Nowadays students seems more confused regarding condition 8204. Most of the newcomers students and new visa applying students were not clear about the condition. So with the aim of clearing all the confusions, we has special discussion with director of safal education and visa services, Mr Ramesh Raj sharma.
Are students not allowed to change their course of study?
In general it is as usual as before, Students must complete their 6 months of study of their principal COE before changing their course of study.
Regarding conditions 8204, Students are not allowed to change course only if they are undertaking certain high end research course and acquiring/ transferring those knowledge can cause risk to the country, it’s alliance and people.
Condition 8204 of Schedule 8, clearly states that
8204A The holder must not change the holder’s course of study, or thesis or research topic, unless:
a) the Minister is satisfied that there is not an unreasonable risk of an unwanted transfer of critical technology by the holder; and
b) the Minister has approved the change in writing.
8204B The holder must not undertake or change a course of study or research, or thesis or research topic, for:
a) a graduate certificate, a graduate diploma, a master’s degree or a doctorate; or
b) any bridging course required as a prerequisite to a course of study or research for a master’s degree or a doctorate;unless:
c) the Minister is satisfied that there is not an unreasonable risk of an unwanted transfer of critical technology by the holder; and
d) the Minister has approved in writing the holder undertaking or changing the course of study or research, or thesis or research topic.
Conclusions
You do not need to worry if you are undertaking VET Courses and even Higher educations in mainstream subjects like
Business/Commerce,Nursing, IT,Engineering ETC
However if you want to undertake a research program on sensitive subjects like(for eg.) Nuclear Power, Bio chemistry, AI defense system- you need approval.
It is all about national security – Can you imagine teaching your secret to your enemy? Simple as that.
We in this industry knew from last 5 years -the far cry from about 100s of Chinese research students ( for not getting their visas on time to start the program) in nuclear energy and space sciences as their visa application were not decided( Purposely) for 2,3 years many times university had to scrap the program, some eventually withdrawn the application and few were rejected.
Tougher measures are taken in tough time.
Japan had already started the same measure.
I have been asked about this conditions (started 31/03/2022) not only by student but few colleges as well. I hope you are more informed now.
We hope by guidance of Mr. sharma, you are clear now. If you still have any questions left, you can send text message to official facebook Account of Safal sevs
https://www.facebook.com/safal.sevs.9