Today we welcome in the new financial year, and with that comes increases to various application fees. From today visa application fees have increased across the board, all by a small margin, but the most notable fee changes are to citizenship and appeal applications.

Often people just accept the fees as they are told them, but it can be worthwhile knowing about fees applicable to immigration matters so that you can get an idea of what they are, which ones might impact you and how to know if you’ll be up for a bigger bill in future.

What types of fee increases are there in Australian Immigration?

There are actually few different categories of fees in migration that, if increased, may affect you. Specifically there are the following types of application fees:

Visa Application Fees

This is the most common type of fee and also the type that most frequently increases. These are increases to the cost for applications for various visa subclasses. For example before today the subclass 820/801 application would have cost $7715.00, however as of today it will cost $7850.00.

Fees to apply for approval of sponsorship or a nomination

The second is fees to apply to sponsor someone, usually an employee. To become an approved business sponsor for TSS visa purposes the fee is $420. To then nominate a TSS visa applicant in a particular occupation in your business, the fee is $330. These fees do not often increase, nor will they for the current financial year

Citizenship Fees

These fees are the application fees to apply to become a citizen, whether by conferral, descent or other.

Appeal Fees

These are the fees to appeal an unfavourable decision, such as the refusal of a visa application or following the cancellation of a visa. There are two main avenues of appeal, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and the Federal Circuit Court, each of which have set fees to apply to appeal. These fees would only become relevant if you received an unfavourable decision that you wanted to appeal. However it is worth keeping in mind, as it reiterates the importance of submitting the strongest possible application to avoid any risk of the need to appeal at all.

Generally, increases in fees will take place from 1 July each year as it lines up with the financial year in Australia. Visa application fees increase nearly every year. The other types of application fees increase less often but, as a result of this, it can mean quite significant increases when they do.

It might be worth noting here that this list isn’t exhaustive, and only refers to the main type of application fees directly related to applying for a visa application. There may also be other fees indirectly involved in applying for a visa application that could increase from 1 July, such as fees for police checks, medical checks or professional fees for your migration specialist (professional fees are the fees of your individual migration lawyer or agent charge for their professional services that are set by the individual firm/agency) but we won’t go into those here.

What are the increases that start today?

Visa application fees have increased across the board by about 1.75% this year. Not too bad right?

There’s also good news for employer sponsors. Sponsorship and nomination application fees remain the same as they were previously, as does the SAF Levy figures.

Citizenship fees have had a mix up this financial year. Previously the fee to apply for citizenship by conferral (ie applying based on holding permanent residency) was $285. Now the same application will set you back $490. Considering citizenship fees last increased in 2016, it isn’t too bad, but it is quite a hike if you were eligible to apply last month but didn’t quite get around to it.

Other type of applications relating to citizenship have also had increases. From today applying for citizenship by descent will cost $315 for a single applicant.

Appeal fees have had the most significant increase, however.

To appeal a migration decision (ie decisions on visa-related issues, not on character issues, refugee matters or citizenship) to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has increased in cost from $1826 to $3000.

Similarly, to appeal a migration decision to the Federal Circuit Court has increased in cost from $690 to $3300!

These increases are BIG, considering that if you need to utilise the option to appeal you have likely invested a lot of money in a previous visa and/or application already. This is a big reminder of the importance of ensuring you lodge the strongest visa application possible, abide by your visa conditions and minimise any risks to your application as much as you can.

How do we know if and when fees for any types of application will be increased?

Generally, fees for the above types of applications will be determined by a legislative instrument. Legislative instruments are essentially small changes to the regulations that the government can implement. Legislative instruments will specify the changes they are making as well as when the changes come into effect. Some legislative instruments come into effect with very short notice, so it is not always possible to foresee an increase for certain types of fees very far ahead.

The annual Federal Budget is always a good indicator on whether we should expect some visa application fees to increase from 1 July. If there is no amount specified in the budget in relation to funding from Immigration, then fees will likely increase in line with the forecast Consumer Price Index (also specified in the Federal Budget).

As an example, let’s look at the fees for a partner visa application:

• In the 2018-2019 financial year the cost of a partner visa application was $7160.00.

• In the 2019-2020 budget, it was announced the government would had budgeted based on an additional 5.4% in application fees. So from 1 July 2019, the partner visa fee rose to $7715.00 – that’s a 2.25% increase for the Consumer Price Index AND by 5.4% as announced in the Federal Budget, totalling an increase of 7.65% (rounded to the nearest $5).

• In the 2020-2021 financial year, because we were in the chaotic beginnings of COVID-19 and we didn’t yet have a budget, we were lucky to avoid an increase at all and these fees remained at $7715.00.

• In this year’s Federal Budget, there was no additional increase announced so the fees today rose to $7850.00, an increase of 1.75% as per the forecast Consumer Price Index for this financial year.

Summary

Generally, you can expect some sort of fee increase from 1 July each year, so the takeaway is to lodge your application much earlier to avoid any increase. Keep an eye out for the Federal Budget in May and if it includes fee increases for visa applications you want to lodge as soon as possible. If you are using a migration lawyer or migration agent you should be aiming to lodge even earlier than if you aren’t as they will likely have dozens of other clients all wanting to avoid the increase too. Don’t consider 30 June as the deadline for you providing your documents. When there are significant increases it is also common for the Immi Account to crash a lot in the couple of weeks leading up to 30 June.

If you absolutely cannot lodge super early be sure to discuss it with your lawyer so that you schedule in some milestones deadlines to ensure you will both allow enough time to get it lodged in the last days of June. They will also be able to let you know in the week or two before EOFY if there will be an increase, but you should be sure to let them know at least a month ahead if it is important to try and lodge by EOFY.

PS. At risk of sounding like your mum being a nag – I would like to emphasise that if you do find yourself in a position where you might need to appeal, you should seek professional advice as soon as possible. Even if you ultimately chose to go down the road of appeal by yourself, I would still encourage you to seek professional advice regarding the prospects, the wait times and the costs. In some instances, you might be able to appeal but doing so would be frivolous if one of your circumstances means that your visa cannot be granted (it can happen). Additionally, there are strict timelines to meet to appeal and if something can be done, you want to have enough time to assess it, make a decision on what you would like to do and have the time to execute your plan.

Disclaimer: The above information does NOT constitute legal advice and DOES NOT create a lawyer-client relationship between you and Visa Sidekick. It does not take into account individual circumstances and is intended to be informational only. If you need legal advice please contact an Australian Immigration Lawyer.

At risk of sounding like your mum being a nag – I would like to point out that if you do find yourself in a position where you might need to appeal, you should seek professional advice as soon as possible. Even if you ultimately chose to go down the road of appeal by yourself, I would still encourage you to seek professional advice regarding the prospects, the wait times and the costs. In some instances, you might be able to appeal but doing so would be frivolous if one of your circumstances means that your visa cannot be granted (it can happen). Additionally, there are strict timelines to meet to appeal and if something can be done, you want to have enough time to assess it, make a decision on what you would like to do and have the time to execute your plan.