Subclass 407 Training Visa: You Must Now Apply From Outside Australia
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From 12 November 2026, you must be outside Australia when you apply for a subclass 407 Training visa, and outside Australia when it is granted. If you apply while you are in Australia, the application is invalid. The Department is explicit that this applies even if ImmiAccount lets you submit it.
That is a harder rule than it first appears. An invalid application does not pause your current visa, does not attract a bridging visa, and the decision that it is invalid cannot be reviewed. This guide sets out what changed, who is caught, and what to do if you are in Australia right now.
Affected by the 407 change? Our work visa lawyers in Sydney can check your status and sequence your departure, sponsorship and lodgement before your current visa expires.
Rule | Before 12 November 2026 | Now |
|---|---|---|
Where you apply | Onshore or offshore | You must be outside Australia |
Where you must be at grant | Either | Outside Australia |
Applying from in Australia | Permitted | Invalid application |
Bridging visa | Available on an onshore application | None for an offshore application |
Applications lodged earlier | n/a | Valid applications lodged before 12 November keep the old rules |
The Department has published the detail on its Changes to Training visa application rules page. No exemptions to the offshore requirement are listed.
An application lodged while you are in Australia is invalid, not merely refused. It does not give you a bridging visa, and a decision that an application is invalid cannot be merits reviewed.
Most visa problems are recoverable. This one often is not, because the consequences land on your immigration status rather than on the application alone.
The Department states plainly that an onshore application will be invalid “even if ImmiAccount allows you to submit an application”. The system does not block it, you will not receive an error, and you may well receive an acknowledgement. None of that makes the application valid.
That matters because people reasonably treat a successful submission as proof they have applied in time. Here, a submission that looks successful can leave you with no application at all.
Lodging from outside Australia does not generate a bridging visa. If you were relying on a bridging visa to stay lawfully while the 407 was assessed, that option is gone. Your lawful status in Australia now depends entirely on the visa you already hold.
You may still travel to Australia on another valid visa while the application is processed, provided you comply with that visa’s conditions. But you must be outside Australia on the day the Training visa is granted, and processing times vary, so the Department warns against booking return travel around an expected grant date.
A decision that an application is invalid is not merits reviewable. There is no application to the Administrative Review Tribunal, because in law there was never a valid application to decide. If your existing visa expires in the meantime, the Department warns you may not be eligible to apply for another visa at all.
The offshore requirement sits on top of a change that commenced on 11 March 2026 and has not gone away. Before you can lodge a 407 application, two approvals must already be in place:
Your sponsoring organisation must be approved as a temporary activities sponsor, and it must hold an approved Training visa nomination for you. Australian Commonwealth Government agencies are the exception and do not have to nominate.
Combined with the new rule, the sequence is now unforgiving: sponsorship approved, nomination approved, applicant offshore, then lodge. Each step takes time you need to plan for, because the clock running against you is your current visa’s expiry date.
The Department’s own guidance is to prepare the application before departing. In practice that means:
If your visa is close to expiry and the approvals are not yet in place, that is the point to get advice rather than to lodge and hope.
The Training visa allows workplace-based occupational training to improve your skills for your job, your area of tertiary study or your field of expertise, or to take part in a professional development program in Australia. It is a temporary visa of up to two years, and the application charge starts from AUD535, with a reduced charge for eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens.
Two limits are worth stating clearly, because they are where sponsors most often misjudge this visa. The Department states that the Training visa is not intended to be used to fill workforce shortages, and that all work undertaken in Australia must be paid at the required minimum wages. If the real need is labour rather than structured training, the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa is the honest pathway, and using the wrong one invites problems at nomination stage.
The situation: An engineering graduate is in Australia on a visa expiring in six weeks. Their employer intends to sponsor them for a 407 so they can complete a structured training program. The plan had been to lodge onshore and hold a bridging visa while it was assessed.
Where they now stand: That plan is no longer available. Lodging onshore would produce an invalid application, no bridging visa and no right of review, and if the current visa expired in the meantime they could be left unlawful. The workable sequence is to confirm the sponsorship and nomination approvals, prepare the full application and any health examination, then depart before the current visa expires and lodge from outside Australia.
The point: The deadline that matters is not the training start date. It is the expiry date on the visa they hold today, and every approval has to be sequenced behind it.
The 407 is now a sequencing problem as much as an eligibility one. Most of the risk sits in the order and timing of steps, not in the merits of the training program.
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If you or your trainee is affected by the 407 change, book a free 15-minute consultation. We will confirm where you stand, what has to be approved before lodgement, and how to sequence departure against your current visa’s expiry.
This article is general information only and is not legal advice for your specific situation. The rules described are current as at 13 November 2026 and migration requirements change frequently. Confirm the current position on the Department of Home Affairs website or with a migration lawyer before acting.
No. From 12 November 2026 you must be outside Australia when you apply for a Training visa and when it is granted. An application lodged while you are in Australia is invalid, and the Department states this applies even if ImmiAccount allows you to submit it. If you are in Australia and need a 407, you must leave before applying.
The application is invalid rather than refused, which means there is no application on foot. It does not give you a bridging visa, and a decision that an application is invalid cannot be merits reviewed. The Department also warns that lodging an invalid application may affect your visa status, and that if your visa has already expired you may not be eligible to apply for another visa.
No. A bridging visa is not granted in connection with an application lodged outside Australia. Your lawful status in Australia depends on the visa you already hold, which is why the expiry date on your current visa is the deadline that matters most when planning.
No. If you submitted a valid Training visa application before 12 November 2026, it continues to be assessed under the rules that applied when you lodged it. That includes the changes that commenced on 11 March 2026 requiring approved sponsorship and nomination before lodgement.
Yes. Since 11 March 2026, your sponsoring organisation must already be approved as a temporary activities sponsor and must already hold an approved Training visa nomination for you before you can lodge. Australian Commonwealth Government agencies are the exception and do not have to nominate.
Yes, on another valid visa, provided you comply with that visa’s conditions. But you must be outside Australia on the day the Training visa is granted. Because processing times vary, the Department advises against arranging return travel based on an expected grant date.
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