Effective from July 1st 2024, the Australian government has curbed the practice of ‘visa hopping’, preventing international students from making an onshore application for additional student visas after completing their initial studies and after their graduate visa expires.

But who exactly are these ‘visa hoppers’? Are they low-skill migrants desperately trying to stay in Australia or high-skill migrants fighting for permanent residency in an increasingly competitive environment? What jobs do they work in? We shed light on these questions using administrative data from the Department of Home Affairs and comparing the labour market outcomes of graduate visa holders who transitioned to visa hopping or to temporary or permanent visas.

We find that:

• Fact 1: The share of visa hoppers has increased very sharply over recent decades, from about 2.5% for those receiving their graduate visa in 2009 to over 25% for those receiving it in 2018.
• Fact 2: Visa hoppers are typically low-skilled migrants. During their time as graduate visa holders:
  • they earn 20% less than other graduate visa holders on average;
  • they earn 10% less than other graduate visa holders who work in the same occupation;
  • they earn a similar salary to other graduate visa holders who return to their home country after their graduate visa expires; and
  • they work in relatively lower skilled occupations compared to other graduate visa holders.
• Fact 3: Visa hoppers generally come from low-income countries, such as Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
• Fact 4: over time, as the migration system has become more competitive, the wage differences between migrants who engaged in visa hopping and those who obtained permanent residency have decreased. This suggests that migrants with labour market outcomes not far away from the migrants who obtained PR are now more and more engaging in visa hopping.

Overall, the ban on ‘visa hopping’ is unlikely to result in a loss of high-skilled immigrants.