Australia Working Holiday Visa Fees in 2020

Every year thousands of people head abroad for a gap year. I was recently asked what the current Australia working holiday visa fee is. Good question.

I’ve covered which visa you need to travel to Australia before, and I’ve had the fun of looking for this information. I sympathise with anyone that ends up wandering around the immigration website. It can be a bit of a maze and a lot of the information is difficult to find. When you do find it, it’s hard to digest. So, here is my clean version.

Note: The new Home Affairs website is much more user-friendly than the old one. You can find the Visa Finder tool here. You’ll be asked for the country of your passport and your age before it tells you which visas you’re eligible for.

First things first, you’ll want to work out which visa applies to you. This will depend upon where in the world you are, or what passport you’re travelling on. There are a few visas aimed at Chinese visitors, though I won’t be covering these.

As travellers, I’m going to assume that we’re not going to be looking at the residency, education or business-related visas. So, I’ll skip by those too. If you are looking for those, you’ll be able to find more information on the Home Affairs website.

Here are the six most relevant visas for those of us that wish to travel to Australia are, in no particular order:

eVisitor (Subclass 651)

• This is an online visa.
• It is valid for up to 12 months.
• It allows you to stay for up to 3 months after each entry.
• This is a free visa.

Working Holiday visa (Subclass 417)

• This is valid for 12 months. You have the option to extend for a further two years if you complete 3 or 6 months work in regional Australia.
• You can enter and leave the country as you wish during this period.
• The Australia Working Holiday visa fee is $485 AUD.
• Subsequent Australia Working Holiday visas fees are $485 AUD.

Visitor visa (Subclass 600)

• This visa allows you to visit for up to 3, 6 or 12 months, where a longer stay costs extra.
• Different streams are available depending on your circumstances. They each cost different amounts.
• Costs vary from $145 AUD to $1065 AUD.

Work and Holiday visa (Subclass 462)

This is basically a Working Holiday visa (subclass 417) but for different nationalities. It has some very slight differences.

• This is valid for 12 months. You have the option to extend for a further two years if you complete 3 or 6 months relevant work in Australia.
• You can enter and leave the country as you wish during this period.
• The Work and Holiday visa fee is $485 AUD.
• Subsequent Work and Holiday visas also cost $485 AUD.

Electronic Travel Authority (Subclass 601)

• You can stay up to 3 months at a time.
• It is valid for up to 12 months.
• This is a free visa.
• It costs $20 AUD for an online application.

Transit visa (subclass 771)

• You can stay up to 3 months at a time.
• It is valid for up to 12 months.
• This is a free visa.
• It costs $20 AUD for an online application.

Surcharges

To make sure I’ve covered all the likely scenarios for someone searching here for a visa, here are the current surcharges. Taken from the Home Affairs website:

• Visa and MasterCard* — 1.32%
• American Express and JCB — 1.4%
• Diners Club International — 1.99%
• Union Pay — 1.90%
• PayPal — 1.00%

* The surcharge will also apply to Debit Visa cards and Debit MasterCards when making payments online.

Hope this helps to clear things up, or at least point you in the right direction. Remember that immigration rules change regularly and prices can change with them. I’ll keep this as up-to-date as possible though.

Correct as of February 2020. Some visa changes are due in March 2020.