To be eligible for VET Student Loans, you must meet the citizenship and residency requirements:

Residency:

• be an Australian citizen; or
• a permanent Humanitarian visa holder, (resident in Australia for the duration of the units/s of study); or
• a qualifying New Zealand citizen who is a Special Category Visa (SCV) holder (this is not a permanent visa but allows its holder to visit, live, and work in Australia indefinitely) who meets the long-term residency requirements, which are:

• • have first entered Australia as a dependent minor aged under 18 years; and
  • at the time did not have a spouse or de facto partner; and
  • have been physically present in Australia for at least eight out of the past 10 years, and 18 months out of the past 2 years; and

• • meet the other eligibility criteria for the loan (you are enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported course and you will be residing in Australia for the duration of your course).

Please note: to apply for a VET Student Loan, you must provide current and updated evidence for each of the above criteria prior to enrolment.

Academic suitability:

You must be assessed by Signature Training staff as academically suited to undertake the approved course on the basis of either:

• providing your Australian year 12 Certificate; or
• providing your International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB); or
• providing evidence of successful completion of an Australian Qualifications Framework Certificate IV or higher qualification (where the language of instruction is English); OR at a level in a framework that preceded the AQF that is equivalent to level 4 or above in the AQF.
• displaying competence at Exit Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework in both reading and numeracy through an approved Language, Literacy and Numeracy test. Signature Training uses the Safe Work Resources LLN Assessment Tool (LLN Robot). See Approved LLN Assessment Tools.
• In addition, Signature Training must reasonably believe that student is academically suited to undertake the course and the student must meet any other specified entry requirements.

Additional eligibility criteria:

To be eligible for VET Student Loans, you must:

• have a FEE-HELP balance that is more than $0
• plan to study the approved course primarily at a campus in Australia
• study with an approved provider
• have a Tax File Number or a Certificate of Application for a Tax File Number provided by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
• have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) or are otherwise exempt
• submit the electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) by the first census day and at least two business days after enrolling
• confirm engagement and progression online when requested to by the Government
• have read the VET Student Loans Information Booklet.

For more information on eligibility requirements, please visit the VET Student Loans website.

If you are under the age of 18, a parent or guardian must co-sign the electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) and Signature Training enrolment form.

You must also provide parental or guardian consent in writing via the Request for a VET Student Loan - Parental Consent - student under 18 years form and email it to vsl@signaturetraining.edu.au . The form is also available from Student Administration, by emailing vsl@signaturetraining.edu.au  and requesting a copy. This form must be submitted to Signature Training before you can apply for a loan.

Parental or guardian consent is not required if you have been assessed by Centrelink as an independent. You will need to provide evidence of this assessment in the form of your Centrelink Income Statement, which you can request by logging into MyGov and selecting your Centrelink online account. Email this statement to vsl@signaturetraining.edu.au .

Documentation for VET Student Loans

Signature Training will need you to provide proof of citizenship before applying for a VET Student Loan to make sure you meet the citizenship and residency requirements.

The evidence required to demonstrate proof of citizenship depends on your date and place of birth.

Australian citizens

An Australian Passport is suitable evidence of Australian citizenship. If the applicant does not have an Australian Passport, the evidence required to demonstrate that an applicant is an Australian citizen may differ depending on whether the applicant was:

• born in Australia before 20 August 1986
• born in Australia on or after 20 August 1986
• born overseas.

Applicants born in Australia before 20 August 1986

If applicants do not have an Australian Passport, they will need to provide their full birth certificate issued by an Australian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDM).

An exception to this is where the applicant’s parents were in Australia as diplomats or consular officers at the time of the applicant’s birth. In these circumstances, the applicant will need to provide a citizenship certificate as evidence that they are an Australian citizen.

If the applicant does not have a citizenship certificate they will need to lodge Form 119 Application for evidence of Australian citizenship with certified copies of the required documents and the application fee with the Department of Home Affairs.

