Home Affairs is currently in the process of reviewing and revising evidentiary requirements for student visa applicants from certain countries.
In the meantime, major change is announced in relation to applicants from Nepal wishing to lodge their student visa application from 1 May 2019 and study in VET sector will be required to provide evidence of English as well as financial capacity (irrespective of whether the application will be processed under streamlined arrangements).
As this is a new arrangement, the existing document check tool may not necessarily reflect this new arrangement until the system is fully updated.
As some readers may recall, student visa framework was reviewed in 2016 whereby the combined country and education provider evidence framework became based on immigration outcomes, and guides whether a visa applicant is required to provide evidence of English language proficiency and financial capability at the time of the student visa application.
There is no connection between the evidence framework and the quality of an education provider.
Under the simplified student visa framework (SSVF) each country and each Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS)-registered education provider is allocated an evidence level. Education provider and country evidence levels are then combined to guide financial and English evidence requirements for student visa applicants.
All education providers have access to the benefits of streamlined evidence requirements. Education providers that obtain the lowest evidence level have streamlined evidence requirements for all countries, while education providers with the highest evidence level only receive these benefits for students from the lowest evidence level countries.
Where streamlined evidence requirements apply, the student visa applicant will generally be able to satisfy the department of their financial capacity by declaration and they will not generally need to provide evidence their English proficiency. However, we can request further evidence where appropriate.
Where regular evidence requirements apply the student will generally be required to provide evidence of their financial and English language capacity.