📢 Visa Fee Changes Effective 1 July 2026
Visa Application Charges (VACs) are indexed annually in accordance with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), as published in the Federal Budget papers. CPI in Australia is currently around 4%. This year, however, the dreaded curse of forgetfulness has set in with our federal politicians and, as a consequence, we have unfortunately seen an increase higher than CPI and for some visas this means an increase of up to 25%.
To make life more complicated in your budget forecasting, the Government has also started to differentiate fees based on the passport a candidate holds by:
- reducing Student and Temporary Graduate visa fees for holders of passports from Pacific-regional countries (see list of countries below)
- reducing Student visa fees for certain ASEAN countries
- creating new fee structures for some visa streams
Pacific‑regional country means each of the following:
(a) Federated States of Micronesia;
(b) Fiji;
(c) Kiribati;
(d) Nauru;
(e) Palau;
(f) Papua New Guinea;
(g) Republic of the Marshall Islands;
(h) Samoa;
(i) Solomon Islands;
(j) Timor‑Leste;
(k) Tonga;
(l) Tuvalu;
(m) Vanuatu.
FY2026/2027 Fee Schedule
📋 View the FY2026/2027 Fee Schedule Â
Applicable to applications lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027.
Workforce Planning and Costings
A reminder that the cost of most of the employer sponsored fees can be split between you (the sponsor) and the candidate (visa applicant). For details on how this can be done and what exact costs are involved, please contact the Visa Executive team directly.
