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Understanding your work limits is crucial — breaching them can affect your visa.

Current Work Limits

As of 2025, student visa holders can work:

• Up to 48 hours per fortnight while your course is in session
• Unlimited hours during scheduled course breaks

What Counts as "Work"?

• Paid employment ✓
• Unpaid internships that would normally be paid ✓
• Volunteer work does NOT count toward your limit

Important Points

Fortnight Calculation

A fortnight is any 14-day period starting from your first day of work. Some students misunderstand this as a calendar fortnight.

Course Breaks

"Scheduled breaks" means official university breaks listed in your course timetable — not just any time you don't have classes.

Keeping Records

Keep your own records of hours worked. If there's ever a question, you'll want proof.

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Pro tip: Always check the official Home Affairs website for the most current rules, as they can change.

How the 48-hour fortnight is actually counted

Home Affairs counts a fortnight as any 14-day period beginning on a Monday. It is not a rolling 14 days and it is not your employer's pay cycle. If your workplace pays weekly on a Thursday, you still have to track Monday-to-Sunday pairs yourself.

Worked example:

Fortnight (Mon-Sun x2)	Hours worked	Status
2-15 March	46	Compliant
16-29 March	51	Breach - 3 hours over
30 March-12 April	40	Compliant

The breach in the middle fortnight cannot be "averaged out" by the quiet fortnights either side. Each fortnight stands alone.

What counts toward the limit

Counts:

• Any paid work, including cash-in-hand work
• Paid internships and paid placements that are not a formal course requirement
• Self-employment, ABN work, food delivery and rideshare
• Work performed for an overseas employer while you are physically in Australia

Does not count:

• Genuinely voluntary work for a not-for-profit where no one is paid for the role
• Unpaid work experience that is a mandatory, assessed component of your registered course
• Work done after your course has finished but before your visa expires (unrestricted in most cases)

When unlimited hours apply

You can work unlimited hours during scheduled course breaks published by your provider - semester breaks, mid-year break, and the period after your final results are released if you have completed your course. You can also work unlimited hours if your course has been suspended by the provider through no fault of your own.

You cannot self-declare a break. If you drop to part-time study or defer, the 48-hour cap still applies.

Aged care and specific sector concessions

The blanket work-hour exemption that ran during the pandemic has ended. A narrow concession remains for students working in aged care for an approved provider where the employment began before the concession cut-off date. Check your own visa grant letter on VEVO rather than relying on what a manager tells you - employers are frequently wrong about this.

What happens if you go over

Exceeding the cap breaches visa condition 8105. Consequences range from a warning to visa cancellation under section 116 of the Migration Act. In practice, cancellation is most likely where the breach is large, repeated, or discovered alongside another issue such as non-attendance.

If you have already gone over:

1. Stop immediately and reduce hours for the following fortnights.
2. Write down what happened and why, with payslips attached.
3. Get advice from a registered migration agent or your university's international student adviser before contacting Home Affairs.

Do not resign in a panic and do not ask an employer to alter payslips - that turns a condition breach into a far more serious matter.

How to keep clean records

• Photograph or download every payslip the week you receive it.
• Keep a simple spreadsheet with the fortnight start date, hours, and employer.
• If you have two jobs, track combined hours - the cap applies across all employment, not per job.
• Save your provider's published academic calendar showing break dates.

Frequently asked questions

Does my partner on a 500 dependant visa have the same limit? A dependant of a student doing a bachelor's degree is generally limited to 48 hours a fortnight. Dependants of masters by research and PhD students usually have unlimited work rights. Check the grant letter.

Do overtime and public holiday shifts count differently? No. Hours are hours, regardless of the rate paid.

Can I work more if I am doing an internship for credit? Mandatory, course-assessed placements sit outside the cap. Optional internships you found yourself do not.