Ex-pat Wall Street bankers or London city lawyers are on notice: Australia will be chasing your university fee debts.
But those graduates earning a pittance overseas - by volunteering, pouring beers or cutting hair for instance - won't have to pay up, Education Minister Christopher Pyne says.
New laws put to parliament on Thursday for the first time will require graduates who have moved overseas to pay back their HELP debts as if they were living and working back home.
The crackdown, which will save the budget $150 million over a decade, would ensure the system was fair and stable, Mr Pyne said.
The same rules will apply to ex-pats as to graduates who stayed home, meaning only those earning more than $54,000 a year will have to make repayments.
From January 2016 all Australians with university debts who move overseas for at least six months will have to notify the tax office via the online myGov portal.
They'll have to start making repayments for the 2016-17 financial year from July 2017.
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