Visa Fees Rise Sharply from 1 July 2026: What the New Charges Mean for Your Application

On 1 July 2026, the Department of Home Affairs raised visa application charges across almost every visa category — and this was not the usual modest CPI adjustment of 2–5% we see most years. Most mainstream visas jumped by around 25% in a single step, and a handful of categories tripled overnight.

If you budgeted for an application using figures from earlier this year, those numbers are now wrong. Here is what changed, who feels it most, and how we are advising clients to respond.

The headline changes

Primary applicant charges, before and after 1 July 2026:

Visa	Old fee	New fee	Change
Student (subclass 500)	$2,000	$2,500	+25%
Temporary Graduate (485)	$4,600	$5,750	+25%
Skilled Independent (189)	$4,910	$6,135	+25%
Skilled Nominated / Regional (190 / 491)	$4,910	$6,140	+25%
Skills in Demand (482)	$3,210	$4,015	+25%
Employer Nomination Scheme (186)	$4,910	$6,140	+25%
Partner (820/801, 309/100, 300)	$9,365	$11,710	+25%
Working Holiday (417 / 462)	$670	$840	+25%
Visitor (600, offshore)	$200	$250	+25%
Resident Return (155/157)	$490	$1,475	+201%
Bridging Visa B (020)	$190	$575	+203%
NZ Family Relationship (461)	$445	$1,330	+199%

A few important footnotes:

• Families pay multiply. Additional applicant charges rose in step — a couple applying for a skilled visa now budgets around $9,205 in Department fees alone, before skills assessments, English tests, health examinations, and police clearances.
• Not everyone was hit equally. Student visa applicants from Pacific Island countries, Timor-Leste, and in some tiers ASEAN member countries pay a reduced $2,050 rate. A new lower ELICOS tier ($2,050) also applies to English-language students. eVisitor and ETA charges were not increased.
• Salary thresholds moved on the same day. The minimum salary for employer-sponsored visas (TSMIT) rose from $76,515 to roughly $79,500, and the specialist skills threshold to about $146,717 — so the cost of sponsorship went up on two fronts at once.

Which fee applies to you?

The rule is simple but unforgiving: the fee is locked on the date the Department receives your application — not the date you started preparing, sat your English test, or paid your agent. Applications lodged before 1 July stay on the old schedule; anything lodged from 1 July onward pays the new rate. And visa application charges are non-refundable in almost all cases, including refusals.

Why the government did this

Historically, 1 July fee changes were quiet, inflation-linked adjustments. This cycle is different, and the signals are fairly clear:

• Price is now a migration-policy lever. Alongside lower permanent migration ceilings, higher salary thresholds, and tighter English requirements, the government is using cost to manage application volumes — not just to recover processing costs.
• Visa fees are a revenue line the Department can move without new legislation. Industry estimates suggest the earlier doubling of the 485 fee in March 2026 alone was projected to raise over $1.2 billion across five years; a broad 25% uplift extends that logic to nearly every applicant.
• Australia now sits at the expensive end of comparable destinations. The student visa, at $2,500, is now the most expensive among major English-speaking study destinations — a point the international education sector has publicly criticised as a direct hit to Australia's competitiveness.

Our honest concerns as practitioners

We work with these numbers daily, and a few things worry us about where this is heading:

• The administrative-visa triples are quietly punitive. A Resident Return visa at $1,475 or a Bridging Visa B at $575 are not "application complexity" prices — they are deterrent prices, and they fall hardest on people who did nothing wrong: permanent residents renewing travel facilities, and bridging visa holders who need to travel for family emergencies.
• Non-refundable fees raise the cost of a mistake. At $11,710 for a partner visa or $6,140 for a skilled visa, a refused application is now a serious financial event, not an inconvenience. Weak or rushed evidence has never been more expensive.
• Fee volatility makes planning harder. Some categories have now moved three times in twelve months (July 2025, March 2026, July 2026). Clients reasonably ask us "what will it cost when I'm ready in eight months?" — and the honest answer is: probably more than today.
• Competitiveness is a real concern. When the student and graduate pathways cost significantly more than Canada's or the UK's, Australia risks pricing out exactly the young skilled migrants its own workforce planning says it needs.

What we recommend

1. Do not budget from memory or old blog posts — including ours. Always confirm the exact current charge for your subclass and stream in the Department's Visa Pricing Estimator before lodging. Fees can and do change mid-year now.
2. Treat lodgement timing as a financial decision. If you are genuinely ready — documents, skills assessment, English results — lodging sooner rather than later has a measurable dollar value. But never lodge a weak application just to beat a fee rise; a refusal costs far more.
3. Budget the full picture. Department fees are only part of the total: add skills assessment, health examinations, police clearances, translations, and (for employer-sponsored pathways) the separate employer nomination charge.
4. Get the strategy right before you pay. At current fee levels, choosing the wrong subclass is a five-figure mistake in some categories. A one-hour consultation ($330, pro rata) is cheap insurance against a $6,000–$12,000 misstep.

If you are planning an application in the next 6–12 months and want a realistic, current cost breakdown for your specific pathway — including the fees most people forget — book a consultation and we will map it out with you.

Figures in this article reflect the Department of Home Affairs pricing schedule effective 1 July 2026 and are provided as general information, not migration advice for your individual circumstances.