Student visa (subclass 500) — Postgraduate Research sector
Student visa for masters by research and PhD candidates at Australian universities and research institutions. Postgraduate Research Sector stream.
How to read these numbers
Home Affairs publishes the actual processing-time distribution for each visa subclass. The 25th percentile shows how fast the quickest quarter of recent grants were finalised; the 90th shows the long tail. The median (50th) is the most useful single number — half of applications take less, half take more. Plan around the 75th or 90th if your travel or work plans cannot tolerate a delay.