The Real Cost of Australian PR in 2026: Every Fee, Start to Finish

The visa application charge is about A$6,135. Budget for that number and you will be roughly ten thousand dollars short.3

The real cost of PR in Australia for a single applicant lands between A$14,000 and A$16,000 once you add the skills assessment, the English tests, the medicals, the police checks and the documents. For a family of four, it runs A$28,000 to A$43,000.

Most cost guides quote the charge and stop. This one walks through every fee by stage, so you can see what you pay now, what you pay in six months, and what only arrives after you are invited.

There is also one charge of around A$4,885 that catches families every year and almost never appears in these articles. It is avoidable for about A$410. We will come to it.

The Short Answer: Two Totals

Single applicant, no dependants: roughly A$14,000 to A$16,000 from first skills assessment to visa grant, including a migration agent.

Couple with two children: roughly A$28,000 to A$43,000, depending on how many people need medicals, tests, and translated documents.

Strip out the agent, and a single applicant spends closer to A$8,000 to A$10,000. Whether that saving is real is covered further down.

Everything below explains those two numbers. If you are still deciding which of the three skilled visas to pursue, start with our General Skilled Migration guide and come back to the budget once you know your subclass.

Stage 1: What You Spend Before You Apply

This is the spend almost nobody counts, and it arrives long before the visa charge.

Skills assessment

Your assessing body is set by your occupation, so this cost is not a choice you make. It varies by a factor of three.

Fees and times verified [DATE] from each body’s published schedule. Check yours directly, because they change without much notice.

Read the second column as carefully as the first. A 120-day assessment against a 10-day assessment is four months of your life, and four months in which fees index, age points fall, and occupation lists change.

Pick the wrong ANZSCO code, and you pay this twice. That is the most expensive avoidable mistake at this stage.

Check how long your assessment lasts. Home Affairs generally treats a skills assessment as valid for three years unless the assessing body sets a shorter period. ACS states that its outcomes are valid for two years, which gives ICT applicants a tighter window than most. An assessment that expires before your invitation arrives has to be paid for again.

English test

IELTS and PTE Academic both cost around A$410 per sitting. OET runs A$700 or more.

Budget for two or three attempts. Most people sit more than once, especially when chasing Proficient or Superior English for the extra points. A realistic line item is A$800 to A$1,200.

Stage 1 total: roughly A$1,400 to A$2,700. That is what it costs to find out whether you have a case at all.

  Not sure which assessing body covers your occupation? Ask us before you pay one.  

Stage 2: The Visa Application Charge

This is the number everybody knows, and it lands only after you receive an invitation, often a year or more after you started.

The same charge applies across the 189, the 190 and the 491. Choosing a different skilled visa does not change what you pay Home Affairs.

Charges are indexed on 1 July each year. Confirm the live figure on the Home Affairs pricing table before you budget, because a figure written in June is often wrong in July.

That indexation is worth planning around. If your invitation arrives in May and you have your documents ready, lodging before 1 July can save you a few hundred dollars across a family. Our PR processing time guide sets out how long each stage usually takes.

If you take the 491, add roughly A$430 later for the Subclass 191, the permanent visa that follows it. Living regionally for three years carries its own costs and savings, and our guide to regional areas for PR covers which areas qualify.

Employer-sponsored routes are priced differently again. The 482 Skills in Demand visa and the 186 Employer Nomination Scheme shift part of the cost onto your sponsor, which is worth knowing if the points-tested route is closed to you.

Stage 3: The Costs People Forget

This section is why the article exists. These items rarely appear in a budget, and together they add thousands.

The second instalment, around A$4,885

If a secondary applicant aged 18 or over cannot show functional English, Home Affairs charges a second visa application charge of roughly A$4,885 before granting the visa.

That usually means your partner.

Functional English is a low bar. An IELTS score of about 4.5 overall clears it, and so does a passport from the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada or New Zealand, or a degree taught in English.

So the arithmetic is simple. One test sitting for your partner costs around A$410. Skipping it can cost A$4,885.

That is the best return available anywhere in this process, and most people find out about it after they have lodged. If you have a partner on your application, book their test early. Our partner points guide covers the extra points a partner can add at the same time.

Health examinations

Around A$300 to A$500 per person, arranged through Bupa Medical Visa Services or a panel clinic overseas.

Everyone on the application pays this, including children. A family of four is looking at A$1,200 to A$2,000.

Police checks

An AFP National Police Certificate costs A$56, or A$113 if fingerprints are required.

