The Australian government has once again considerably increased visa application charges for worldwide trainees. These increases were lodged in Parliament last night to be active from today to ensure applicants did not get an opportunity to apply rapidly at the ‘lower’ cost.
ELICOS has actually been exempted from the primary increase. Applications for ELICOS and Non-Award Programs will increase by $50 to $2,050.
The trainee visa application charge for Greater Ed, VETERINARIAN, and School course applications and packaged visas culminating in among those courses has actually increased from the world’s most expensive student visa application charge at $2,000 to $2,500.
The sector woke to this news today. Having actually been on the phone to members much of the day, it is very important to acknowledge the disappointment, frustration, even heartbreak that a number of our members are feeling at this news.
For many months English Australia has indicated the federal government’s own information revealing that the boost in the student visa application charge from $710 to $1,600 on 1 July 2024 triggered a 38% drop in trainee visa applications for Independent ELICOS.
The 2nd visa application charge boost to $2,000 as of 1 July 2025 led to a fall of another 25%. Integrated with record low student visa grant rates for Independent ELICOS, this has actually led to 2025-26 seeing the lowest variety of applications for Independent ELICOS on record, 24% below 2005-06 numbers.
This represents the loss of more than twenty years of financial investment in the sector by educational institutions and organizations, by people purchasing their expert development and making Australia a world leader in English language teaching, by our state governments, and by successive federal governments for decades before this current federal government. Ultimately, we understand this represents members losing livelihoods.
To study English for 4 or 5 months– the typical length of an ELICOS enrolment in Australia– in one of the other key ELICOS locations, including U.S.A., Canada, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, and so on, an applying trainee will pay a visa application charge of between 1% and 60% of the Australian trainee visa application charge.
Federal government’s choice to not use the complete boost to ELICOS candidates is a recognition that English language trainees the world over have actually currently explained that the $2,000 application charge has made Australia unappealing as a location. Students have actually merely stopped applying to study in Australia.
By increasing the trainee visa application charge for ELICOS by $50, the federal government has actually signalled that it is able to differentiate the visa application charge by sector, regardless of having stated multiple times over the last 18 months that this was not possible, that the federal government’s computer systems were unable to manage it.
Nevertheless, it likewise signals that this federal government does not wish to resolve the damage done to the ELICOS sector by charging the highest visa application charge in the world, although a lot of Australians have and continue to lose their jobs due to this fee increase.
No statement was made of the decision to hike these visa fees– a decision plainly reached weeks if not months back. There was no conversation with the sector to consider the most likely impacts of these modifications. The Explanatory Memorandum to the legal instrument presenting these visa charge increases states that federal government viewed assessment outside federal government as not necessary.
The current federal spending plan included a forecast increase in income from visa charges (a single combined product) but explicitly specified that this was from the March boost to the Temporary Postgraduate visa (subclass 485) and the increase to the Guest Motion Charge.The Explanatory
Memorandum to the legislative instrument presenting these visa charge increases states that the increases were talked about within government as part of the Budget procedure. No explanation has been given regarding why the federal government stopped working to point out these considerable modifications to visa earnings in the Budget plan Papers themselves. English Australia views these visa fees as unreasonable and comparable to rent-seeking. Unreasonably high costs have a significantly negative effect on Australia’s international credibility, making Australia appear unwelcoming and exploitative to international trainees. English Australia will continue to promote for trainee visa application charges to be decreased and brought into line with the charges charged by other nations all over the world, such as the U.S.A., Canada, UK all of which charge a drastically lower visa fee. English Australia will likewise continue to promote for visa charges that are commensurate with the length of stay. As always, I encourage members to get in touch to go over these changes and the effect they will have on you, your organization, your associates, and your communities.