Australia Visa Costs 2026:
Government Fees vs. What Agents Actually Charge

The total price is two numbers added together

Every Australian visa application has a published government fee (technically called the "Visa Application Charge" or VAC) and, if you engage a registered migration agent, an agent fee that you pay privately to that agent. These are two separate transactions with two separate payees. The government fee goes to the Department of Home Affairs. The agent fee goes to the migration agent's practice, whether that is a sole practitioner or a multi-partner firm.

A clean working example: a Subclass 189 (Skilled Independent) visa application has a base government fee of around $4,110 for the main applicant. Add a second VAC if you are including an adult partner ($2,055). Add agent fees for case preparation, skills assessment coordination, and lodgement ($3,500–$7,500 for a standard case, $8,000+ for a complex one). The all-in cost for a couple through the skilled independent stream commonly runs $8,000–$16,000+ — and that is before any skills assessment fees, English test fees, or health examination charges, which are separate again.

This is the price gap most applicants underestimate. The government's published fee is the floor and only the floor. Everything else on top of it is a choice — whether to use an agent, how complex the case is, and what supporting evidence you need to gather. Understanding each component is what lets you decide whether the agent fee is justified.

Government fees by subclass — what DHA actually charges

DHA publishes the Visa Application Charge schedule on its website. Fees are indexed annually and updated each financial year on 1 July. The figures below are drawn from the 2025–2026 published schedule and are indicative of 2026 pricing — confirm current charges on the DHA website before you commit, as indexation moves them up year to year.

Subclass 500 (Student visa)

• Base application charge: from approximately $710 for the main applicant.
• Subsequent temporary application charge: approximately $710 — applies if you are applying for a subsequent student visa after holding one onshore.
• Dependant 18 years or older: approximately $1,420 per dependant.
• Dependant under 18 years: approximately $360 per dependant.

Subclass 189 (Skilled Independent)

• Base application charge (main applicant): approximately $4,110.
• Dependant 18 years or older: approximately $2,055 per dependant.
• Dependant under 18 years: approximately $1,030 per dependant.
• Surcharges: the VAC may be higher if a second VAC applies (for instance on a subsequent onshore application). Confirm the current charge on the DHA schedule.

Subclass 820 (Partner visa, onshore temporary)

• Base application charge (main applicant): approximately $8,850 — one of the more expensive subclasses because it funds the substantially larger relationship-evidence assessment workload.
• Dependant 18 years or older: approximately $4,430 per dependant.
• Dependant under 18 years: approximately $2,220 per dependant.
• The 820 leaves to the 801: the 820 is a temporary visa. After roughly two years onshore, you apply for the permanent Subclass 801, which carries its own (smaller) government fee at that stage.

Subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme)

• Direct Entry stream — nomination application: approximately $3,210 (paid by the sponsoring employer, not the employee).
• Direct Entry stream — visa application charge (main applicant): approximately $4,110, with additional charges for adult dependants.
• ENS Transitions stream or TRT stream — nomination application: approximately $1,790.
• Two parallel approvals: note that the 186 involves both an employer nomination approval and a visa application approval. Both attract fees, and both sit in the same overall cost calculation.

These figures are the DHA published schedule, not estimates. They are the floor. Every dollar above them in your total visa cost is skills assessment fees, English test fees, health examination charges, police certificates, certified translations, biometrics if applicable, and — if you choose to engage one — your migration agent's professional fees.

Where the government numbers come from

Government visa fees are not arbitrary. They are set by the Department of Home Affairs as part of the annual federal budget process and indexed against wage and operational cost movements. Each financial year (1 July to 30 June), DHA publishes an updated Visa Application Charge schedule that lifts most fees by a small percentage in line with indexation.

This is why "the cost of an Australian visa" that you read in a blog post from two years ago is no longer accurate. The cost has changed. The pattern — fees rise, fees are higher for applications with heavier processing workloads (partner visas, employer-sponsored visas), fees are lower for simpler subclasses — is stable year to year.

The implication for budgeting is simple: treat published DHA fees as accurate to within a single financial year, and verify the current charge before you commit to a budget figure. Treat any other fee you encounter as a private transaction — between you and an agent, a skills assessing body, a translator, or a panel physician. Those fees are not regulated to a published schedule.

What migration agents actually charge

There is no published fee schedule for registered migration agents. The Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) does not regulate what agents charge. Fees are set by individual practices and vary based on case complexity, the visa subclass involved, the city or region the practice operates in, and the agent's experience and specialisation. The figure below is a typical range drawn from publicly disclosed fees and published industry commentary as of mid-2026 — individual agents will quote above or below these ranges.

