Australia's 1 July Visa Fee Increase: What Filipino Applicants Should Do

Here is a quiet fact that costs Filipino families real money every year: the price of an Australian visa is not fixed. The Department of Home Affairs re-indexes its visa application charges (VACs) every single 1 July, and most fees creep up. If your plan is a few weeks either side of that date, the calendar — not your paperwork — can decide whether you pay the old rate or the new one.

For most genuine applications the increase is modest, so you should never rush an incomplete file just to "beat the deadline". But if your documents are already ready and your visa is not time-critical, lodging in May or June instead of July can quietly lock in a cheaper charge. This guide explains how the 1 July cycle works, the key 2025-26 fees Filipinos actually pay, and how to think about timing without making an expensive mistake.

Why Australian visa charges rise every 1 July

Australia's financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June, and visa application charges are tied to that cycle. Each year the Department re-indexes the VACs — most rose by roughly 3% on 1 July 2025, broadly in line with inflation. That is not a one-off announcement; it is a recurring, scheduled adjustment that happens whether or not it makes the news.

One important detail decides which fee you pay: the lodgement date, not the decision date. The charge that applies is the one in force on the day you validly submit and pay for your application. So if you lodge a complete application on 30 June, you pay the old rate even if the case is decided weeks later. Lodge the same application on 1 July and you pay the new, higher rate. That single day can be the difference.

The flip side is that 2025-26 also saw two larger, deliberate increases beyond ordinary indexation: the student visa jumped from AUD 1,600 to AUD 2,000, and the graduate visa later doubled. Those policy-driven changes are bigger than the regular annual nudge — which is exactly why timing matters more in some years than others.

A 2025-26 snapshot of key fees Filipinos pay

The figures below are the base visa application charge for the primary applicant in the 2025-26 year (current as of June 2026). They exclude additional family members, third-party costs, and card surcharges. Treat every figure as a starting point and confirm the live amount on the official pricing tool before you pay.

Visa	Base charge (primary applicant, 2025-26)
Student (Subclass 500)	AUD 2,000 (since 1 July 2025)
Temporary Graduate (Subclass 485)	AUD 4,600 (since 1 March 2026)
Skilled 189 / 190 / 491	AUD 4,910
Employer Nomination Scheme (186)	AUD 4,910
Partner (309/100 or 820/801)	AUD 9,365 (combined, both stages)
Visitor (Subclass 600), Tourist stream	AUD 200

A few of these deserve a closer look. The partner visa's AUD 9,365 is a single combined fee that covers both the temporary and permanent stages, so there is no separate government charge later for the permanent grant. The skilled and employer-sponsored charges sit at the same AUD 4,910 line. And the humble visitor visa Tourist stream, at AUD 200, is the cheapest of the lot — useful context if a parent or relative simply wants to visit rather than migrate.

When applying early actually saves money (and when it doesn't)

Lodging before 1 July only helps if two things are true: your application is genuinely ready, and the visa is not urgent. If both hold, you simply capture the current-year charge rather than next year's indexed amount. On a partner visa at AUD 9,365, even a single-digit percentage rise is real pesos; on a family of skilled applicants, the additional-adult charges add up too.

But "apply early to save" can backfire badly. A student visa lodged without a valid Confirmation of Enrolment, or a skilled application submitted before your skills assessment or English result is ready, can be invalid or refused — and you generally do not get the fee back. A small fee saving is no bargain if it costs you the whole application. The rule of thumb: never compromise the quality or validity of your file to beat a date.

• Worth timing before 1 July: a complete, non-urgent application where every document and result is already in hand.
• Not worth rushing: any file still waiting on a CoE, skills assessment, English test, police clearance or PSA document.
• Doesn't apply: urgent or deadline-driven cases — a course start date, a job offer or a partner's circumstances should drive the timing, not the fee calendar.

The 1 March 2026 485 fee jump as a warning

If you needed proof that visa fees can move outside the predictable July rhythm, the Temporary Graduate visa is it. On 1 March 2026 the Subclass 485 charge doubled from AUD 2,300 to AUD 4,600 — a mid-year, policy-driven change, not part of the regular indexation cycle. Filipino graduates planning a post-study work stay who lodged before that date paid less than half what later applicants paid.

The lesson is not "panic and rush", but "watch announcements and don't assume July is the only moving date". When the Government signals a specific fee change with a hard start date, a ready application lodged before it can save a meaningful amount. If you are weighing a graduate visa, our dedicated guide to the 485 fee, age limit and stay durations goes deeper, and our peso breakdown of the student visa cost covers the upstream Subclass 500 numbers.

Extra costs that aren't the visa fee

The application charge is only one line in your budget. For Filipino applicants there is a predictable stack of third-party costs that sits on top of the VAC — and these do not follow the 1 July calendar, so you cannot "time" them. Budgeting for them upfront stops nasty surprises late in the process.

• NBI Clearance and AFP police checks — required for character; an AFP National Police Check is needed for any 12-plus months spent in Australia in the last 10 years.
• PSA documents and DFA Apostille — birth certificate, marriage certificate or CENOMAR, authenticated for overseas use.
• Panel health examinations — carried out at Department-approved clinics in the Philippines.
• Biometrics, translations and certified copies as required by your visa type.
• A roughly 1.4% surcharge applied to payments made with a non-Australian card — a small but real add-on to every fee you pay.

One more point worth planning around: when you pay in pesos, the exchange rate on the day of payment also moves the real cost. Between the indexed fee, the card surcharge and the currency rate, the same visa can cost noticeably more or less depending on when you press "submit". None of that should override a sound, well-prepared application — but it is worth being deliberate when the timing is genuinely in your hands.