mentos

Hi all,

Thanks for this wonderful forum!

I've applied for business visa 188 and while contacting some schools for my children, some schools said my children are considered "resident" under Visa 188 hence the fees are local, while other schools said my children still have to apply for student visas and will pay international student fee rates.

I have emailed the immigration for an answer but I like to ask if anyone on business visa, do your children need to apply student visa?

Thanks for help.

Pollyana

Is the 188 the new version of the 163 Business Visa? If so, have a look through the 163 thread and contact some of the posters in that - Carbery is one who comes to mind as I know his kids went through school here and they were never on student visas.

mentos

Thank you for direction. I'll read up on 163 thread.

rammygirl

We had a 163 and our kids all paid local fees at least for secondary level. I believe that for tertiary and higher education they pay international fees though.

mentos

Thanks for your reply.

An independent primary school told us we fall under international student rates. I enquired with the government schools and were told our kids fall under local student rates. Hence we are perplexed and wonder why we could get the independent primary school to allocate our kid as local student fee.

rammygirl

This could be the case, ours were at a church school which sort of falls between the two. It was fee paying but also part government supported so fees were lower than the purely private schools.

I do seem to remember someone saying that the private schools can charge international rates.

It can vary from state to state too. Try asking the relevant education authority as well as the schools.

Either way they will not need a student visa as the business visa allows them to study or work, it is just down to fees. In fact do not apply for a student visa whatever you do.

It may also be that some schools are simply not aware of the new visa numbers, they should not for instance say they need student visas even if they do have to pay higher fees.

mentos

Thanks for your advice on student pass. I will encourage the school to check on the new visa law.

I was very encourage most schools know the law well but the one school I like my son to enroll for doesn't seem to know the details well. So I hope they are opened to suggestions to check their facts on student pass is not required and ... Allowing us to go for local rates as that's a 50% difference.