The Section 48 Bar: What You Can Still Apply For After a Refusal
By Matin Amirshahi, Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1685110)
Published 6 Sep 2026
The section 48 bar is the Migration Act rule that stops you applying for most visas from inside Australia if you hold no substantive visa and a visa was refused or cancelled after you last arrived. It does not stop everything. The Migration Regulations keep a list of visas that stay open, and it has 21 entries: partner visas, the child visa, protection visas, every bridging visa, and three skilled visas that most guides leave out, the subclass 190, 491 and 494.
Being allowed to apply is not the same as being allowed to be granted. A person caught by the section 48 bar can usually lodge an onshore partner visa if they have a partner. The application then has to pass Schedule 3, a separate test about how they came to be without a visa, and that is where most of these cases are decided.
When does the section 48 bar apply to you?
Three things have to be true at once. Take one away and section 48 does not apply.
- You are in Australia.
- You do not hold a substantive visa. A substantive visa is any main visa, such as a student or visitor visa. A bridging visa is not a substantive visa.
- Since you last arrived, a visa was refused or cancelled.
The bar applies while a refusal is still under review. Section 48 says it operates whether or not the application has been finally determined, so an appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) does not reopen your other options while it runs.
Not every refusal counts. A refused bridging visa does not trigger the bar. Neither does a refusal under section 501, 501A or 501B, the character powers, which have a harsher rule of their own covered below.
Only some cancellations count as well. The listed powers are section 109 (incorrect information), 116 (the general cancellation power), 133A and 133C (the Minister’s personal versions of those two), 134 (business visas), 137J (student visas) and 137Q (regional sponsored employment visas). A cancellation under section 501 is not on that list.
Which visas can you still apply for from inside Australia?
Regulation 2.12 of the Migration Regulations is the list. Everything not on it, including student, visitor, graduate, 482 and 186 visas, is closed to you while the bar operates.
- Partner visas — the subclass 820 and the subclass 801.
- Child visa — the subclass 802, with an extra condition explained below.
- Protection and humanitarian — protection visas, Territorial Asylum and Resolution of Status.
- Three skilled visas — the subclass 190, the subclass 491 and the subclass 494.
- Every bridging visa — Bridging A, B, C, D, E, F and R.
- Five others — Medical Treatment, Border, Special Category, Retirement and Investor Retirement.
The skilled entries change the picture for people who assume a refusal ends any skilled pathway. The 190 and 491 need a state or territory nomination and an invitation before you can lodge; the 494 needs a nomination from an approved regional employer. With those in hand, section 48 is not an obstacle to lodging onshore.
Why a partner visa can still fail, even though you are allowed to apply
Schedule 3 is the reason. If you apply for an onshore partner visa without a substantive visa, clause 820.211(2)(d)(ii) requires you to satisfy Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004.
Criterion 3001 requires the application to be lodged within 28 days of the day you stopped holding a substantive visa. Almost nobody caught by section 48 is still inside that window, because the refusal that triggered the bar usually took longer than 28 days to arrive.
Criterion 3004 asks the Minister to be satisfied of three things: that you are without a visa because of factors beyond your control, that there are compelling reasons for granting the visa, and that you substantially complied with the conditions on your last visa.
There is a way through, and it sits in the same clause. The Minister can decide not to apply criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004 at all, if satisfied that there are compelling reasons for not applying them. That waiver is where these applications are won or lost, and it turns on the evidence you put in front of the decision-maker, not on the fact of the relationship alone.
The child visa has its own narrowing. Under clause 802.211, if section 48 applies to you, you must not have been refused a visa or had one cancelled under section 501, and you must have become a dependent child of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen since you last applied for a substantive visa. Already being someone’s child when you last applied is not enough.
Does a character refusal trigger the section 48 bar?
No. Refusals under sections 501, 501A and 501B are written out of section 48. That is not good news.
Section 501E takes over for those decisions. While you are in Australia and the decision has not been set aside or revoked, you cannot apply for any visa, with two exceptions: a protection visa, and any visa the regulations specify for that purpose. The 21-entry list under section 48 does not apply to you.
A character refusal or cancellation therefore leaves fewer options than an ordinary one. The useful questions are about revocation and review of the character decision itself, not about what else can be lodged.
What happens if you were refused a protection visa?
Section 48A applies, and it is stricter than section 48. You cannot make a further protection visa application while you are in Australia, and section 48A(1C) says it makes no difference that your circumstances have changed or that the new claims are different from the old ones.
Only the Minister can lift it, through the personal power in section 48B. Section 48 and its list still operate alongside, so a partner visa can remain open to you even where a second protection application is not.
Does leaving Australia lift the bar?
Section 48 reaches only applications made while you are in Australia. An application lodged from overseas is not caught by it.
Leaving is not a reset button, though. A Bridging visa A ends when you depart, so you need a Bridging visa B first if you intend to come back on it. And the reason for the refusal travels with you: the criterion you failed onshore is assessed again offshore, on the same facts unless something has changed.
Work out what the offshore application would look like, and whether it would pass, before anyone books a flight.
What if the section 48 bar leaves you with no option?
Look at the refusal itself rather than at the next application. Three routes, in the order to check them:
- Review at the ART. If the refusal is still within time, review puts the original decision back in play. The deadline in section 347(3) of the Migration Act cannot be extended, so the date matters more than the merits at this stage. Our ART review service page sets out the fees and steps, and the 2026 ART rules explainer covers how the tribunal now handles these files.
- The Schedule 3 waiver on a partner visa. If the relationship is genuine, the compelling-reasons waiver is the pathway. It is built from evidence about why you fell out of status, not from argument about the relationship.
- Ministerial intervention. Available after a tribunal decision. It is a request rather than an application, and there is no right to have it considered, so it is a last route rather than a plan.
If the trigger was a cancellation rather than a refusal, start at our visa cancellation page. Responding to the cancellation is usually a better use of the time than lodging something new.
Not sure which of the 21 options is open to you?
The answer usually turns on two dates: when you last held a substantive visa, and when the refusal or cancellation was notified. Bring those to an eligibility call and we will tell you what you can lodge, what it would need to succeed, and whether review is the better move.
Matin Amirshahi, Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1685110) · Preston, Melbourne
Frequently asked questions
Can I apply for a student visa after a refusal?
Not from inside Australia. Student visas are not on the regulation 2.12 list, so the section 48 bar closes them while you are here. A student visa application made from overseas is not caught by section 48, though the earlier refusal is still taken into account.
Does the section 48 bar apply if I still hold a visa?
No. The bar applies only if you do not hold a substantive visa. If your current visa is still in effect, you can apply for other visas normally, even after an earlier refusal.
Can I apply for a 482 or 186 visa after a refusal?
Not onshore. Employer-sponsored visas are not on the regulation 2.12 list. The skilled visas that stay open are the subclass 190 and 491, which need a state nomination and an invitation, and the subclass 494, which needs a regional employer’s nomination.
