Whether you can work in Australia while you wait is not decided by "being on a bridging visa". It is decided by the conditions on your own bridging visa. There are three different reasons you might have no work rights, and each has its own way out. None of them is a phone call. In each case the Regulations make you apply for another bridging visa, and a decision maker must be satisfied of a defined test before it is granted.
Which bridging visa you hold, and what each one allows, is on our bridging visas page. This article is about one question: what the no-work rule says, and what you have to do to change it.
Verified against the Migration Regulations 1994, Compilation No. 288 (F2026C00667, in force 1 July 2026), regulation 1.08 and Schedule 2, subclasses 010, 030 and 050.
Condition 8101, as it is actually written
Schedule 8 of the Regulations sets out condition 8101 in one sentence:
"The holder must not engage in work in Australia."
There is no hours limit and no exception inside the condition itself. If 8101 is on your visa, you may not work at all while you hold that visa.
First, find out what you actually hold
You cannot act until you know two things: your bridging visa's subclass, and the condition numbers on it. Both are on your grant notice. Take the condition numbers off it one at a time. Do not rely on what a friend on "the same visa" was given — two people on the same subclass can hold different conditions.
Why you have no work rights
| Your situation | Your bridge | Where the work condition comes from | Can it change? |
|---|---|---|---|
| You applied while you still held a substantive visa (for example, a student visa) | Bridging visa A (subclass 010) | Carried across from the visa you held when you applied — clause 010.611(4) | If your bridging visa was granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa, a further bridging visa A under clause 010.211(4) can be applied for; the compelling-need test applies |
| You applied when you did not hold a substantive visa | Bridging visa C (subclass 030) | Clause 030.614: "In any other case, condition 8101." | If your bridging visa C was granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa, a further bridging visa C under clause 030.212(3) can be applied for; the same test applies |
| You hold a bridging visa E with condition 8101 | Bridging visa E (subclass 050) | Set when the visa was granted — see what a bridging visa E allows | If your bridging visa E was granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa, a further bridging visa E under clause 050.212(8) can be applied for; the same test applies |
If you applied without a substantive visa, the reason usually traces back to Schedule 3. See Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004 explained and section 48 and Schedule 3: what you can still lodge.
The bridging visa A trap: your old limits came with you
This is the answer for a former student who expected full work rights once their student visa ran out.
Clause 010.611(4) says that, in the general case (some applications, e.g. certain skilled visas, carry different or no conditions), a bridging visa A carries "whichever of conditions 8101, 8102, 8103, 8104, 8105, 8107, 8108, 8111, 8112, 8114, 8115, 8539, 8547, 8549, 8607 and 8608 applies to" the visa you held at the time of application. If that visa has ceased, or you held no visa when the bridge was granted, it looks instead to the last bridging visa A or B you held.
In plain terms: the bridging visa A does not start you with a clean slate. If your old visa limited your work, the same condition sits on your bridging visa A. You are not "on a bridging visa with work rights". You are on a bridging visa with your old visa's limit.
Clause 010.611(4) lists 16 conditions. The ones on your grant notice are the ones that apply to you. Look each one up in Schedule 8 of the Regulations, as it stands today, rather than relying on what someone remembers "student conditions" to be.
The test is the same in every case: "compelling need to work"
All three routes in the table use the same words. The Minister must be "satisfied that the applicant has a compelling need to work". That phrase is defined.
Regulation 1.08 says a non-citizen has a compelling need to work "if and only if":
- "(a) he or she is in financial hardship; or"
- (d) a limb about applicants for a Temporary Business Entry (Class UC) visa seeking a Subclass 457 visa who are identified in an approved nomination by a standard business sponsor, a former standard business sponsor, or a party to a labour agreement, and who appear to the Minister to satisfy the criteria for that visa.
Paragraphs (b) and (c) do not appear in the current text. The subclass 457 limb in (d) is narrow and tied to one visa. For almost everyone reading this, the only limb is financial hardship.
"If and only if" matters. It means there is no other way to show a compelling need to work. Wanting to work, being bored, or keeping up a career are not on the list. Hardship is.
What the decision maker has to be satisfied of
The Regulations do not give a list of documents for financial hardship. What they require is that the Minister is satisfied you are in it. That is a judgement about your actual money position, made on what you put in front of the decision maker.
This is our professional view of the areas your evidence would need to speak to. It is not a checklist, and meeting it does not mean the request will be granted:
- What comes in. Any income, support from family, a partner's earnings, government or community support.
- What goes out. Rent, bills, dependants, debts, medical costs — the essentials, not lifestyle spending.
