Bringing your partner and children on an Australian student visa

Who counts as a dependant on a student visa

Two categories of family member can be included on a subclass 500 application: a partner (a spouse, or a de facto partner who meets the relationship-length and evidence requirements Home Affairs applies generally), and dependent children — your own or your partner's children under 18, or a child aged 18 to under 23 who is wholly or substantially reliant on you (or your partner) for financial support to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter, or who can't support themselves because of a physical or cognitive limitation. From 23 onward, only the physical-or-cognitive-limitation basis applies — full-time study on its own doesn't qualify a child as dependent at any age. In every band the child must also be unmarried, not engaged to be married and not in a de facto relationship (Migration Regulations reg 1.05A).

Dependants can be included at the time of the original application or added afterwards through a separate process once you're already in Australia — the mechanics differ (adding a family member mid-visa is a distinct application, not a form update), so if your family situation changes after you've already been granted your visa, that's worth checking against the current process rather than assuming it's automatic.

A dependant on your visa gets their own visa grant with its own conditions — it isn't a plus-one attached to yours. Their work rights, health cover requirements, and study conditions are determined separately, even though the application was linked to yours.

School fees for dependent children — a genuine state-by-state trap

This is where people get caught out. A school-age dependent child on a student visa is generally treated as an international student for school-fee purposes in most states, and the fee is charged by the state or territory education department, not the school itself — but the amount, the exemptions, and even whether a fee applies at all vary enormously between states and change from year to year.

Some patterns are worth knowing in general terms: several states charge a per-term or per-year tuition fee for dependants of temporary visa holders enrolling in government schools, with the amount often set by a published fee schedule specific to the visa subclass and the education sector the primary visa holder is studying in. Other states apply narrower exemptions — for example, waiving fees for dependants of certain skilled or employer-sponsored visa holders — that don't necessarily extend to dependants of student visa holders in the same way.

Because these fee schedules are set independently by each state education department and are revised annually, the only reliable way to get the actual number for your situation is to check directly with the relevant state department (each publishes an international-student or overseas-student fee page) or with the school your child will attend, before you budget or enrol. Treat any specific dollar figure you've seen on a forum as out of date the moment you read it.

For the school enrolment process itself — as opposed to the fee question — see our guides on enrolling your child in an Australian school and schooling migrant children in Australia.

Partner work rights — depends on your course level, not a fixed rule

A common question is whether a partner included on a student visa can work, and how much. The honest general answer is: it depends on the primary applicant's course level, and the specific entitlement is stated on the partner's own visa grant notice — it isn't the same for every student visa family.

As a general shape: partners of students in most higher education, postgraduate, and research-level courses tend to have broader work rights than partners of students in lower-level or preparatory courses, and — as covered in our working-hours-cap article — partners of masters-by-research and doctoral students specifically get unlimited hours once the primary applicant's course has started.

Because the exact entitlement is condition-specific and tied to your particular visa grant, this is squarely the kind of question to confirm against your own grant notice in ImmiAccount rather than infer from a general article, and it's worth a five-minute conversation with a MARA-registered migration agent if anything looks unclear before your partner accepts a job. On Migratio you describe your situation once and compare consultation fees from MARA-registered agents (comparing is free; consults are typically $150–$300 and you pay only if you book).

Health cover for dependants

Every visa holder on a subclass 500, including dependants, needs to be covered by Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) for the duration of their stay — it isn't optional and it isn't automatically included just because the primary applicant is covered. Most OSHC providers offer family or couple policies that cover the whole household under one plan, generally at a lower combined cost than separate single policies, though the difference in inclusions between a family policy and multiple single policies (automatic pregnancy cover being the clearest example) is worth checking before you choose the cheaper option purely on price.

For a full breakdown of what OSHC covers, how family and couple pricing compares, and how to switch or extend cover, see our OSHC for student visa guide.

Practical steps if you're planning to bring family

Confirm eligibility first — check that your partner and any children genuinely meet the dependant definitions before you count on including them, particularly for a de facto partner or an adult child claiming ongoing dependency.

Budget for the real costs, not just the visa charge — a dependent family member attracts their own visa application charge (see our visa fees guide for current figures), plus OSHC for the whole household, plus any state school fees if you have school-age children, plus the higher cost of living for a family versus a single student.

Check the timing — including dependants at the original application versus adding them later can have different processing timeframes and evidence requirements, so don't assume 'add them later' is simpler just because it feels less urgent right now.

Get the partner work-rights answer in writing from your own grant notice, not from a forum thread or a friend's experience — as covered above, it genuinely varies by course level and isn't a single rule you can apply from someone else's case.

Can I bring my partner and children on an Australian student visa?

Yes — a subclass 500 can include a partner (spouse or eligible de facto partner) and dependent children as secondary applicants, either in the original application or added afterwards. Each dependant gets their own visa grant with its own conditions, not a shared entitlement copied from yours.

Do I have to pay school fees for my child on a student visa?

In most states, yes — dependent school-age children of student visa holders are generally charged tuition fees by the state education department, but the amount, the exemptions and even whether a fee applies vary widely by state and change annually. Check directly with the relevant state education department or the school before budgeting.

Can my partner work if I'm on a student visa?

It depends on your course level — the specific entitlement is stated on your partner's own visa grant notice, not a single fixed rule. Partners of masters-by-research and doctoral students get unlimited work rights once the primary applicant's course starts; other course levels carry different conditions.

Does my whole family need OSHC if they're on my student visa?

Yes — every visa holder in the household, including dependants, needs Overseas Student Health Cover for the duration of their stay. Family and couple OSHC policies cover the household under one plan, generally at a lower combined cost than separate single policies.