Fees for Australian visa have increased rapidly over the past 5 years. For instance a Partner visa lodged in 2010 cost about A$1,750 and now costs A$6,865. Why? Because the fees are Government controlled and they can increase whenever they want to. Sometimes we get advance warning of a fee increase and sometimes they just go up without notice. Australian visa fees and charges go towards the Government costs of Migration and cannot be regulated.
On 1 January 2015 the fees for partner visas applied for inside Australia increased by 50%, a huge increase. But on 1 July 2015 the same fees for visas applied for outside Australia went up again, a total of 100% in 6 months.
When we give a quote for a visa we can only give the current fees and charges. If we know ahead of fee increase we can suggest you move quickly to avoid the fee increase. But this has risks as a quickly prepared application can have important information missed. We do our best but we always recommend you lodge as soon as possible once you have made your mind up to apply. If you pay for your visa application by credit card, a surcharge will apply. The current surcharge rates are:
• Visa and MasterCard* – 1.08%
• American Express and JCB – 1.99%
• Diners Club International – 2.91%
* The surcharge will also apply to debit cards when making payments online. Given that you cannot pay any other way you cannot avoid an additional fee of about $75 for a partner visa.
The cost of visas changes from time to time. The cost of your visa is dependent on the date your application is received. If there is a price increase between the date you lodge your application and the date we receive your application, you will need to pay the new application charge. We will generally lodge your visa electronically but some visas must be paper-based applications.
The visa application charge is the amount of money in Australian dollars (AUD) that must be paid for a visa application. In some cases the visa application charge is nil. We will advise you.
Other potential charges for a visa or appeal are:
Police checks: In Australia $42, overseas countries will vary.
Health checks: These will vary depending on what visa and where you have it done but can be around A$300 per person.
Translation charges: All documents that are not in English must be translated. Generally these are cheaper if done in your home country but they must be done by an accredited translator with a stamp certifying this.
We will assess the approximate costs of your application or appeal at the commencement but this can only be an estimate.
Our professional fees are generally fixed for the full service but we will make this clear to you at the start.