Australian Student Visa Cost in 2026: A Peso Breakdown for Filipinos

Ask most Filipino families how much an Australian student visa costs and they will quote you the visa fee — and then get a shock at the airport budget meeting. The application charge is only one line in a much bigger picture. The Australian Government does not just want you to pay a fee; it wants proof, in your bank account, that you can survive a full year abroad without working illegally or running out of money halfway through a semester.

So the honest answer to “how much does it cost?” is not a single number — it is a stack of them: the visa charge, the 12-month living-cost proof, your first-year tuition, a travel buffer, health cover, an English test and a handful of documents. This guide walks through each cost using the exact 2026 figures, and shows you how to build a realistic all-in budget you can convert into pesos before you commit.

The AUD 2,000 visa charge (and why it jumped)

The headline cost is the visa application charge (VAC) for the Student visa (subclass 500). For the primary applicant, the base charge is AUD 2,000, and it has been at that level since 1 July 2025, when it rose from AUD 1,600 — a 25% jump in a single year. Step back a little further and the climb is even starker: the same charge was just AUD 710 before July 2024. In two years it has roughly tripled.

One important point for Filipino applicants: there is no discount for us. A small group of Pacific Island and Timor-Leste applicants are exempt from the increase, but Philippine nationals pay the full AUD 2,000. If your spouse or partner is joining you as a dependent on the same application, they pay a separate additional charge (AUD 1,225 for an applicant aged 18 or over, AUD 400 for an applicant under 18), so a family application costs noticeably more than a solo one.

The same AUD 2,000 increase also applies to the Student Guardian visa (subclass 590), which matters if a parent intends to accompany a younger student. Budget the VAC first, because it is non-refundable if your application is refused — which is exactly why getting the rest of your file right before you lodge is so important.

The AUD 29,710 living-cost proof and family add-ons

This is the cost that surprises families most, because it is not money you pay to anyone — it is money you must prove you have. To satisfy the financial-capacity requirement, a single primary applicant must show 12 months of living costs equal to AUD 29,710. This figure was set on 10 May 2024 at 75% of Australia's national minimum wage, and it was still unchanged as of June 2026.

If family members are coming with you, the required amount grows. You add AUD 10,394 for a spouse or de facto partner and AUD 4,449 for each dependent child. If you are bringing school-aged children, you must also budget AUD 13,502 per child per year for their schooling. These are not optional buffers — they are part of the funds the Department expects to see evidenced.

Who is on the application	Living-cost amount to show (12 months)
Primary student (you)	AUD 29,710
+ Spouse / de facto partner	+ AUD 10,394
+ Each dependent child	+ AUD 4,449
+ Schooling per school-aged child / year	+ AUD 13,502

Crucially, the living-cost figure is only one part of the funds test. On top of it, you must also evidence your first-year tuition and around AUD 2,500 for travel (covered in the next section). The funds need to be genuine and traceable — sudden, unexplained deposits raise questions — so families usually need to plan this months ahead rather than scramble for it in the final weeks.

Tuition and the AUD 2,500 travel buffer

Tuition is almost always the single biggest cost of studying in Australia, and unlike the visa charge it varies enormously by course and provider. The financial-capacity rule asks you to show your first-year tuition fee — the amount stated on your Confirmation of Enrolment from a CRICOS-registered provider — rather than a fixed government figure. A vocational diploma and a postgraduate degree at a major university can sit thousands of dollars apart, so the only accurate tuition number is the one on your offer.

Because tuition is course-specific, we cannot publish a single peso figure that fits everyone; what we can do in a free assessment is help you read your provider's fee schedule and confirm the exact first-year amount the Department will expect to see in your funds. As a rule of thumb, treat tuition as the line that will dominate your budget and shop courses carefully — the difference between two programs can be larger than the entire visa charge.

Alongside tuition, the funds calculation includes a travel allowance of around AUD 2,500. This is meant to cover the cost of getting to Australia (and, in principle, getting home), and it is added on top of the living-cost and tuition figures. It is a small line next to tuition, but leaving it out is a common reason a funds package falls just short of what the Department wants to see.

OSHC, medical and English-test costs

Three further costs sit outside the visa charge and the funds proof, and they are easy to forget when you are focused on the big numbers. First, Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) is mandatory for student-visa holders — you must hold health insurance for the full duration of your stay. The exact premium depends on your insurer, your cover length and whether you are insuring a family, so confirm the current quote with a registered provider rather than relying on an estimate.

Second, most Filipino applicants must complete a panel health examination before the visa is decided. In the Philippines these exams are done only at Department-approved panel clinics — the principal ones are the IOM Manila Health Centre in Makati, St. Luke's Medical Center Extension Clinic (SLEC) in Ermita, Manila, and Nationwide Health Systems in Cebu. You cannot use just any clinic, and the clinic charges its own fee, which is separate from the visa charge.

Third, you will usually need an English test. The minimum for direct entry to a subclass 500 is generally IELTS 6.0 overall (a lower score can be accepted if you package an ELICOS English course), and the test must be no more than 24 months old when you lodge. From 7 August 2025 the Department accepts nine test providers, and at-home or online tests are not accepted — you must sit an approved in-person test. Each of these — OSHC, the health exam and the English test — carries its own fee on top of everything above.

A sample all-in budget, line by line

Filipino families plan in pesos, so the most useful thing we can give you is a checklist of every line that belongs in the budget — not a single misleading “total,” because tuition, OSHC and the peso–dollar exchange rate all move. Build your own figure by stacking these in order:

• Visa application charge: AUD 2,000 (you), plus AUD 1,225 per adult dependent or AUD 400 per child dependent.
• Living-cost proof (to show, not spend): AUD 29,710, plus AUD 10,394 for a partner and AUD 4,449 per child.
• First-year tuition: the exact figure on your Confirmation of Enrolment — usually the largest single amount.
• Travel allowance: around AUD 2,500.
• OSHC, panel health exam and English test: insurer-, clinic- and test-specific fees, each quoted separately.
• Documents: PSA civil documents, DFA Apostille and other supporting paperwork, plus a roughly 1.4% surcharge if you pay the visa charge with a non-Australian card.

To convert to pesos, multiply each AUD line by the exchange rate on the day you actually move or evidence the money — and remember that the rate itself can shift your real cost by tens of thousands of pesos between quoting and lodging. The discipline here is simple: never plan against a single “all-in” figure you saw online. Plan against your own course's tuition, the published government amounts above, and a live exchange rate. That is the budget the Department will actually test you against.