Student visas can't be renewed forever

The education industry is one of the most profitable for the Australian government. Therefore, the Australian government makes it quite attractive for overseas students to study in Australia. This has become one of the avenues for some of us to emigrate to Australia.

Studying in Australia is a pathway for many visa categories. There are many paths that you can take to gain an Australian permanent residency or PR status. At the same time there are also groups of people that use student visas as a way to work in Australia as a student visa allows you to work 40 hours fortnightly. That is one of the legal conditions that student visa holders need to follow. Yet, there are huge number of students breaching that legal condition and risking their visa to be cancelled.

Many students enroll in some of the cheap private colleges in the big cities around Australia. Some of the private colleges require students to study only 1-2 days per week. The rest of the week, they just work and receive cash-in-hand payment. 

However, these students need to know that student visas are not something that you can continuously renew. You can't possibly keep renewing your student visa forever. In order for student visas to be granted, there needs to be some "genuineness" surrounding it to study. That can be hard for some, if that person keeps changing his/her course or have been enrolled in a private college and yet have never finished their study or have never received any significant qualifications.

In order for student visas to be granted, you need to at least gain some qualifications from your previous or existing student visa. That is the purpose of a student visa, for you to study. There also needs to be some progress forward from your study. The course that you choose to study should be something that is a higher qualification from your current or previous qualifications. You can still choose some qualifications that are slightly lower than whatever qualification you may have, as long as the new qualification or course of study is in a different field.

Overall, I do think that "common sense" does make sense. Just bear in mind that student visas can't be used as an avenue for you to work forever. Eventually, the renewal of your student visa can be put to paused.

It is important for those people who have had student visas for a few years and have not gained any significant qualifications so far. It might be a good idea to look into other avenues as well.