Leaving Australia to Apply Offshore: What It Really Costs

"Just leave and apply from offshore" is the most common advice given to people caught by section 48 — and it is half right. Section 48 only bars applications made in Australia, so applying from outside genuinely sidesteps it. What the advice skips is everything else that changes at the airport: three-year risk factors, a 12-month rule for removed people, and a 28-day carve-out almost nobody mentions. Here is the full picture, verified at source.

Verified against the Migration Act 1958 (Compilation No. 171, in force 4 June 2026) and the Migration Regulations 1994, Compilation No. 288 (F2026C00667, in force 1 July 2026).

What leaving does and does not fix

Section 48 applies to a non-citizen in the migration zone. An application lodged from outside Australia is simply not caught. But section 48(3) closes the shortcut people hope for: a person who leaves and re-enters while holding a bridging visa is "taken to have been continuously in the migration zone". You escape the bar by applying offshore, never by a quick trip out and back — the mechanics are in section 48 and Schedule 3 together.

The three-year risk factors: what 4013 and 4014 actually say

Two public interest criteria in Schedule 4 are the source of the "three-year ban" people have half-heard of.

PIC 4013 is triggered by certain visa cancellations — including cancellation for incorrect information (s109), on specified s116 grounds, under s133A or 133C, and automatic student cancellation under s137J. PIC 4014 is triggered by how you left: departing Australia as an unlawful non-citizen, or as the holder of a Bridging Visa C, D or E.

Where a risk factor exists, a visa that imposes the criterion cannot be granted within 3 years — unless the Minister is satisfied that compelling circumstances affecting the interests of Australia, or compassionate or compelling circumstances affecting the interests of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, justify granting it sooner. That exception is the same test in both criteria.

The 28-day carve-out in 4014

Subclause 4014(5) removes the risk factor entirely where the person left Australia within 28 days of their substantive visa ceasing — or left holding a bridging visa granted within that 28-day window. Someone whose visa has just expired and who leaves promptly does not carry the 4014 problem at all. It is another reason the first month after losing status matters so much — the same month that decides criterion 3001's 28 days.

Now the part that surprises people: the partner visa imposes neither

Check the offshore partner visa's own criteria and the feared PICs are simply not there. Clause 309.225 requires public interest criteria 4001, 4002, 4003, 4004, 4007, 4009, 4020 and 4021 (plus 4019 for adults). Neither 4013 nor 4014 appears anywhere in the subclass 309 criteria — nor in the Prospective Marriage 300's. A person who departs with a 4014 risk factor on their record can still be granted an offshore partner visa inside the three years, because the criterion is never engaged.

Where the risk factors do bite is the trip back. The Visitor 600 imposes both — clause 600.213(1) lists 4013 and 4014 in terms — and so does the eVisitor 601. The realistic consequence for a couple:

The three-year shadow falls not on the partner visa but on visiting each other while it processes.

The rules that do apply to the 309

Clause 309.226 imposes special return criteria 5001 and 5002 on anyone who has previously been in Australia. 5002 catches a person removed from Australia under sections 198, 199 or 205 of the Act: no grant within 12 months of the removal, subject to the same compelling-circumstances exception as the PICs. 5001 is the serious one — historical deportees and section 501 character cancellations and refusals — and it contains no compelling-circumstances discretion at all; only revocation or a personal grant by the Minister answers it. Someone who waits to be removed, rather than leaving on their own terms, has therefore bought a 12-month problem that voluntary departure avoids.

The mechanics of the offshore application

Two verified details shape the plan. The 309 must be applied for outside Australia — Schedule 1 requires it. But since the location concession was written into the Regulations, clause 309.412 provides the applicant "may be in or outside Australia when the visa is granted" (not in immigration clearance). A 309 applicant who later returns lawfully — on a visa they actually qualify for — no longer has to be offshore on grant day. The application charge is $11,710, identical to the onshore 820/801.

The honest comparison

• Certainty: the offshore 309 is assessed on the ordinary partner criteria — no Schedule 3, no waiver discretion. An onshore case that depends on a weak compelling-reasons waiver trades a known separation for an unknown refusal risk.
• Separation: the cost of offshore is the Department's current published processing time for the 309, spent apart unless visits are possible — and 4013/4014 can make them not possible.
• The record: a refusal onshore adds to the file; a withdrawal and clean offshore lodgement does not carry a Schedule 3 finding.
• Timing: leaving within 28 days of losing status neutralises 4014 before it exists.

Where the balance usually lands

Strong compelling circumstances — Australian children, serious health issues, genuine beyond-control loss of status — favour staying and running the waiver. A thin waiver case with no 4014 problem and a recent loss of status often favours leaving early and lodging the 309. The worst position is the middle: staying long enough to acquire a BVE departure and a weak waiver both. This decision should be priced once, properly, at the start.

Migration Vision maps both routes side by side — waiver strength, bridging and work position onshore, risk factors and separation offshore — for clients across Australia and overseas, in English, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. Full offshore criteria and charges: 309/100 guide.

Reviewed by Dr Asad Muhammad Khan, Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2619525. Updated 27 August 2026 — sections 48 and 198–205 verified against the Migration Act 1958 (C2026C00232); public interest criteria 4013 and 4014 (Schedule 4), special return criteria 5001 and 5002 (Schedule 5), clauses 309.225, 309.226, 309.412, 300.223, 600.213 and 601.213, and Schedule 1 items verified against the Migration Regulations 1994, Compilation No. 288 (F2026C00667, in force 1 July 2026), on legislation.gov.au. This article is general information, not migration advice for your circumstances, and the law may change.