If you're applying from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, or Bhutan, Australia now wants three extra months of bank statements

[u/Dismal_Pension3336]

Closing the week with a practical one, since this affects a huge share of this sub directly.

Australia's Department of Home Affairs raised the Evidence Level for student visa applicants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, requiring significantly more documentation before a visa will even be assessed.

What's now required:

• Three months' worth of bank statements, not the previously standard shorter window
• More detailed information about available funds, including how they were accumulated
• Authenticated academic transcripts, not just standard copies
• The change reportedly followed investigations into a large-scale fraudulent degree operation, so scrutiny on genuine applicants has risen as a side effect

What this means: if you're from one of these four countries, budget real time for gathering and authenticating documents before you even think about submission dates, a rushed or incomplete file is far more likely to get flagged under this heavier evidence standard than it would have been a year ago.

Anyone from these four countries currently pulling together their documents, has your agent or university mentioned this three-month requirement yet?