Applicants born in Australia on or after 20 August 1986 and one of their parents was an Australian citizen at the time of their birth

If applicants do not have an Australian Passport, and where one (or both) of the applicant’s parents was an Australian citizen at the time of their birth, the applicant should provide their full birth certificate issued by an Australian RBDM. They will also need to provide one of the following documents as evidence that one of their parents was an Australian citizen at the time of their birth:

• their parent’s Australian citizenship certificate (at least one of their parents was a citizen at the time of their birth, to meet this requirement) or;
• if their parent was born in Australia before 20 August 1986, their parent’s full birth certificate issued by an Australian RBDM or;
• if their parent was born in Australia on or after 20 August 1986, their parent’s full birth certificate issued by an Australian RBDM and their grandparent's Australian birth certificate issued by an Australian RBDM.

If the applicant cannot provide this they should apply for their own evidence of Australian citizenship by lodging Form 119 Application for evidence of Australian citizenship with certified copies of the required documents and the application fee with the Department of Home Affairs.

Applicants born in Australia on or after 20 August 1986 and one of their parents was a permanent resident of Australia at the time of their birth

If applicants do not have an Australian passport, and where one (or both) of the applicant’s parents was a permanent resident of Australia at the time of their birth, they will need to provide both of the following documents to prove their Australian citizenship:

• their full birth certificate issued by an Australian RBDM
• their Australian citizenship certificate.

They can apply for an Australian citizenship certificate by lodging Form 119 Application for evidence of Australian citizenship with certified copies of the required documents and the application fee with Department of Home Affairs.

The following documents are not acceptable as proof of a parent’s permanent residency for VET Student Loan applications:

• parent's foreign passport with a visa label
• Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) printout
• Visa Grant Notification Letter
• Certificate of Evidence of Resident Status (CERS)
• Certificate of Status for New Zealand Citizens in Australia (CSNZCA)
• ImmiCard
• Freedom of Information (FOI) letter from the Department of Home Affairs.

These documents only provide proof of a person’s visa status on the day they are issued / printed and are not sufficient proof of a parent’s resident status at the time the applicant was born.

Applicants born overseas and acquired Australian citizenship by application

As a guide, please refer to the relevant category below. 

Applicants will need to provide one of the following documents as evidence of their Australian citizenship:

• an Australian passport
• an Australian citizenship certificate
• a Citizenship by Descent extract
• an Adoption in accordance with the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption or bilateral arrangement extract.

If an applicant does not have one of the above citizenship documents they will need to apply for a replacement certificate by lodging Form 119 Application for evidence of Australian citizenship with certified copies of the required documents and the application fee with the Department of Home Affairs.

Permanent Humanitarian Visa holder

If you are a permanent humanitarian visa holder and are applying for a VET Student Loan, your application will be checked by the contact the Department of Home Affairs. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants not registered at birth by the relevant State/Territory authority

Applicants in these circumstances without a current Australian Passport may submit a Statutory Declaration.

Please note: the Statutory Declaration has been pre-populated and must only be used by applicants to whom these circumstances apply. The Statutory Declaration must be witnessed by a person included in the List of Occupations or the List of Persons provided in the template on the Department's website mentioned above.

Statutory Declarations are not acceptable forms of proof of Australian citizenship for any applicants other than Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders whose birth was not registered by the relevant State/Territory authority.

Applicant or their parent was born in Papua New Guinea prior to 16 Sep 1975

The application process:

1. After reading the VET Student Loans Information Booklet , you must first enrol with Signature Training and indicate you wish to access a VET Student Loan.
2. Signature Training will then assess your eligibility. If you are assessed as eligible, Signature Training will enter your enrolment information into the electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) system, including the nearest applicable census day.
3. You will then receive an email with log in details to sign into the eCAF system. Once you sign in, you will need to verify the pre-populated information and complete the mandatory fields, including providing your Tax File Number (TFN). You must then wait at least two full business days after you have enrolled in your studies before submitting the eCAF. This helps to make sure that you have sufficient time to consider the decision to take on a loan.
4. You must submit the eCAF on or before the first census day for which you would like the loan to apply.
5. Once you submit your eCAF, you will receive an email confirming your loan approval and providing you with a copy of your completed form. You should keep this form for your records.
6. If you do not complete the eCAF, or other permitted form, by the required date for your course, you will have to wait until the next semester or term to request a VET Student Loan for future study. Retrospective access to VET Student Loans is not allowed under any circumstances.

More information

Please read Section 3, Page 16 of the VET Student Loans Information Booklet for more information on applying or visit the VET Student Loans website.