Subclass 500 (Student visa) — agent fees (if engaged)

• Typical range: $800 – $2,500.
• Many student visa applicants do not engage an agent — particularly applicants from streamlined-evidence countries. When an agent is used, it tends to be for complicated cases (course change within Australia, complicated financial evidence, GTE concerns).

Subclass 189 (Skilled Independent, points-tested) — agent fees

• Standard cases where the points score is comfortably above the recent cut-off: $3,500 – $7,500.
• Complex cases — points test edge cases, prior refusal history, complicated employment evidence, skills assessment reconsideration: $8,000 and up, sometimes considerably more.
• Often quoted as a fixed fee for the case rather than an hourly rate, particularly by larger firms.

Subclass 820 (Partner visa) and Subclass 309 (offshore partner) — agent fees

• Typical range: $5,000 – $10,000.
• Partner visa lodgement is heavily document-loaded — statements, joint-relationship evidence, statutory declarations from family and friends. Higher agent fees reflect the document preparation workload, not a higher skill premium.

Subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme) — agent fees

• Typical range: $6,000 – $12,000+.
• Generally the most expensive standard visa to put through an agent because of the dual-track approvals (employer nomination plus visa application), ANZSCO coding work, and labour market testing documentation for the sponsoring employer.

Hourly consultations — partial help

• Range: $300 – $600 per hour.
• Suitable for applicants who have prepared most of their application themselves and need targeted advice on a single issue (a complex document, an RFI response, a specific points test question).

The headline figure most applicants will encounter is the $2,000–$12,000+ range across the common subclasses. Quoted fees within that range depend almost entirely on case complexity and whether the application involves one approval pathway or two (the 186 is the standard example of a two-pathway application).

What is in an agent's fee

An agent's quote usually bundles four stages of work into a single fee. Knowing what those stages are lets you compare quotes between agents on like-for-like terms:

1. Consultation and case assessment. Initial review of your situation, confirmation of the visa subclass you should apply under, identification of any preliminary issues (eligibility gaps, document shortfalls) before lodgement.
2. Skills assessment and pre-lodgement coordination. Depending on the visa, this includes lodging your skills assessment with the relevant assessing authority (ACS, Engineers Australia, VETASSESS, etc.), following up on assessment progress, and aligning assessed occupation to the right ANZSCO code for the visa application.
3. Document drafting and review. Preparation of the visa application form, supporting statements (including relationship statements for partner visas, employment references, and covering letters), and review of every supporting document for consistency before lodgement.
4. Ongoing representation and RFI response. Acting as your representative if DHA raises a Request for Further Information during processing, responding on your behalf to clarification requests, and corresponding with DHA through to a decision.

Not every agent bundles all four stages into the same quoted fee. Some charge separately for skills assessment coordination. Some exclude RFI response work. Some bill the consultation as a separate paid step before agreeing to take on the case. This is why comparing agents on the headline figure alone is misleading — the composition of the fee is what determines whether you are comparing apples to apples.

How to read your own quote

If you have decided to engage an agent and have a quote in front of you, these are the standard questions to ask before you sign anything. They are also the questions that will tell you whether the quote is transparent or whether there is hidden room for the cost to grow.

• Is this a fixed fee or an hourly fee? A fixed-fee quote puts a ceiling on the cost. An hourly quote does not — the final cost depends on the time your case takes, which may be more than initially estimated.
• What is included in the fee? Skills assessment lodgement and follow-up? Document drafting? Covering letter preparation? RFI response work? Ongoing representation after lodgement through to decision?
• What would attract an additional cost? A prior visa refusal requiring additional submissions? A change in your circumstances mid-case? An RFI that requires substantial new evidence? Most agents will itemise these — if they do not, ask.
• What is the expected timeline for each stage and for DHA's decision? A reasonable agent will give you an indicative processing estimate based on the subclass and current DHA processing times — and will tell you what your role is at each stage.
• What happens if the application is refused? Some agents quote separate fees for review and re-lodgement. Some include an initial refusal response. Some do not. This must be clear before you sign.
• Who is the registered agent handling my case? Larger practices sometimes quote at a senior rate but allocate junior staff to the actual work. Confirm who your day-to-day contact will be and their OMARA registration status.

A agent who answers these directly and in writing is in a different category of transparency than an agent who provides a single total fee and a verbal assurance. The quote document is the right place to lock down all of this — not a follow-up email after the engagement has begun.

