Do I need a lawyer or a migration agent?

Many visa applications are lodged directly. A registered migration agent or immigration lawyer helps with complex or refused matters.

What is a Section 48 bar?

It limits the visas you can apply for while unlawfully in Australia after a refusal or cancellation. A professional can map your options.

Can I appeal a refused visa?

Often yes — the Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviews many decisions, but strict time limits apply.

Conditions 8622, 8623 & 8624: No Work with Minors, 50m from Schools, No Victim Contact (2026)

What visa conditions 8622, 8623 and 8624 prohibit — work with minors, going within 50 metres of schools, and contacting a victim's family.

If your visa carries condition 8622, the answer is blunt: you must not do any work, or take part in any regular organised activity, involving more than incidental contact with a minor or vulnerable person. That prohibition holds whether the work is paid or unpaid, and whether or not a working with children or vulnerable people check would normally be required for it.

Conditions 8623 and 8624 sit alongside it and work differently: 8623 is a proximity rule about schools and childcare, and 8624 is a no-contact rule about the victim of an offence and their family. All three are set out in Schedule 8 of the Migration Regulations 1994, as published on the Australian Government's Federal Register of Legislation, as at September 2026. What follows is a plain reading of how those provisions are written, not advice about any one person's visa.

What does condition 8622 actually prohibit?

Condition 8622 has two limbs. The first covers "any work" involving more than incidental contact with a minor or vulnerable person. The second covers "any regular organised activity" involving the same kind of contact, which matters because it pulls in things that would not normally be described as a job — coaching, youth group volunteering, driving for a junior sports club, helping at a holiday program.

Both limbs are then reinforced by subclause (2): the prohibition applies whether the work or activity is for reward or otherwise, and whether or not a working with children or vulnerable people check (however described) is required in relation to it.

What counts as "more than incidental contact"?

Condition 8622 does not define "minor" or "vulnerable person" on its own terms. It takes those meanings from Part 070 of Schedule 2 of the same Regulations, so the precise scope of both terms sits in that Part rather than in the condition itself.

The "more than incidental contact" test is the practical hinge. Incidental contact is contact that happens by chance or in passing, rather than contact that is a feature of what you are actually doing. Take a hypothetical visa holder: working a supermarket checkout that minors happen to pass through is incidental; coaching an under-12s team every Saturday morning is not, because regular contact with children is part of the role itself. The same reasoning applies to a volunteer position — the label on the role does not change the analysis.

Does it matter if the work is unpaid, or if no check is required?

No. This is the point condition 8622 makes explicitly, and it is the one most often misunderstood. Subclause (2)(a) covers work or activities "for reward or otherwise", so volunteering, unpaid work experience and informal help are all within scope. Subclause (2)(b) removes the second common assumption: if no working with children or vulnerable people check is required for the role, that does not make the role permissible.

Put plainly, holding a valid check is not a defence to a breach of 8622, and the absence of a check requirement is not permission to do the work.

What does condition 8623 say about schools and childcare?

Condition 8623 is short: the holder must not go within 50 metres of a school, childcare centre or day care centre.

Three things follow from how it is written. It is about physical proximity, not entry — the condition does not require the holder to go inside, or to have any interaction with children. It contains no stated exceptions on its face, so it does not carve out walking past, driving past, or attending as a parent. And it does not specify how the 50 metres is measured, or from which point on the premises.

What does condition 8624 prohibit?

Condition 8624 prevents the holder from contacting, or attempting to contact, the victim of the offence or a member of the victim's family. The inclusion of attempts is significant: the condition is directed at the step taken towards contact, not only at contact that succeeds.

"Member of the victim's family" is defined inclusively rather than exhaustively. It expressly covers a spouse or de facto partner of the victim, a parent or guardian of the victim, a child of the victim, and a sibling of the victim — and because the definition says "includes, without limitation", other family relationships can fall within it.

Because the condition covers attempts as well as contact, and does not limit the means of contact, the cautious reading is to treat indirect contact — through another person, or online — as caught by it.

