Australia Visa Notification Conditions: What Condition 8578 Requires Within 14 Days (2026)

If your visa carries condition 8578, you have 14 days to notify Immigration after a change happens. Based on the Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 8 visa conditions text published on the Australian Government's Federal Register of Legislation as at September 2026, the 14 days run from the day the change occurs, and they cover six things: your residential address, an email address, a phone number, your passport details, your employer's address, and the address of the location where you actually work.

This article describes how the condition is drafted and is general information only — it is not advice about your own visa, and where a deadline has already slipped or your grant notice reads differently, the current official text and a registered migration practitioner are the safer reference points.

Which changes trigger the 14-day deadline under condition 8578?

Condition 8578 lists six notifiable items. All of them are "details", not life events — the condition bites when the recorded fact changes, whether or not anything else in your life changed with it.

• (a) Your residential address — where you live, including a move within the same suburb.
• (b) An email address of yours — any email address of the holder, including a new personal or study address.
• (c) A phone number of yours — a new mobile or landline number.
• (d) Your passport details — a renewed passport, or one reissued with a new number.
• (e) The address of an employer — your employer's registered or business address.
• (f) The address of the location where you work — the site you report to, which can differ from the employer's address if you are placed at a client site, a second branch, or a different campus.

Items (e) and (f) are separate. A change in one is not automatically a change in the other, so a person whose employer moves head office but whose worksite stays put has one reportable change, not two.

How is the 14 days counted?

The wording is "within 14 days after the change occurs". The reference point is the change itself — not the day you next log in somewhere, and not the date of any message you receive. The practical reading is to treat the day the change takes effect as the starting point and count forward from there.

Suppose a person signs a lease, sleeps at the new address for the first time on 3 March, and updates their details three weeks later when they remember to. Under the text of 8578, the change occurred on the day they began residing at the new address; the notification date is what gets measured against the 14 days. The same logic applies to a phone number: the change happens when the old number stops working or the new one starts being used, not when the paperwork is done.

The regulation does not express this period in working or business days. If you are comparing it with a deadline you have seen quoted elsewhere, check the exact wording printed against the condition number on your own visa.

Does every Australian visa include condition 8578?

No. The note attached to the Schedule 8 conditions says that whether a visa of a particular class may be made subject to a condition depends on the relevant provision in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994. Two people holding the same subclass can therefore be subject to different condition sets, and the condition numbers printed on your grant notice or visa conditions record are what govern you.

This is why the question "how many days do I have?" cannot be answered from the visa name alone. Find the four-digit condition code first, then read the deadline attached to that code.

Is notifying a change the same as providing evidence of your address?

Not the same obligation, and the deadline is different. Condition 8580 is triggered only when the Minister requests it in writing: the holder must then provide evidence of their residential address, the address of each employer, the address of each location of each position in which they are employed, and the address of any educational institution they attend, within 28 days after the date of the request.

So 8578 is self-initiated: you are the one who must act. 8580 is reactive: it runs from a written request, and what is being produced is evidence rather than notice of a change.

What happens if the 14 days pass without notification?

The note to the Schedule 8 conditions refers to the Migration Act 1958, sections 41 and 116 to 119, for cancellation for breaches of conditions. In other words, a missed notification is treated as a breach of a visa condition, and cancellation is the mechanism the Act provides for dealing with it.

The condition text itself does not set out any remedy, grace period, or excuse for late notice. That is a matter for the visa holder's own record and for the cancellation provisions in the Act, which is why keeping a dated copy of whatever you submitted is a sensible habit rather than a legal formality.

Which nearby condition numbers are not about notification?

Several conditions in the same 85xx series look similar at a glance but impose completely different obligations. Mixing them up is a common source of wrong deadlines.

None of these four contains a notification deadline. They cap the length of stay or restrict where you live, work and study, and a breach is assessed against the stay pattern or location, not against a reporting date.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many days do I have to notify Immigration of a change of address under condition 8578?

Condition 8578 gives you 14 days, and the period runs from the day the change occurs rather than from any later date. The requirement is set out in Schedule 8 of the Migration Regulations 1994, as published on the Federal Register of Legislation.

Do I have to report a new email address or phone number?

Yes. Email address and phone number are items (b) and (c) of condition 8578, alongside the residential address. They carry the same 14-day deadline as a house move.

Is getting a new passport a notifiable change?

Yes — item (d) covers "the holder's passport details". A renewal, a reissue, or a replacement passport that changes the recorded details starts the 14-day period in the same way an address change does.

Does changing jobs or worksite count as a change I must report?

Two separate items may be triggered: the address of your employer under (e), and the address of the location where you are employed under (f). Reporting to a different site while staying with the same employer can still be a reportable change if the work location address is new.

What is the difference between condition 8578 and condition 8580?

8578 is a self-initiated duty to notify listed changes within 14 days of the change. 8580 only applies if the Minister requests evidence in writing, and then gives 28 days from the date of the request to produce evidence of address, employer and work locations, and any educational institution attended.

What if my visa does not list condition 8578?

Then the 14-day rule is not the obligation that applies to you. Whether a visa class may be made subject to a condition depends on the relevant provision in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994, so the condition numbers on your own grant notice determine your deadlines.

References

• Federal Register of Legislation — Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 8 visa conditions (8573, 8575, 8576, 8578, 8579, 8580)