When the agent fee is worth it

There are cases where the cost of an agent is the cheaper option. Not because the fee is small — but because the cost of getting it wrong is much larger. These are the same cases identified in the broader "do I need an agent" question, viewed specifically through the cost lens:

A prior refusal or cancellation on your immigration record. Getting a second application wrong compounds the difficulty of any later application. Agent fees in this context are bought against a much higher downside — and most refusals on second-and-subsequent applications are about disclosure and case framing rather than eligibility, which is exactly where agent expertise adds the most value.

Health or character issues that are likely to be material in your application. A health condition that is reasonably likely to be identified as a public interest criterion bar, or any criminal history (including overseas), triggers discretionary assessment pathways where the way you present the case matters as much as the underlying merits. Professional representation has measurable impact on outcomes here.

An employer-sponsored visa where the sponsoring employer is new to sponsorship. The employer's approval pathway carries its own risks to their ongoing sponsorship status. If something in both pathways goes wrong, the cost is the visa refusal plus the employer's sponsorship being revoked. Agent fees spent on getting both right are cheaper than the alternative.

A partner visa with complicating factors. Significant age gaps, short relationships, long periods of separation, prior failed partner visa applications, or sponsors with prior immigration history — these all raise the risk profile of an 820/801 or 309/100 application well above the base rate. The agent fee in these cases is paid against the cost of a refusal that blocks re-application for a long period.

An RFI has been raised and you don't know how to respond. At this point you have a fee paid to DHA already and a decision pending. Engaging an agent at this stage is sometimes worth the cost even if you did not engage one at lodgement — the response strategy to a well-crafted RFI is not obvious from public guidance.

To put these numbers against an actual pathway, read the student-to-PR pathway these fees stack up against, and to understand how DHA processes every one of these applications before an officer reads them and when an agent is or isn't worth the cost.

When the agent fee is money you didn't need to spend

There are also cases where the agent fee is the major cost in an otherwise standard application, and the application itself does not require the depth of expertise an agent brings. Saving that money is not saving on quality — it is spending it on your case rather than on representation. These are the typical cases where agent fees pay for paperwork rather than expertise:

A standard Subclass 500 from a low-risk origin country. If you meet streamlined evidence requirements, your Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) case is straightforward, and your financial evidence is clean, the DHA application process is procedural. The agent fee in this case is mostly value placed on peace of mind.

A Subclass 189 where your points are clearly above the recent cut-off. If your skills assessment is in hand, your points score is comfortably above recent invitation round thresholds for your occupation, and your supporting documents are organised, the value-add of a full agent engagement is limited. SkillSelect EOI submission is self-service, and the visa application itself follows a standard pattern where most of the work is uploading documents you already have.

A clean Subclass 600 (Visitor) with strong home ties. If your travel history is clean, your home-country ties are well-evidenced, and your visit purpose is credible, a visitor visa lodgement is a self-assessment of intention to return. The main thing refusals hinge on here is the strength of your home ties — which is not something an agent can manufacture.

A Subclass 485 after an Australian degree with no complication. If you studied at a registered Australian institution, you are within the six-month lodgement window, your English test result is at hand, and your qualification is on the eligible list, the 485 is points-independent with a documented lodgement pathway. PRISMS verification covers most of the academic evidence automatically.

A Subclass 417 or 462 (Working Holiday). These are the simplest visa applications DHA processes. Eligibility turns on passport, age, and sometimes prior working holiday history. An agent is not required.

In each of these cases, the agent fee is real money paid against a procedural lodgement rather than against substantive complexity. Whether you engage an agent anyway is a personal call about peace of mind — but the cost calculation is straightforward: you are paying for a service you largely do not need.

Where Veazy fits in this picture

Veazy is not a migration agent and does not charge agent fees. It does not prepare or lodge visa applications. What it does is map your specific situation — your visa history, your skills assessment status, your points score, your family composition — against the current DHA criteria, and tell you which side of the line you are on before you commit to either paying agent fees or absorbing the preparation work yourself.

If your case falls into the "agent fee is money you didn't need to spend" category, the Veazy Pathway Quiz gives you a clear picture of your pathway, your subclass, and what you need to prepare in order — so you go into lodgement informed and prepared without paying $5,000+ for procedural work.

If your case falls into the "agent fee is worth it" category, the same free pathway builder helps you enter that conversation understanding your situation properly. Agents charge for the time they spend explaining your case to you — and many charge for an initial paid consultation before agreeing to take the lodgement on. Going in with a clear picture of your own pathway makes the engagement more efficient and the fee more justifiable.

In either case, the result is the same: you know the total cost of your visa application in advance, you know which components are government fees, which are agent fees, which are skills assessment and ancillary charges, and you know whether the agent fee in your specific case is buying you substantive expertise or simply paperwork. The Pathway Quiz is the tool that produces that understanding, and it is free.

Frequently asked questions