Australia tightens visa scrutiny for Bangladeshi students citing 'integrity' issues

Australia has moved Bangladesh to its highest-risk category for student visas, citing "emerging integrity issues" and concerns over fraud, according to a report by news.com.au.

Alongside India, Nepal, and Bhutan, the country has moved from Evidence Level 2 to Level 3, a shift former immigration department deputy secretary Dr Abul Rizvi described as a "highly unusual" out-of-cycle change, the report said.

The four South Asian nations together accounted for nearly one-third of all international student enrolments in Australia last year.

A Home Affairs spokesman confirmed that "on January 8, 2026, Evidence Levels (EL) of several countries in South Asia were altered."

"This change will assist with the effective management of emerging integrity issues, while continuing to facilitate genuine students seeking a quality education in Australia," the report quoted the spokesman as saying.

The change comes after Julian Hill, assistant minister for international education, met with Home Affairs officials during a trip to India last month.

Under Australia's Simplified Student Visa Framework (SSVF), countries and providers are assigned an evidence level based on factors including the rate of refusals due to fraud, the rate of visa cancellations, the rate of student visa holders becoming unlawful non-citizens, and the rate of subsequent refugee applications.

An EL3 rating means visa applicants and providers must show comprehensive documentation on financial capacity and academic history.

"Essentially, the higher the Evidence Level, the more the visa processing officer relies on the word of the provider (to vouch for the applicant)," Rizvi told news.com.au. "As you move to higher risk levels, more documentation is required; there is more manual input into looking at the documentation and behind the documentation. They will ring institutions to check transcripts, and they might contact the bank to verify financial statements."

Ratings are typically revised around the middle of the year based on the prior year's data. Rizvi noted that China was shifted from EL1 to EL2 around July-August last year, putting China, India, and Nepal on the same evidence level.

"But subsequently, they appear to have done a special data run. I think they would have done some sampling of cases that had been streamlined, but they had concerns with, and I think they would have discovered an increased level … of fraud," he said.

Rizvi suggested the additional scrutiny may have been triggered by reports in early December of a massive fake degree bust in India that saw more than 100,000 dodgy certificates seized by authorities.

"The heightened scrutiny will mainly be on financial capacity and academic background; it'll be less likely to be the English language test," he said.

Rizvi, who served at the Immigration Department from 1991 to 2007, said processing times would be "quite a bit slower" as a result. However, the government has not changed its national planning level of 295,000 places for 2026, 25,000 higher than the 2025 announcement in October.

"They're going to have to make up the difference elsewhere because this will increase refusal rates," Rizvi said in the report. "I don't think they can get more applicants out of China, although they might, with the clampdown in the US, Canada, and the UK. But I suspect there will also be more students coming from Vietnam and Indonesia, which are still EL1."

Universities Australia said it was "monitoring these developments and working with the department and our members to understand the impact of the changes."

"Any increase in fraudulent applications is concerning, and we support integrity measures being tightened to protect genuine students and the reputation of our world-class education sector," a spokesman said.

Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia (IEAA), said, "Unfortunately, Australia is now in a position where many young people are being stopped from studying in the US, UK, and Canada."

"It recently became obvious that student applicants who couldn't get into those other three countries are increasingly applying to come to Australia, and in many cases, we've seen an increase in fraudulent financial and academic documents," he said. "By placing a number of these countries into the highest risk rating level, it automatically enhances any filtering of the student visa applicants to ensure bona fide study motivation."

Honeywood added, "Given that we now have enrolment limits on every education provider, which are particularly hard on private institutions, it's more likely we'll finish up with quality students as a result of these new measures."

Separately, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) in July cancelled more than 25,000 qualifications across sectors, including aged care, childcare, and construction, issued by non-compliant or fraudulent Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), according to the report.