Every 1 July the Department of Home Affairs resets what it charges to lodge a visa application, and every year a few people find out about it a week too late. The 2026–27 amounts have been in force since 1 July. Below is what the main visas cost right now, taken from the Department’s own pricing table rather than from a summary of a summary.
One thing to get straight before the numbers. The headline figure you see quoted everywhere is the base application charge, and it covers one person. Everyone else on the application — a partner, a child — adds their own charge on top. For a family that second column matters more than the first, so it is included below.
Partner visas
The onshore Partner visa (subclass 820/801) and the offshore Partner visa (subclass 309/100) both carry a base charge of AUD 11,710.00. Each additional applicant aged 18 or over is AUD 5,860.00, and each child under 18 is AUD 2,935.00. That single payment covers the temporary stage and the permanent stage that follows, which is why the number dwarfs everything else on this page.
There are cheaper doors into the same visa, and they are easy to miss:
- Prospective Marriage visa holder applying for the 820: AUD 1,955.00
- Ceased Prospective Marriage visa: AUD 2,475.00
- Transitional visa holder: AUD 700.00
The Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300) itself is charged at the full AUD 11,710.00, so the discount above is not a saving on the pathway as a whole — it is recognition that you already paid once.
Skilled visas
The three points-tested skilled visas sit within five dollars of each other:
- Skilled Independent (subclass 189), points tested: AUD 6,135.00
- Skilled Nominated (subclass 190): AUD 6,140.00
- Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491): AUD 6,140.00
Additional applicants aged 18 or over are AUD 3,070.00 on all three, and children are AUD 1,535.00 (AUD 1,540.00 on the points-tested 189). A couple with two children is therefore looking at roughly AUD 12,300 in application charges alone, before a skills assessment, an English test or a state nomination fee — all of which go to different organisations at different times.
Employer sponsored visas
The Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186) is AUD 6,140.00 across all three streams: Direct Entry, Temporary Residence Transition and Labour Agreement. Additional adult applicants are AUD 3,070.00, children AUD 1,535.00.
The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) is AUD 4,015.00, again the same across the Core Skills, Specialist Skills and Labour Agreement streams. This one has a trap in it. Unlike every other visa on this page, the additional applicant charge for anyone aged 18 or over is also AUD 4,015.00 — the same as the primary applicant, not half of it. Adding a spouse doubles the cost. Children are AUD 1,005.00.
Those are visa application charges only. The sponsorship approval and the nomination are separate steps with their own costs, and in most cases the employer carries them.
Students and graduates
The Student visa (subclass 500) is AUD 2,500.00 for the general and postgraduate research sectors, with additional adult applicants at AUD 1,530.00 and children at AUD 500.00.
Not every student pays that. ELICOS and Non-Award students are charged AUD 2,050.00. Foreign Affairs and Defence sponsored students, and secondary exchange students, are charged nothing at all.
The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) is where the number surprises people: AUD 5,750.00 for both the Post-Higher Education Work and Post-Vocational Education Work streams, with additional adult applicants at AUD 2,875.00. A Second Post-Higher Education Work application is AUD 2,265.00. If you are budgeting a study-to-work plan, the graduate visa costs more than twice the student visa that got you here.
Visitor visas
Where you are standing when you apply changes the price:
- Tourist stream, applying from outside Australia: AUD 250.00
- Tourist stream, applying while in Australia: AUD 630.00
- Frequent traveller stream: AUD 1,845.00
- Business Visitor, Sponsored Family and Approved Destination Status streams: AUD 250.00
The income thresholds moved as well
Employers face a second change that gets less attention than the visa charges but has a larger effect on who can actually be nominated.
The Core Skills Income Threshold rose to AUD 79,423 for nominations lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027. It was AUD 76,515 for 2025–26, and AUD 73,150 for the period from December 2024 to June 2025 — a lift of about eight and a half per cent in eighteen months. The Specialist Skills Income Threshold for 2026–27 is AUD 146,576, up from AUD 141,210 the year before.
The practical consequence is simple. A role that cleared the threshold last year may sit below it now, and the nomination has to meet the current figure, not the one that applied when the job was advertised. If a salary was agreed months ago and the nomination is going in this week, check it again before lodging.
What the charge does not include
Beyond the application charge and the additional applicant charges sit the costs that never appear on a pricing table: health examinations, police certificates from every country you have lived in, certified translations, skills assessments and English testing. On a family application those can rival the visa charge itself.
Three things worth doing before you lodge
- Count every applicant, not just yourself. The base charge is one person. On a 482, a spouse costs as much again.
- Check the stream, then check it again. A visitor visa varies by more than seven times between streams, and an application charge is not refunded because you picked the wrong one.
- Use the figure current on the day you pay. These amounts are reset annually, so a number quoted in a forum post from last year is not the number you will be asked for.
Where these figures come from
Every amount above was read from the Department of Home Affairs pricing table on 19 August 2026, on a page the Department itself last updated on 1 July 2026. Charges change, and the Department’s own page is always the version that counts.
If you want the cost of your particular situation rather than the headline number — who is on the application, which stream, what else you will need to pay for — we are happy to work through it with you.
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