Visa fee increases reflect lazy government

Higher visa fees may increase government revenue, but they do little to solve Australia’s growing immigration problems, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.

AS OF JULY 1, 2026, the Government will significantly increasing visa application fees.

No clear justification was given for increases that typically average 25% on top of existing very high wages. While the Coalition and One Nation will not object to them, wage increases will do little to address the three main migration risks facing the Government. It needs to address these more directly.

The increases in the application fee are significant (see Table 1).

(Data source: Ministry of the Interior)

The three key immigration risks facing the government are failing to deliver:

Achieve the net migration targets that the Prime Minister has now publicly committed to (245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 in 2207-28);
reduce the rapidly growing backlog of illegally designed common visa applications, now approaching 120,000; And
Increasing the removal/repatriation of the rapidly growing backlog of unsuccessful asylum seekers. The number of asylum seekers who were rejected in the first stage and did not leave is currently around 108,000. Those who were rejected at the first stage and Administrative Review Court now the number has exceeded 68,000.

Wage increases will do little to address these risks and could make things worse. They do nothing to address issues in visa design, skill targeting or visa integrity.

I found no evidence that the increased revenue from the wage increase would be used to address the large backlog or help reduce net migration. The wage increases reflect the government’s laziness, taking advantage of current anti-immigrant sentiment.

Doctor Abul Rizvi He is an independent Australian columnist and former Deputy Secretary of the Immigration Service. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul or Bluesky @abulrizvi.bsky.social.

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