Hongkongers aiming to settle in Australia through a bespoke study-to-migrate pathway will not be exempt from new rules barring applicants from bringing along their families, the country’s home affairs authorities have said.

The new rules, announced last month, have raised concerns among some Hongkongers, especially those who had hoped to bring their families while pursuing their studies in Australia before applying for temporary graduate visas to settle in the country.

On September 17, Tony Burke, who serves as both Australia’s minister for home affairs and as its minister for immigration and citizenship, said authorities would no longer allow international students to attach family members to their student or graduate visas. But he added that the government would not break up “families onshore”.

“We will no longer be adding to the stock of students automatically being able to bring family members over,” he said. The rules were revised as the Australian government faces mounting pressure from Pauline Hanson, leader of the far-right One Nation party, who has blamed the country’s housing crisis on migration.

But exemptions have been granted to certain countries and students.

“We have special visa conditions, which will still allow it for the Pacific and for the Asean nations, and for certain courses, for example, PhD courses, they’ll be able to bring family,” Burke said earlier.

Last week, the South China Morning Post contacted the Australian Department of Home Affairs for comment on how the latest rules would affect the Hong Kong Stream launched in March 2022.

The pathway allows Hong Kong and British National (Overseas) passport holders to graduate from Australian universities and then live in the country for three or four years on temporary graduate visas, after which they are eligible to apply for permanent residency. Australia, in the same vein as Britain and Canada, offered its bespoke immigration pathway for Hongkongers after Beijing imposed the national security law on the city in 2020.

The scheme was described as a study-to-migrate immigration pathway under which student visa holders could bring their families. “There are no general exemptions for Hong Kong citizens and British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders for changes restricting the ability of student and temporary graduate visa applicants to include family members in their application,” a department spokesman said.

“Family members will not be allowed to apply for a student or temporary graduate visa as a secondary applicant after the main applicant has been granted a visa. This will apply to all current and future student and temporary graduate visa holders onshore and offshore.” The spokesman added that applicants for permanent residency would continue to be able to include family members in their visa applications.

Australia issued 11,594 student visas for higher education and 1,354 related dependant visas to Hongkongers between July 2022 and June 2026. The number of such student visas issued between July 2002 and June 2023, the first financial year of the pathway’s launch in Australia, reached 3,831, marking a 13-year high. The number of dependant visas during that period also shot up to an unprecedentedly high level of 608, compared with an average of 100 annually. Both numbers have come down significantly after the emigration wave subsided.

Jane Poon, a leader of community group Australia-Hong Kong Link, said she hoped the country’s government could offer exemptions to temporary graduate visa applicants who had already brought their families over. “We are preparing to submit our views to the Home Affairs Department to reflect the concerns of Hong Kong students who now study in Australia and the ones who are ready to use the pathway to move to Australia,” she said.

Willy Kwong, general manager at AAS Education Consultancy specialising in Australian overseas education and aed migration agent in the country, said that while the details had yet to be worded in legislation, the new rules would generally affect two groups of people from Hong Kong.

The first was those still planning to migrate with their whole families to Australia under the bespoke pathway, as they might be unable to use student visas to bring their dependants, while the second was those set to graduate and apply for dependant visas for their families, he said.

But Kwong said he did not think banning student visa holders from applying for dependant visas would reduce the number of people going to Australia to study higher education.

But Kwong said he did not think banning student visa holders from applying for dependant visas would reduce the number of people going to Australia to study higher education.

“The new policy would have minimal effect on the general high school and school leavers to [Australia’s] higher education market. Having dependant options is not a key consideration when choosing a study destination,” he said.

“Factors like university rankings, subject rankings, career outlook, quality of teaching, cost of living remain the primary concerns.” He also noted that fewer than 200 dependant visas were issued to the families of student visa holders between July 2025 and June last year, which accounted for less than 8 per cent of the total number of student visa holders.

Over the same period, Australia issued 2,446 student visas to Hongkongers who had pursued higher education in Australia – a record low since such data became available from 2005-06.