Register as a provider of courses to overseas students

Two registrations, one regulator, two Acts, largely overlapping evidence — and since 2026 a door that is closed to new entrants entirely rather than assessed.

educationAn established Australian education provider seeking to enrol international students skeleton compare across jurisdictions

This is a structural skeleton, not a measured process. The steps, the authorities and the sequence are researched from this jurisdiction's published requirements and are broadly right. The durations are a uniform template applied across all jurisdictions, so the differences between them on the comparison page are mostly an artefact of that template rather than evidence about Australia. Do not quote the day counts. Replacing them with sourced figures for even one jurisdiction would make this page genuinely useful.

935 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

5 discrete steps
across 2 bodies

10% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

0 days saved by concurrency
vs. 935 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

assessment	635d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
applicant	210d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
queue	90d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.

90 of 935 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A registered education provider seeks CRICOS registration to enrol overseas students.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Provider registration with the education regulator registration Registration as a higher education or vocational provider, assessed against the applicable provider standards.	Education regulators and the CRICOS register	assessment	—	365 estimate	—
2	Prepare for ESOS and National Code compliance application Written agreements, tuition protection, agent management, student support and course delivery arrangements meeting the National Code. after Provider registration with the education regulator 390d slack	—	applicant	—	180 estimate	—
3	Apply for CRICOS registration application after Prepare for ESOS and National Code compliance 360d slack	Education regulators and the CRICOS register	applicant	—	30 estimate	Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cth)
4	CRICOS assessment and decision decision Assessment against the ESOS Act and National Code by the same agency that granted domestic registration, under a different Act. after Apply for CRICOS registration 90d slack	Education regulators and the CRICOS register	assessment	—	270 estimate	Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cth)
5	Receive an allocation under the national planning level registration The provider receives an indicative share of the national planning level, which determines how quickly its students' visas are processed. after CRICOS assessment and decision	Department of Home Affairs	queue	—	90 reported	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

Supply provider fitness evidence once, to whoever needs it next merge ~120d
Three unrelated sectors, three regulators, and the same questions asked repeatedly of the same organisation: who runs it, is it solvent, is it competent, has it behaved. The judgements genuinely differ. The evidence underneath them does not.
Publish each provider's allocation position, since it sets their students' queue digitise
A student's visa processing speed depends on how much of their provider's share of the national planning level remains. The student cannot see it, cannot influence it, and pays a non-refundable deposit before finding out. Publishing it saves nobody a day and changes who is in the dark.

Sources

Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cth) and the National Code
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth); National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth)
The PIE News, 'Australia freezes new overseas student provider registrations', 2026

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-cricos-provider.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.