Overseas certificates run A$50 to A$150 per country. You need one for every country where you spent 12 months or more in the last 10 years. Someone who has worked across three countries can spend A$400 or more here.

Document translation

NAATI translation runs A$50 to A$150 per document. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, degrees, transcripts and employment references all count when they are not in English.

A document-heavy family file can reach A$500 to A$1,000.

State nomination fees

Almost nothing, which surprises people.

Western Australia charges A$200. Every other state and territory nominates without a fee. Check the state you are targeting through our state comparison guide.

If you are onshore on a temporary visa

Applicants already in Australia carry one more cost that offshore applicants avoid: staying lawful while they wait.

If your current visa expires before a decision, a Bridging Visa A keeps you lawful at no charge. If it expires before you can lodge at all, you may need another substantive visa to bridge the gap, and that carries its own application charge. Anyone whose 485 is close to expiring should price that possibility in.

Stage 3 total for a single applicant: roughly A$500 to A$1,000. For a family with a partner lacking functional English: A$7,000 or more.

Stage 4: The Spending That Is Actually Optional

Everything above is close to unavoidable. These items are choices, and each one should earn its place.

Migration agent

A$5,000 to A$15,000 for a skilled visa, with initial consultations running A$200 to A$500.

That is a wide range because cases differ. A straightforward single applicant with a clean history sits at the bottom. A complex case with prior refusals, multiple countries, and a partner claim sits at the top.

We will make the case for and against further down rather than here.

Points-building

If your score falls short, these are investments rather than fees. Our guide on how to add 10 points ranks them by cost per point.

A Professional Year buys the same five points as a NAATI CCL test for roughly nine times the money. Check the cheaper levers first.

If your score sits well below your occupation’s cutoff, read what to do when the 189 is out of reach before you spend anything on points at all. Sometimes the cheaper answer is a different subclass rather than a bigger score.

Two Worked Budgets

Single applicant, 189 or 190, using an agent

Without an agent, the same file costs around A$8,845.

Couple with two children; partner has functional English

Now run the same family where the partner skips that A$410 test. Add A$4,885, and the total reaches roughly A$29,824.

One test. Four and a half thousand dollars.

  Get an itemised estimate built around your actual family and occupation.  

What You Get Back If You Are Refused

Almost nothing.

The visa application charge is not refunded when an application is refused. That money is spent regardless of the outcome.

If you seek review at the Administrative Review Tribunal, the application fee is A$3,727 from 1 July 2026, on top of what you have already paid. A 50 percent reduction is available on hardship grounds, and a concessional fee of A$100 applies in limited cases.

So a refused application can cost A$6,135 plus A$3,727 plus another year, and you still hold no visa. Refusals usually come from points you could not prove, a lapsed skills assessment, or thin employment evidence. Our guide on how refusals and cancellations happen covers the common causes.

That arithmetic is the honest argument for care at lodgement. It works better than any sales pitch, because it is just subtraction.

The Cheapest Realistic Path

Some savings are real. Others cost you more later. Here is the honest split.

Worth saving on

• Sit your English test once properly, with preparation, rather than three times unprepared.
• Get your ANZSCO code confirmed before you pay any assessing body. Paying twice for the same assessment is the most common self-inflicted cost.
• Order overseas police checks yourself rather than through an agency that marks them up.
• Skip the Professional Year until you have checked NAATI CCL, partner points and an English upgrade.

Not worth saving on

• Your partner’s functional English test. A$410 against A$4,885.
• Employment reference letters. Weak evidence at this stage becomes a refusal later, and refusals are not refunded.
• Health examinations. There is one process and one price. Use the panel clinic.

On the agent question. An agent costs A$5,000 to A$15,000. A refusal costs A$6,135 that never comes back, plus A$3,727 at the Tribunal, plus a year during which your age points may fall.

Self-lodging works well for straightforward cases: one country of residence, one clear occupation, no prior visa issues, a comfortable points margin. It gets risky as soon as your case has a complication. Weigh your own file rather than the average.

Whoever you use, verify their registration on the MARA register.

Know What Your Case Will Actually Cost

The numbers above are real, and they are averages. Your file will differ.

A thirty-minute review gives you an itemised estimate for your occupation, your family, your countries of residence and your points position. You will see what you spend now, what you spend after invitation, and where you can safely spend less.

If your case is simple enough to lodge yourself, we will tell you that too.

Book a 30-Minute Cost and Eligibility Review    Run the Points Calculator First  

Frequently Asked Questions