{"id":771999,"date":"2026-07-01T11:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771999\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T11:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:59:10","slug":"student-visa-fees-rise-again-as-australia-adds-elicos-pricing-tier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/771999\/","title":{"rendered":"Student visa fees rise again as Australia adds ELICOS pricing tier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia has increased student visa application fees overnight, with the Student visa (subclass 500) rising from $2,000 to $2,500. The change follows the last increase<\/a> in July 2025.<\/p>\n

A separate pricing structure has also been introduced for ELICOS students under the subclass 500 visa. Despite industry groups lobbying<\/a> for a reduction below the $2,000 fee, citing declining enrolments and the short-term nature of many ELICOS courses, the government has instead increased the ELICOS visa fee to $2,050, compared to the previous shared $2,000 rate.<\/p>\n

Prospective students from ASEAN countries will also pay the lower rate, while applicants from Pacific Island countries will continue to pay $745.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) application fee has increased again, rising from $4,600 to $5,750 \u2013\u00a0a 25% jump and the second increase<\/a> in four months.<\/p>\n

Commenting on increase in the Temporary Graduate visa, Jesse Gardner-Russell, national president, Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, said: \u201cThis is a fee on the exit door, not the front door.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the aim is to manage who comes in, charging the people already on their way out is the wrong instrument. The only thing a higher 485 fee reliably manages is revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational students are not just another resource to be mined, their value extracted and then shipped offshore, like iron ore. They are a critical component of Australia\u2019s global soft-power and part of our multicultural community,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

International students are not just another resource to be mined, their value extracted and then shipped offshore, like iron ore
Jesse Gardner-Russell<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Richard Lee, CAPA national vice president warned: \u201cEvery increase in the cost of staying, delivered without warning, tells the best graduates that Australia is an unpredictable place to build a future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people who chose Australia, studied here, and want to stay and contribute. We are making that harder, twice in one year, for no clear gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increases form part of a broader uplift across most major visa categories, including skilled, partner and working holiday visas.<\/p>\n

Weihong Liang, president of The International Students Representative Council of Australia (ISRC of Australia) said that although governments \u201chave the right to change migration policy\u2026 fair policy implementation requires notice, transition arrangements, and respect for those who have already made decisions in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational students should not be expected to absorb abrupt policy costs without warning,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, I am deeply disappointed for the thousands of students who will wake up tomorrow to find that their post-study pathway has become significantly more expensive overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has increased student visa application fees overnight, with the Student visa (subclass 500) rising from $2,000 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,110355,44],"class_list":["post-771999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-elicos","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}