How Much Does the 485 Visa Actually Cost in 2026 Once You Add Your Partner and Children?
If you budgeted for this visa at any point before March, your number is wrong, and probably by more than you think.
The 485 Application Charge Rose Roughly 150 Per Cent Between Early 2025 and July 2026.
For a single applicant that is painful. For a couple with a child it changes the decision entirely, because the charges for family members rise with the primary charge, they are all payable at lodgement, and none of it comes back if the application is refused.
The Short Version
The base charge for the primary applicant is 5,750 dollars from 1 July 2026. Your partner is charged roughly half that again and each child under 18 roughly a quarter, so a family of three is looking at a total government charge in the region of ten thousand dollars before you have paid for a single medical, police check or English test. It is payable upfront and it is not refundable if you are refused. Eligible passport holders from Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste pay a reduced charge.
This article covers the fee itself and what it means for a family application. If you have not yet worked out whether the 485 pathway is still worth pursuing given the price, our companion guides on what fits your remaining time and how the 485 leads to a 482 with a current employer cover the pathway question the fee only makes sense against.
Budgeting a 485 Application for a Family? Confirm Your Total Before You Lodge, Not After.
The application charge is only part of the number. Medicals, police checks, English testing and any skills assessment stack on top for every applicant. A migration professional can confirm the total against your specific stream and family composition, and review eligibility before a non-refundable payment is made.
How the Number Moved
The scale is easier to see laid out over time.
| When | Primary Charge | What Happened |
|---|---|---|
| Early 2025 | 1,945 | The baseline most current graduates enrolled under. |
| February 2025 | 2,235 | Ordinary indexation. |
| July 2025 | 2,300 | Ordinary indexation. |
| 1 March 2026 | 4,600 | A deliberate policy doubling, not indexation. Introduced by regulation and applying to applications lodged from that date. |
| 1 July 2026 | 5,750 | The annual adjustment, but around 25 per cent rather than the usual few per cent. |
The two 2026 increases came from different mechanisms, which is worth understanding because it tells you something about what comes next. March was a targeted policy decision aimed at this visa specifically. July was the standard annual adjustment, applied at a much steeper rate than the ordinary three to five per cent.
The Monash Graduate Association, representing eighteen thousand international graduate students, campaigned against the March increase and published a policy report on its impact. It describes the change as arriving without consultation or notice.
What a Family Actually Pays
This is where the headline figure stops being useful, and it is the part most fee articles skip.
The charge structure applies a primary charge, then roughly half of it again for each applicant aged 18 or over, and roughly a quarter for each child under 18. When the March figures applied, that meant 4,600 for the primary applicant, 2,300 for a partner and 1,160 for a child.
Use the Official Estimator, Not an Article
Charges are set by stream and by passport type, and there are several tiers. Any figure in any article, including this one, is a snapshot. Before you budget, put your own details into the Department of Home Affairs Visa Pricing Estimator, which gives the charge that actually applies to you.
The Costs That Are Not the Application Charge
The government charge is the biggest single item but it is not the whole bill. Budget for the rest before you commit, because they arrive at roughly the same time.
- Health examinations for every applicant, including children.
- Police certificates from Australia and from any country you have lived in for the relevant period.
- English test, where you need one. The result must be current, so an older sitting may need repeating.
- Skills assessment, where your stream requires one.
- Certified copies, translations and document fees.
- Professional fees, if you use a migration agent or lawyer.
For a family, the health examinations alone are a meaningful number once multiplied by the number of people in the application.
Who Pays Less
Two carve-outs are worth knowing about because they are rarely mentioned.
Pacific Island and Timor-Leste Passport Holders
Eligible passport holders pay a reduced application charge and were not affected by the March increase in the same way. If you hold one of those passports, check your specific charge rather than assuming the standard figure applies to you.
Second Post-Higher Education Work Stream
Available to graduates who studied and lived in a regional area, this stream carries its own and considerably lower charge. If you already hold a 485 and studied regionally, it is a materially cheaper application than a fresh one, and it must be lodged while your current visa is still valid.
The Part That Should Change How You Prepare
The Charge Is Not Refundable Regardless of the Outcome.
If your application is refused, the charge is gone. Under the old fee that was an unpleasant loss. At the current figure, for a family, it is a serious financial event.
That changes the calculation on preparation. Under a 2,300 dollar fee, lodging and hoping was a defensible approach for a borderline application. At 5,750 plus dependants, it is not. The most common refusal grounds for this visa are avoidable and checkable before you lodge.
What to Verify Before You Pay Anything
Every one of these is verifiable in advance. Given the amount now at stake, it is worth an hour of checking, and for a family it is worth a professional review.
| What to Check Before Lodging | Why |
|---|---|
| Age | The limit is 35 or under at the time of application, with exceptions to 49 for Masters by Research, PhD and certain passport holders. Check this first because nothing else matters if it fails. |
| The six month window | The application must be lodged within six months of your course completion. Miss it and the application is not valid. |
| English test validity | The result must be current, and the rules on how recent and how it was taken have tightened. An older result that feels recent to you may not qualify. |
| Course and qualification requirements | The qualification must meet the requirements for your stream, including the CRICOS and study duration conditions. |
| Onshore requirement | You generally must be in Australia when you apply. |
Is It Still Worth It?
A fair question at this price, and the honest answer is that it depends on what comes after.
The 485 is not valuable in itself. It is valuable because it buys onshore time in which to build skilled work experience, gain points, or find an employer willing to sponsor. If you have a realistic route to one of those, the charge is an investment in a pathway and most people conclude it is worth paying.
If your occupation is not on the relevant lists, no employer has indicated any interest in sponsoring, and your points are well short, then you are paying a very large sum for eighteen months or two years in Australia with no route at the end of it. That may still be worth it to you for the experience and the earnings. It is a different decision from the one people usually think they are making, and at this price it deserves to be made deliberately rather than by default. Our PR points calculator is the quickest way to work out where you actually stand.
What to Do Before You Lodge
- Run your own details through the Department of Home Affairs Visa Pricing Estimator, including every family member you intend to include.
- Add health examinations, police checks, English test and any skills assessment to get your real total.
- Confirm your age against the limit for your stream, and your course completion date against the six month window.
- Check your English test result is still current under the rules that apply now, not the ones that applied when you sat it.
- If you hold a Pacific Island or Timor-Leste passport, check whether the reduced charge applies to you.
- If you studied in a regional area and already hold a 485, check the second stream before lodging anything else, since it is cheaper and must be lodged while your current visa is valid.
- Decide honestly what the 485 is buying you. If there is no pathway at the end of it, that is worth knowing before you pay rather than after. A free confidential review covers this in an hour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Budgeting a Family 485 Application? Confirm Eligibility Before a Non-Refundable Payment.
A confidential review of your specific circumstances against the current requirements is far cheaper than losing the charge at refusal. For families the arithmetic is now clear-cut.