Canberra Has Decided The 407 Training Visa Was A Loophole, And On 12 November It Closes

From 12 November 2026 a 407 training visa onshore application is not a valid application. Regulations made by the Governor-General on 29 October and registered the next day as F2026L01449 require a Subclass 407 applicant to be outside Australia both when they apply and when the visa is granted, unless the Minister has named their class of persons in a separate instrument.

Most founders running a team abroad will read that and feel nothing, because their person is already outside Australia. That is the interesting part. Outstaffer sells the arrangement where the person stays where they live and is properly employed there, so read on knowing that.

What the 407 training visa change actually does

The Subclass 407 is the training visa. It runs up to two years, and the explanatory statement describes it as workplace-based training to improve skills for a current occupation, an area of tertiary study or a field of expertise, or a professional development program. Until 11 November an applicant “may be in or outside Australia, but not in immigration clearance”, at application and at grant.

The amendment repeals both lines. From 12 November the applicant must be outside Australia at application under item 2 of the table in subitem 1238(3) of Schedule 1, and outside Australia at grant under clause 407.411 of Schedule 2.

It switches on lodgement date, not decision date. A new Part 167 in Schedule 13 applies the change to an application made on or after commencement, so one lodged on or before 11 November is still assessed on the old rule.

Does this touch an employee who already works for you from Manila?

No. Someone in Manila or Cebu is outside Australia, which is what the new requirement asks for. It bites the person who is already here on something else, the same population the salary floor under a sponsored visa quietly prices out.

The onshore exemption exists on paper and nowhere else

Both new provisions leave a door open. The Minister may specify, by legislative instrument under subregulation 2.07(5), classes of people who can still apply and be granted the visa in Australia. The explanatory statement says the justification would be “where it is both reasonable for a Subclass 407 visa application to be made onshore, and where it is in the nation’s interest”, and gives two examples: occupation sectors of genuine skills needs, and maintaining family unity.

As at this morning, no such instrument appears on the Federal Register of Legislation. The power is drafted. The classes are not.

Why Home Affairs closed the onshore application route

The department says it plainly, which is rarer than it sounds. The purpose is to support “a more sustainable migration system by curbing a pathway for lodging and being granted successive temporary visa applications in Australia”. It builds on sponsorship changes to the same visa that commenced on 11 March 2026, which makes two restrictions in eight months.

The consultation note is worth reading too. Commonwealth agencies were consulted during the 2026-27 Budget process, and the statement records that no further consultation was undertaken, including with the people likely to be affected.

What happens to an application lodged onshore on 12 November?

It is not refused. It is not valid, which is a different outcome. The explanatory statement preserves merits review for an applicant who has been refused, and is silent on an application that was never validly made.

Related reading

• Home Affairs Just Moved Your Own Employee To The Back Of The Queue
• Visa Sponsorship Is A Choice, And Canberra Just Narrowed The Road

What I would do before 12 November

The honest counter is that this is a narrow visa and a narrow change. Plenty of businesses have never touched a 407 and never will, and a genuine training application can still be lodged from offshore exactly as before.

If someone is here on a temporary visa and a 407 was the plan, that plan has days left and then it needs a flight. Ask what the training was for, because the move onshore is a purchase rather than a promotion. Migration settings turn on individual facts, so get advice before you lodge.

If the person was always going home afterwards, price the version where they never leave and see what the 407 training visa onshore application was really buying.

So which was it: training, or a way to keep somebody in the country?