Ministerial Direction 111
Published:
10 February 2025
From 19 December 2024, the Australian Government implemented Ministerial Direction 111 (MD111) to process offshore student visa applications. The Australian Government has stated that the intention of MD111 is to process applications in a more balanced way across education providers, compared with the previous Ministerial Direction 107 (MD107).
Under MD111, offshore student visa applications will be processed according to two priority categories:
High Priority (Priority 1)
High priority processing will be given to visa applications for higher education providers and Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers that have not yet reached 80% of their indicative 2025 new overseas student commencements (NOSC) allocation.
Standard Priority (Priority 2)
Once 80% of a provider’s NOSC has been reached, applications will be considered as a standard priority.
There are some instances where an offshore student visa application may be exempt from processing under MD111. Regardless of the provider's NOSC level, high priority processing will still apply to all applications from:
- School students;
- Non-award sector students, including short term exchange students;
- Independent ELICOS students;
- Students enrolled with a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Provider or TAFE course with Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory;
- Students enrolled in Aviation Pilot Training Courses;
- Students in postgraduate research courses;
- Foreign Affairs Students, Defence Students and students sponsored by the Commonwealth;
- Students with foreign government, Australian Government and state and territory scholarships, as per the criteria published on the Department of Education’s website;
- Students from specific areas of the Pacific and Timor-Leste;
- Students enrolled in Transnational Education arrangements, as per the criteria published on the Department of Education and Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ websites;
- Subsequent entrants where an applicant is a minor where the minor is:
- unmarried, and has not turned 18 at the time of application; and
- either a dependent child of a primary student visa applicant, or primary student visa holder; or a dependent child of a spouse or de facto partner of a primary student visa applicant, or primary student visa holder.
This information is accurate as of 6 February 2025. For further details on the priority categories, provider NOSC allocations, and exemptions, please refer to the Study Australia website.
Education providers can find further information relating to MD111 and PRISMS via the Australian Government Department of Education website.