Condition	Core prohibition	Key feature
8622	No work or regular organised activity involving more than incidental contact with a minor or vulnerable person	Applies whether paid or unpaid, and whether or not a check is required
8623	Must not go within 50 metres of a school, childcare centre or day care centre	Proximity-based; no exceptions stated in the condition
8624	Must not contact, or attempt to contact, the victim or a member of the victim's family	Family list is inclusive, not exhaustive

Are there related reporting duties?

Yes. One nearby Schedule 8 condition, 8615, uses the same "more than incidental contact with minors or vulnerable persons" concept and turns it into a notification duty; condition 8616 imposes a separate notification duty about contact with any individual known by the holder to have been charged with, or convicted of, a criminal offence.

Condition 8615 requires the holder, within 5 working days of grant, to notify Immigration of the details of any association with, or membership of, an organisation that engages in activities involving more than incidental contact with minors or vulnerable persons, and then to notify any change in those details — including the beginning or end of an association or membership — within 2 working days. The duty does not apply to organisations formed for the purpose of communicating on governmental or political matters, or whose regular functions or activities involve such communications.

Condition 8616 requires the holder to notify Immigration of the details of any contact with any individual the holder knows to have been charged with, or convicted of, a criminal offence. That duty does not apply to contact in the course of attending a therapeutic or rehabilitative service, contact in connection with legal proceedings or legal advice, or incidental contact.

Which visas carry these conditions?

Schedule 8 answers this at a general level only. The note attached to each of conditions 8622, 8623 and 8624 states that whether a visa of a particular class may be made subject to the condition depends on the relevant provision in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994.

In other words, these conditions are not universal. They attach where the Schedule 2 provisions for that visa say they do, and the set of conditions imposed on any one visa has to be read from the visa itself. Wording can also change, so the current text on the Federal Register of Legislation is the version to rely on.

What happens if a condition is breached?

The same note in Schedule 8 points to the Migration Act 1958 for the consequences: sections 41 and 116 to 119 deal with cancellation for breaches of conditions. Breaching a visa condition is therefore a cancellation matter under that Act, not merely a technical slip.

How those provisions would apply to a particular set of facts is a separate question, and one that depends on the individual circumstances. This article is general reference material about how the conditions are drafted; it is not a substitute for advice from a suitably qualified practitioner on your own situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does condition 8622 stop me from working with children if no Working with Children Check is required?

Yes. Condition 8622 states expressly that it applies whether or not a working with children or vulnerable people check, however described, is required in relation to the work. The absence of a check requirement does not make the work permissible.

Can I volunteer or do unpaid work with children under condition 8622?

No. The condition covers work or regular organised activity "for reward or otherwise", so unpaid and voluntary roles are within scope. Volunteering at a youth group, coaching a junior team or helping at a children's program would all be caught if the contact is more than incidental.

Does the 50 metre rule in condition 8623 apply if I am only walking or driving past?

As written, condition 8623 prohibits going within 50 metres of a school, childcare centre or day care centre, with no exceptions stated in the condition itself. It is a proximity rule rather than an entry rule, and it does not specify how the distance is measured.

Who counts as a member of the victim's family under condition 8624?

The condition lists a spouse or de facto partner, a parent or guardian, a child, and a sibling of the victim. Because it says the term includes these "without limitation", the list is not exhaustive and other family relationships may fall within it.

What is "more than incidental contact" with a minor?

The condition does not define the phrase, so it turns on whether contact with minors or vulnerable people is a regular feature of what you are doing, as opposed to something that happens by chance. Brief, unavoidable contact in the course of ordinary life is different from a role in which contact with children is part of the job or activity.

Which visas get conditions 8622, 8623 and 8624?

Whether a visa of a particular class may be subject to these conditions depends on the relevant provision in Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994. They attach where Schedule 2 provides for them, and the conditions imposed on a particular visa have to be read from that visa.

What happens if I breach one of these conditions?

Breaches of visa conditions are dealt with under the Migration Act 1958, sections 41 and 116 to 119, which cover cancellation for breaches of conditions. Whether cancellation follows in a given case depends on the circumstances.