Visa condition 8105: the student visa work-hours condition

What condition 8105 says

Condition 8105 has two core rules for primary student visa holders. First, you must not engage in work in Australia before your course of study commences (unless you held a visa permitting work when you applied, in which case slightly different arrangements can apply). Second, once your course has started, you must not work more than 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session.

The 48-hour cap took effect on 1 July 2023. Before the pandemic the limit was 40 hours per fortnight; work restrictions were then temporarily removed entirely from January 2022 to address workforce shortages, and were reintroduced at the higher 48-hour setting from 1 July 2023. Older material describing a 40-hour cap or 'unlimited hours' is out of date.

Outside session — during scheduled course breaks set by your education provider, and once your course has formally ended — the cap does not apply and you can work unlimited hours. What counts as a scheduled break is determined by your provider's published calendar, not by your own decision to take time off.

How the fortnight is counted

The fortnight is a defined term, and this is where most accidental breaches happen. For the purposes of condition 8105, a fortnight is the period of 14 days starting on a Monday and ending at the end of the second following Sunday.

The fortnights are rolling and overlapping: every Monday starts a new 14-day window, and your hours must stay at or under 48 in every such window while your course is in session. Working 20 hours one week and 30 the next might feel safe as a weekly average, but a heavy cluster of shifts spanning the wrong pair of weeks can push a single rolling fortnight over 48 even though no calendar fortnight does.

Because employers roster in their own cycles, students working for more than one employer face the biggest counting risk — the cap applies to your total hours across all jobs, not per employer. Keeping your own running record of hours worked, by date, is the practical way to stay on the right side of every rolling window.

Exceptions and special cases

The most significant exception concerns higher degree research students. Under the current settings, once their course has commenced, students who have started a masters by research or a doctoral degree are not subject to the hours cap. This reflects the way research study is structured — the boundary between study and paid research work is often blurred.

Work that is a registered component of your course — for example, a formal work placement that forms part of the course requirements — is generally treated differently from ordinary employment for the purposes of the cap. Volunteer work can also raise questions, since some unpaid activity still counts as work.

These boundary questions are exactly where generalisations become dangerous. The safe course is to check the current settings on the Home Affairs website, confirm what your enrolment actually is, and keep evidence. Whether a specific arrangement counts as work, in-session time or a course component in your circumstances is something a MARA-registered agent can review against the current rules.

What happens if the cap is breached

Working more than the permitted hours is a breach of a visa condition. A breach can be grounds for visa cancellation under the Migration Act's general cancellation powers, and a cancellation on these grounds creates serious flow-on problems — including potential difficulty with future visa applications.

The Department of Home Affairs can become aware of hours through a range of channels, including employer records, tax and payroll data, and information provided in later visa applications. It is a mistake to assume that cash work or short overruns are invisible.

None of this means every hour miscounted leads automatically to cancellation — the Department considers circumstances, and there are processes before a visa is cancelled, including the opportunity to respond. But the safest position is simply not to breach. If you think you may already have exceeded the cap, or you are unsure whether past work counted, do not guess about the consequences: a MARA-registered migration agent can review your situation and explain how the rules and cancellation processes apply to your specific facts.

Checking your own conditions

Not every student visa carries identical conditions, and secondary applicants — family members on a dependent student visa — have a different condition, 8104, with its own rules. Your visa grant notice lists the conditions attached to your visa, and VEVO shows your current entitlements at any time. Employers routinely check VEVO before hiring, so knowing your own conditions before a job interview avoids surprises.

If you are planning your finances around work hours, it is also worth confirming your provider's official semester dates, since the in-session cap and the unlimited-hours break periods follow the provider's calendar.

The 48-hour setting is a policy choice that has changed twice in recent years, and it can change again. Before relying on any number, check the current setting on the Home Affairs student visa pages. And if your work, study load and visa conditions interact in ways that are not obvious — placements, research candidature, multiple jobs — a MARA-registered agent can walk through how the current condition applies to your enrolment.

8105 vs 8107: two different conditions people mix up

Condition 8105 and condition 8107 look similar because both are 'work limitation' conditions in Schedule 8, and both get shortened to 'the work condition' in casual conversation — but they apply to completely different people. 8105 is the student-visa hours cap covered on this page: it limits how many hours you can work, not who you can work for.

8107 is a different clause entirely. It applies to sponsored temporary work visa holders — mainly older Subclass 457 grants and a small number of other temporary work visas — and it doesn't cap your hours at all. Instead it ties you to your sponsoring employer and your nominated occupation: you can work unlimited hours, but only in the job the visa was granted for. The closely related condition on a current Subclass 482 (Skills in Demand) visa is 8607, not 8107.

If you're a student trying to work out your hours cap, condition 8105 (this page) is what applies to you. If you're on a sponsored work visa and want to know what happens if your job ends or changes, see our /blog/visa-condition-8107-guide for the sponsored-worker version — the rules, and the risks of getting it wrong, are different.

How many hours can I work on a student visa?

Under condition 8105, primary student visa holders can work up to 48 hours per fortnight while their course is in session, and unlimited hours during scheduled course breaks and after the course ends. The 48-hour setting has applied since 1 July 2023 — check the current figure on the Home Affairs website before relying on it.

How is the fortnight calculated for the 48-hour limit?

A fortnight is the 14-day period starting on any Monday and ending on the second following Sunday. The windows roll and overlap, so your total hours across all employers must stay within 48 in every such 14-day period while your course is in session.

Do masters and PhD students have a work limit?

Under current settings, students who have commenced a masters by research or a doctoral degree are not subject to the fortnightly cap. Masters by coursework students remain subject to the 48-hour limit. Confirm how your specific enrolment is treated on the Home Affairs website or with a MARA-registered agent.

What happens if I work more than 48 hours in a fortnight?

Exceeding the cap breaches condition 8105 and can be grounds for visa cancellation, with consequences for future applications. What happens in a particular case depends on the circumstances — a MARA-registered agent can review your situation before you decide what to do next.

Is condition 8105 the same as condition 8107?

No. 8105 is the student visa hours cap (48 hours a fortnight while your course is in session). 8107 is a completely different condition that ties sponsored temporary work visa holders to their employer and nominated occupation, with no hours limit at all. If you're on a 482 visa the equivalent condition is actually 8607, not 8107 — see our condition 8107 guide for that side of it.