If you’re one of the thousands of international students who left your home country to study abroad in Australia, then by now, you probably know a lot about the country and enjoyed its sights and sounds. Aside from the time you spent in your Australian university, college or school, there is a bigger and brighter world outside the walls of your education provider.

Some students opt to extend their say beyond the eligibility of their Australian visa. There are hundreds of reasons to do this and some legal ways to stay in the country. This is especially true if you do not have a “No Further Stay” condition on your Australia visa.

Some of the more common reason for extending your stay while on a student visa is to continue your studies. Others in the higher education sector need to extend to have their PhD thesis assessed. If this is the case, then all that you need to do is to apply for a new student visa. There are different Australian visa options available for students. There are visas for English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS), primary or secondary school, vocational education and training, higher education, postgraduate research, non-award, AusAID and Defence and visas for Student Guardians.

You may also want to extend your stay to attend your graduation ceremony or simply to have a holiday. For this, you need to apply for an Australian tourist visa or a visitors visa. Others choose to extend their stay in Australia to work. This requires a workers visa. There’s a special type of visa that mixes both business and leisure and this is the working holiday visa. This allows you to stay in Australia to spend the holidays, at the same time allowing you to take on temporary work that lets you earn enough to pay for you vacation.

Finally, there are some students who want to extend their stay and become permanent residents in Australia. To do this, one must apply to become a permanent resident under the General Skilled Migration program.

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