On July 21st the Department of Home Affairs has updated its portal on the page dedicated to the temporary relaxation of working hours for Student Visa holders. Within the previous weeks, the number of industries allowing employees to exceed the number of hours allowed by their visas was extended by adding hospitality and tourism. These temporary amendments were promoted in response to the shortage of hospitality professionals all across Australia.
The most recent update adds to the list those international students employed within supermarkets (like Coles, Aldi, IGA, Woolworths). It is important to underline how conditional is this sort of permission by comparison with the other ones: it is only allowed to supermarket employees to exceed their prescribed working hours only if the supermarket is located within an area affected by lockdown and only for the duration of the lockdown. The other industries are not subject to geographical or temporal conditions. International students employed in hospitality or agriculture, for example, are now able to work full time across the entire nation at any time (or, at least, as long as the industry is included in the list).
Before the pandemic, it was generally allowed for Student Visa holders to work for a maximum limit of 40 hours fortnightly. Such a limitation is also known as ‘8105 Condition – Work Restriction’. This limitation remains current on any Student Visa holder who is employed in an industry other than the one listed on the departmental website. International students employed in building and construction, consultancy, manufacturing or office jobs remain limited to their average of 20 hours per week,
Official source of information <Department of Home Affairs>
Atlas Migration is a free info-point based in Sydney but operating all across Australia. If you wish to receive an answer in relation to a question concerning your Visa, migration matter, educational pathways and general information, feel free to contact our dedicated Facebook chat (click here) and one of our consultants will be at your disposal for free. We also deal with migration matters (Migration Agent consultation, Australian visas application, Citizenship request, skills assessment) and educational pathways for international students (English courses, vocational courses, University and higher education pathways).
We’d like to remind you that at this moment to people in certain parts of Australia it is requested to respect social distancing, which means keeping a 1,5 meters distance from other individuals. On the official website of your Australian state, you will be able to find additional information. To retrieve information valid on a national scale, you can visit the Department of Health official website. If you recognise in yourself symptoms similar to fever or flu, our advice is to stay home and get tested immediately. You can do so by contacting your General Practitioner or by calling the free toll number 1800 020 080.