- What you have left. Savings and assets. A healthy savings balance works against a hardship claim, and an honest request deals with it rather than leaving it out.
- How long this has to last. Your pending application may take some time to decide. Hardship that grows over that period is part of the picture.
- Whether the figures are consistent. Bank statements, leases and letters that tell the same story as your written explanation.
Be honest with yourself before you apply. The test is narrow. If your savings and support cover your costs, a request is unlikely to meet it, and it is better to know that before you lodge.
How you ask
You do not "remove" condition 8101 from the visa you hold. You apply for a new bridging visa of the same kind, and the new one is granted — or not — on its own criteria.
| You hold | You apply for | The criterion | What the Regulations say goes on the new visa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridging visa A or B, granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa, carrying one of the listed work conditions, and you held a substantive visa when you applied | A further bridging visa A | Clause 010.211(4). You must also not have applied for a protection visa | Clause 010.611(1): "Nil" |
| Bridging visa C, granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa, with condition 8101 | A further bridging visa C | Clause 030.212(3) | Clause 030.611: condition 8303 or 8501 if that condition is on your current bridging visa C, otherwise nil |
| Bridging visa E, granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa, with condition 8101 | A further bridging visa E | Clause 050.212(8). Protection visa applicants must meet an extra requirement about the delay in applying | Clause 050.613: "any 1 or more of" a list of conditions "may be imposed" — the list does not include 8101 |
Two points from the table:
- Clause 010.211(4) lists 13 work conditions, not 16. The list in 010.211(4) — "8101, 8102, 8103, 8104, 8105, 8107, 8108, 8111, 8112, 8115, 8547, 8607 or 8608" — is shorter than the 16 in clause 010.611(4). Conditions 8114, 8539 and 8549 can be carried onto a bridging visa A but are not in the list for a further bridging visa A on compelling need. If one of those three is your only work-related condition, this route does not fit you as written, and you should get advice.
- Each route requires that your bridging visa was granted on a valid onshore application for a substantive visa. The work-rights request rides on that application. It does not stand on its own.
How the application is lodged, and what the Department asks you to provide, is set by the Department. Check the Department of Home Affairs bridging visa pages for your subclass, or ask us, before you lodge.
What it costs and how long it takes
Bridging visa charges are on the bridging visas page. This page does not publish a processing time. The only official source is the Department's global visa processing times tool. Nobody can promise you a date, and you should plan your finances on the basis that there is no guaranteed one.
If you work anyway
Condition 8101 is a condition of your visa, and it says you must not work. We are not going to tell you what would happen in your case, because that depends on facts we have not seen. If you have already worked in breach, or are being pressured to, get advice before anything else happens.
Frequently asked questions
My bridging visa says "no work". Is that permanent? Not necessarily. Each of the bridging visas A, C and E has a route to a further bridging visa if the Minister is satisfied you have a compelling need to work. It is a fresh application decided on that test.
What counts as financial hardship? Regulation 1.08 does not define it further. The decision maker has to be satisfied you are in financial hardship on the evidence you give. Your savings, income and support are all relevant.
I was on a student visa. Why can I only work the same hours as before? Because clause 010.611(4) carries the work conditions of the visa you held when you applied across to your bridging visa A.
Can I ask for work rights more than once? The clauses we have quoted do not limit you to one application. Whether a further request makes sense depends on whether your circumstances have changed.
Get your conditions reviewed before you lodge or breach
The two things that go wrong here are a request lodged without evidence that meets the hardship test, and work taken on in breach of a condition. Both are easier to deal with before they happen.
Migration Vision works with people across Australia and offshore on bridging visa status and conditions. Nobody can promise that a work-rights request will be granted. What can be done is to confirm which bridging visa you hold, what its conditions actually say, which route applies, and whether your evidence speaks to the test. If your matter involves a bar, a refusal or a Schedule 3 issue, start at complex cases.
Book a bridging visa conditions review.
Reviewed by Dr Asad Muhammad Khan, Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2619525. Last reviewed 27 September 2026 — regulation 1.08, Schedule 2 clauses 010.211(4), 010.611(1) and (4), 030.212(3), 030.611, 030.614, 050.212(8) and 050.613, and Schedule 8 condition 8101 verified against the Migration Regulations 1994, Compilation No. 288 (F2026C00667, in force 1 July 2026), on legislation.gov.au. Figures current as at 27 September 2026; confirm with the Department of Home Affairs before lodgement. This article is general information, not migration advice for your circumstances, and the law may change.
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