completed a qualification that meets the Australian study requirement.
Be under the age limit that applies to the visa.
Hold or have recently held an eligible student visa.
Meet English, health, character and health-insurance requirements.
The exact stream, the study requirement and the age limit are the parts that catch people out, so it’s worth confirming your eligibility before your student visa runs low. See our Temporary Graduate Visa (485) page for the full detail.
The most common mistake we see is graduates leaving the 485 too late. Your eligibility is tied to when you complete your course and when your results are released, and there are windows you need to lodge within. Brisbane’s big universities release results and confer degrees on their own schedules, and the gap between your last exam and your official completion date can affect your timing. We help you work backwards from your completion date so you don’t miss a window or let your student visa lapse.
If you’re a UQ graduate at St Lucia, a QUT graduate at Gardens Point or Kelvin Grove, or a Griffith graduate at Nathan or the Mount Gravatt campus just up the road from our office, the principle is the same: get your evidence ready early. That means your testamur or completion letter, your academic transcript, your English result and your police checks, all lined up before you lodge.
For a lot of our clients, the 485 isn’t the destination. It’s the bridge. The work experience you gain on a 485 can lift your points for skilled migration, and Australian work experience in your nominated occupation is exactly the kind of thing that helps with a 190 Queensland nomination. Because we handle both the graduate visa and the skilled pathways, we can plan the whole run with you now, rather than leaving you to rethink everything when the 485 is close to expiring.
We’re at Eight Mile Plains, on Brisbane’s south side, near the Griffith Mount Gravatt campus and an easy trip from the city and the university precincts. A lot of Brisbane graduates come in for a session to map out the 485 and what comes after, because it’s easier to plan the next few years across a table than over email. If you’d rather do it online, that’s fine too. You get the same registered agent.
We confirm which 485 stream you qualify for and check your study and age eligibility.
We map your lodgement timing against your course completion so you don’t miss a window.
We prepare your evidence, including the police checks and health insurance the visa needs.
We plan the longer game, so your 485 work experience supports skilled migration later.
We meet you at Eight Mile Plains or work with you online.
No, but you’re welcome to. We’re at Garden City Office Park, Eight Mile Plains, close to the Griffith Mount Gravatt campus and an easy run from St Lucia, Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. There’s parking on site. Many graduates do the whole application online, and some prefer to come in and plan it out in person.
Graduates of registered Australian courses that meet the Australian study requirement, whether you studied at UQ, QUT, Griffith, ACU or another registered provider in Brisbane. The stream and length of stay depend on your qualification, which we’ll confirm for you.
Soon after you complete your course and receive your results, and while you still hold an eligible visa. There are time windows, so leaving it late is risky. We work backwards from your completion date to keep you on track.
It depends on your qualification and stream. Some graduates get a couple of years, others longer. We’ll tell you what applies to your degree.
Yes. The 485 gives you full work rights while it’s valid, which is what makes it so useful for building the experience that supports permanent residency.
Ideally you’ve used the time to build points for skilled migration, or found an employer to sponsor you. We plan this with you early so the end of your 485 isn’t a scramble. In some cases a second graduate visa or an extension may be possible.
Yes, you generally need adequate health cover for the visa. We’ll make sure that box is ticked before you lodge.
In many cases you can include a partner or dependent family in your 485 application. There are extra requirements and costs, and we’ll talk you through them.
