I cannot believe the Immigration Department raising the fees for Partner Visas AGAIN! Early last year I wrote an investigative series on the high price of love. Back then the on shore application fee was $4,575. Now the fee is $6,865. That is just for the partner, no application related costs or even children! The fees for children included in the application have risen dramatically too. There seems to be a problem with the web page, as the headings don’t show, but the columns to the right are for children over and under 18. The column with N/A in it is headed “Non-internet application charge” so we can assume that is coming.
On shore application Partner Visa
Then there is the fee for using your credit or debit cards to pay!
Payment Method Charges
I assume the financial services inquiry may have something to say about that!
EXORBITANT credit card surcharges could soon be a thing of the past.
THE financial services inquiry led by David Murray is reportedly calling for a ban on all outrageous surcharges on credit and debit card transactions. Source: The Mercury.
If you want a label in your passport, that costs $150! To print out a label?
The Australian Government does not require you to have a visa label in your passport to travel to, enter or remain in Australia. For more information on Australia’s label free policy see Visa Labels.
It is Australian Government policy to charge for visa labels. The charge for a visa label is AUD150.
The off shore applications are still slightly cheaper:
Off shore Partner Visa Application fees
If you refer back to my original article (linked in the opening paragraph), you can see the additional costs over and above the fees – these have probably also increased.
I also did a comparison against other countries Are Australian Partner Visa fees similar to comparable nations? in November 2013. This may well be out of date now, but a quick check today of UK partner visas from Australia shows little increase from the $1,452 in November 2013. NOTHING like the Australian fee increase!
UK Fees
User pays or profiteering? What is your opinion? Remember these fees are NOT refundable if the visa is refused – and many are.
We do not usually refund the visa application charge, even if your visa application is refused or withdrawn.
I know what I think. It is a clear price signal to protection visa holders and students particularly. Australians overseas get stuck there. This from a reader:
I married my Australian husband a few month ago in France. I had a look by curiosity at the fees to settle in Australia. I am absolutely dazed. No words to describe my disappointment.
Random Observations of Life 
Hi there I hope you continue this important blog site, as the injustice and discrimination continues and gets worse, as this hungry government now slimly re-elected extracts and makes us go into further debt just to fund their mismanagement of the economy. We all need to join together to fight this.
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Hi Steve, I have left up all the articles I believe are useful to the general public, but everyone should be aware of the dates of publication – things become out-of-date very quickly!
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those fees are pretty crazy. I’m German and my husband Australian and we are going to submit our application before the end of this year 2015 as some MA have told us that fees are about to rise again in 2016!
And at the same time I know that a visa for my husband to move to Germany would be a cheap 60 Euros! But there are several reasons why we can’t move to Germany, language barriers and work being the top ones… maybe one day, after I have a permanent residency we consider, and until then all our kids will have dual citizenship anyway.
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These fees are outrageous! Correct me if I am wrong but I believe they are one of the highest partner visa fees of all the western world. Arriving back in Australia and setting one’s life up is challenging enough, let alone having this outrageous fee imposed to permit one’s partner to live with you. Ridiculous! It is a sad day when, a person must consider not returning to their own country for years due to the financial detrament a fee like this could cause.
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These increase have all occurred under the Xenophobic Abbott Government and the purpose of the increases is to make the cost prohibitive. They want to make it so expensive that no Australian can afford to bring their partner from overseas. They have made a judgement that most of these Visas are for applicants from poorer countries or from countries they consider as undesirable so they have raised the cost to try and block this method of immigration.
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Astounding that this has been completely ignored in the media. I´m an Australian who has lived in Germany for 25 years, for the last 15 with my German wife. I´d like to come home and was shocked to discover in February this year that the visa application fee had risen drastically since I last checked in 2012. I had also heard rumours that the application fee would be increased again in July of this year, so rang the Australian Consulate visa hotline in Berlin in June to query this. They told me that there would be no increase-in fact, the consulate staffer even confirmed this with her superior, who told her that there would merely be a 3% increase in line with inflation. I can´t describe the anger I felt after discovering the price rise on July the 1st. I subsequently checked various expat websites and discovered that most of them already knew in May that there would be a price rise in July, which begs the question how they would know and the Oz consulate ( and the so-called visa information hotline) not know. The price effectively wipes out any savings we had put aside for our planned move; as musicians with a modest income we´re struggling with this. But, of course,we´re exactly the sorts of people they´d like to discourage from settling in Australia….
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And yet the will allowed 12000 so call refugees. In for free and we have to pay $7000 to bring are part enters in. It’s so wrong.
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In 2010 a partner visa cost about $2,100. Children were about $350 each. Agree its a deterent particularly for genuine couples. And now its apparent that the cost must subsidize free illegal boat people, and also now the other free immigrants from places like Syria. I don’t understand why they are penalising Australians who have genuine relationships …?? What can be done about this? it takes up to 12 months to get a decision so why cant it be paid by instalment? Its Usury,, the govt would not let the banks get away with such increases,,would they? The inflation rate has been less than 3% for a few years but they are increasing it every year , that’s an increase of over 60% each year since 2010. Disgusting!!!
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The significant increase to Partner Visas lodged offshore. Off shore partner. The visa applications prices will have 122% increase in compare to December 2014 (in nearly 6 months). The Department first increased the fee from $3085 to $4630 from January 2015 and set another increase from $4630 to $6865 from 1 st July 2015.
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Never ending increases. Definitely aimed as a deterrent, I think.
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Just another ripoff from Aust govt for no reason other to plunder bank accounts of Aust citizens
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Certainly one way to look at it! ☺
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I had heard visa fees increases were coming, but those fees are ridiculous! Soon only the very rich will be able to emigrate to Australia, considering that there are other costs to add to the above, such as medicals, translation of papers if required, documentation, etc…
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Exactly! Considering what we paid for fees in 2010, we could not have afforded these fees for a family of 5. Horrific! As you say, the related costs add up and I am sure those have increased since I wrote the article earlier last year (2014) listing them all. Or most of them.
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My immediate thought is “What a mob of bastards they are!” Second thought is, I can see a vague sort of reason behind it. We apparently have this huge Government debt and this is a way to ensure that compassionate people come to Australia. Compassionate enough to help clear that debt for all of us. Then I think again and realise that we are being bullied by a mob of complete bastards!
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Unbelievable, isn’t it? And to not refund if the visa is refused! We couldn’t afford to apply to NZ once we were refused, although in hindsight it might have been cheaper. Appeals aren’t cheap!
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[…] Fees update January 2015: Australian Partner Visa fee increases AGAIN […]
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