“From 1 December 2021, fully vaccinated eligible visa holders can come to Australia without needing to apply for a travel exemption. Eligible visa holders include skilled and student cohorts, as well as humanitarian, working holiday maker and provisional family visa holders”, announced by the Prime Minister on 22nd November, 2021.
Under this arrangement, international students must:
- Be fully vaccinated with a completed dosage of a vaccine approved or recognised by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and provide proof of the vaccination status
- Hold a valid visa
- Present a negative COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test taken within three days of departure.
Arriving students must comply with the quarantine requirements in the state or territory of their arrival. Currently, only New South Wales, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory accept student without quarantine.
Regarding approved vaccines, the TGA had approved the following:
- Omirnaty (Pfizer)
- Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca)
- Spikevax (Moderna)
- COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen (Janssen).
And from 1 October 2021 (For the purpose of travelling to Australia)
- Coronavac (Sinovac)
- Covidshield (AstraZeneca – Serum Institute of India)
- BBIBP-CorV for people aged 18 – 60 years of age (Sinopharm China)
- Covaxin (Bharat Biotech).