Camila arrived on a student visa and soon started working at a café. Two shifts a week — it felt manageable. Then she took on a second job at a supermarket on weekends to cover rent. Separately, each job seemed within the limit. Together, they added up to more than 60 hours in the fortnight. By the time the ABF notified her college, Camila had exceeded the limit for 14 consecutive fortnights.

The rule — Condition 8105

The student visa (subclass 500) is issued with Condition 8105, which sets the work limits permitted during the course period.

Limit during the academic term — 48 hours per fortnight. The limit applies to the total of all jobs combined, without exception.

During official school holidays — no hour limit. The holidays must be recorded in the institution's official calendar as registered under CRICOS.

The 48-hour limit is not per job. If you work 30 hours in one place and 25 in another in the same fortnight, you have exceeded the limit — even if each individual employer is unaware of the combined total.

What counts as work

For the purposes of Condition 8105, work is any paid activity, regardless of format:

  • Formal employment with a contract and payslip
  • Casual or informal work, including cash payments
  • Work under an ABN as a sole trader or independent contractor
  • Paid internships outside the course curriculum

What doesn't count

Some activities are not included in the 48-hour calculation:

  • Mandatory work placements integrated into the CRICOS institution's curriculum (work-integrated learning)
  • Genuine voluntary activities with no direct or indirect remuneration
  • Doctoral (PhD) and research master's degree courses — students in these categories have no work hour limit

How the government detects breaches

The monitoring of international students' work is more sophisticated than many people realise — and it doesn't rely on inspectors in the field.

Single Touch Payroll (ATO) — employers report payments to the ATO in real time, every time a payroll is processed. The system automatically cross-references this data against migration records.

Superannuation — super deposits made in a worker's name reveal patterns of employment over time, including how many simultaneous employers there are.

Employer reports to the DIBP — employers who hire international students are required to verify visa conditions via VEVO before engaging them. Some instances of non-compliance reach the department through this channel.

ABF audits in high-risk sectors — hospitality, construction, retail and agribusiness have a history of students exceeding their hours and receive particular attention.

Consequences

The severity of the consequences depends on your migration history, the extent of the breach and how you respond when notified.

First detected breach — usually results in a formal warning with a requirement to provide a written explanation (response to intention to cancel). In cases with a clean history and demonstrated good faith, it may be resolved without cancellation.

Repeated breaches or serious excess — visa cancellation is the most common outcome. The student receives a notice to leave the country within a specified timeframe.

Long-term consequences — a visa cancellation for a breach of conditions creates a permanent record in your migration history. This record is consulted in all future visa applications, including work visas, permanent residency and citizenship. The consequences can extend for decades.

For context — 63% of working students regularly reach the maximum

A Parliamentary Budget Office survey (2024) indicates that approximately 63% of international students who work regularly reach the 48-hour fortnight limit. The high prevalence does not reduce the risk: enforcement has been increasing and the consequences of a detected breach are the same regardless of how many others do the same.

How to monitor your hours

Keeping track is straightforward and takes less than two minutes per shift.

"Record My Hours" app from Fair Work — developed by the Fair Work Ombudsman, it's free and records hours with GPS confirmation. It works across multiple employers and lets you see the total hours in the current fortnight at a glance.

VEVO — the Visa Entitlement Verification Online lets you check your visa conditions at any time. Useful for confirming whether the academic term is active or whether you are technically on school holidays.

A simple spreadsheet — date, employer, hours worked. Separate columns for each job, with an automatic sum. The rolling fortnight total must stay below 48.

Getting into the habit of logging your hours as you leave each shift, before you get home, prevents the numbers from getting lost over the weeks.

Official sources