The Permit That Doubled In Five Months

On 1 July 2026 the Australian student visa fee went from AUD 2,000 to AUD 2,500. At the lower number it was already the highest student visa charge in the world. A separate ELICOS and non-award tier arrived beneath it on the same date at AUD 2,050, a band that did not exist before. Two increases inside one calendar year, on the same application. The graduate permit moved harder. Subclass 485 sat at AUD 2,300 until 1 March 2026, doubled to AUD 4,600 on that date, and then went to AUD 5,750 on 1 July 2026. Two increases in five months, on a permit most graduates get exactly one shot at. A prospective student now compares AUD 2,500 against tuition, rent and the English test, and decides whether to apply at all. The fee stopped being administrative. It is the first number in the decision.

English requirements sit with the institution, not the Department, and the gap between course levels is wide. Foundation and ELICOS courses ask for IELTS 4.5 to 5.5, or PTE 30 to 42. A VET certificate or diploma asks 5.5 to 6.0, or 42 to 50. A bachelor's degree asks 6.0 to 6.5, or 50 to 58. A master's asks 6.5 to 7.0, or 58 to 65. Nursing and teaching ask 7.0 in every band, and medicine asks 7.0 or above. Applicants pay the fee, sit the test, and then find out which band their course actually enforces. Since the 2024 reform, the assessment runs on the Genuine Student requirement, which replaced the Genuine Temporary Entrant test. Section 137J allows automatic cancellation where study conditions are not met. That risk arrives after the money is gone, not before it.

Subclass 485 is capped at age 35 on most streams, has to be lodged within six months of course completion, and asks for IELTS 6.5 within one year of lodgement. In practice a graduate gets one application. A refusal at AUD 5,750 is not the same exercise repeated at a higher price. It is the end of the onshore route for that person, and the skilled work experience that would have fed a points-based application never accumulates. The most expensive permit in the pipeline is also the one with no second chance attached to it.

Post-Study Work covers the standard graduate and is extended for selected qualifications. The Second Post-Study Work stream exists for graduates who studied regionally. The Replacement stream is a COVID-era legacy, and it is closing. A stream that closes is not a door that reopens later. It is a deadline, and the people who were closest to it are the ones who lose the most.

The fee is no longer administrative. It is the first number in the decision.

Subclass 417 covers the UK, most of the EU, Canada, Japan and Korea, with unrestricted work for those passports. Subclass 462 covers the United States, China, India and others, subject to caps and bilateral arrangements, and several nationalities have to complete specified work in a regional area to earn a second or third year. Same country. Same year. Same person. The passport decides the terms, and the price is charged to the nationality that has the fewest alternatives.

The usual path is 500, then 485, then a points-tested visa in the 189, 190 or 491 family, or employer sponsorship through 186. The points come from things that take years to assemble: an Australian study requirement worth 5 points, another 5 for regional study, and up to 20 for skilled employment onshore. Before tuition, English testing, health checks and dependants, the two permits on that path now cost AUD 8,250 together. At the start of 2026 they cost AUD 4,300. I have built companies across twelve countries and restructured a industrial group, and in that time no government fee schedule ever moved in the applicant's favour without warning. The probability that the fee schedule moves again before a three-year degree finishes is not zero. Most applicants are pricing it at zero, and the schedule has already moved twice in the five months since March.