What Our 491 Visa Has Cost Us So Far: Every Payment in Australian Dollars
Most cost guides give a range. This post gives the actual payments from our own 491 application, in the order we paid them, with what each one was for. I worked it out from our own payment records and the messages with our agent. All amounts are in Australian dollars unless I say otherwise, and I have not converted anything, because the exchange rate moved while we paid.
I am not a migration agent, and nothing here is advice. Fees change, so use the official pages for your own numbers.
In short: from RPL to the visa charge, we have paid AUD 17,701.55 so far, including our agent’s fees. That does not include English tests, medicals and police certificates, which we paid in Canadian dollars, and it does not include our dog.
Want to use the same layout for your own family? Download our cost spreadsheet. It has the ledger, the totals and the fee comparison, and the blue cells are the ones you can change. The Canadian-dollar amounts in it are mostly from memory.
Where the Money Went
| What | Amount (AUD) |
|---|---|
| Visa application charge, including the 1.4 percent surcharge | 8,715.33 |
| RPL (recognition of prior learning) | 3,150.00 |
| My husband’s skills assessment: TRA fee 795 plus agent fee 2,200 | 2,995.00 |
| Agent fee for the EOI, the nomination and the visa | 2,500.00 |
| Queensland nomination fee | 341.22 |
| Total | 17,701.55 |
On top of that, our first 30-minute phone consultation with the agent cost 100,000 Korean won.
In the Order We Paid
| When | What | Amount (AUD) |
|---|---|---|
| January | RPL, paid in two parts (3,000 and then 150) | 3,150 |
| January | TRA skills assessment and the agent’s fee for it | 2,995 |
| March | A skills assessment for me that we did not use (see below) | 2,220 |
| 22 March | Queensland nomination fee | 341.22 |
| Around the EOI, which was registered on 16 March | The agent’s fee for the EOI, nomination and visa | 2,500 |
| April | The rest of the visa charge, after a 2,220 credit | 6,495.33 |
The application itself was lodged on 11 May. I wrote about that stage in lodging our application.
The Visa Charge in Detail
The visa application charge depends on who is in the application. We lodged as a family of three, and these were the charges that applied on 11 May:
- Main applicant: 4,910
- Adult dependant: 2,455
- Child under 18: 1,230
That adds up to 8,595. A 1.4 percent surcharge was added, which brought the total to 8,715.33. If you lodge now, the charges are higher, as the next section shows. Always check the Department of Home Affairs for the amount that applies on the day you lodge. My document checklist post has the new amounts too.
What the Same Application Would Cost Now
The visa charges went up on 1 July 2026. Several migration guides report the same new amounts, and they match the ones in my checklist post. I could not load the Home Affairs pricing page itself to confirm them, so please check it before you lodge.
| What we paid (11 May) | From 1 July 2026 | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main applicant | 4,910 | 6,140 | +1,230 |
| Adult dependant | 2,455 | 3,070 | +615 |
| Child under 18 | 1,230 | 1,535 | +305 |
| Family of three | 8,595 | 10,745 | +2,150 |
That is about 25 percent more. If the same 1.4 percent surcharge still applies, our 8,715.33 would be about 10,895.43, a difference of roughly 2,180. So for a family like ours, lodging in May instead of after 1 July saved a little over 2,000 Australian dollars. For your own family, the new charge is 6,140 for the main applicant, 3,070 for each adult dependant and 1,535 for each child.
RPL and the Skills Assessment
My husband needed recognition of prior learning (RPL) before his skills assessment, which I explain in how we chose a migration agent. The RPL was invoiced at 3,150, and I paid it in two parts. I am not naming the organisation.
The TRA fee was 795, the same figure TRA lists on its own page, and our agent’s fee for handling the assessment was 2,200. Together that was 2,995. The assessment took eight days, as I describe in our TRA post.
The Skills Assessment We Did Not Use
I had also planned my own skills assessment, because a partner with a positive assessment can add points, as I explain in our 70-point breakdown. I paid 2,220 for it in March: an agent fee of 1,100 and an assessment fee of 1,120.
Before I went any further, our invitation came, so I did not do the assessment at all. The 2,220 was not refunded in cash. Instead, our agent counted it towards the visa charge in April, which is why the last payment for the visa was 6,495.33 and not 8,715.33 (8,715.33 minus 2,220). So the unused fee did not disappear, but it also did not come back to me as extra money. It simply became part of the visa charge, which is why the visa charge appears in full in the table above.
If your plans change after you have paid for something, ask your agent how a cancelled fee will be handled before you assume it is lost, and ask whether it will be a refund or a credit.
The Queensland Nomination Fee
I paid 341.22 for the Queensland nomination application on 22 March, and I believe it was a separate payment from our agent’s fee. When I last looked, on 26 October 2026, the Migration Queensland application fees page said “to be advised” for the 491 fee, so your own figure may be different. The same page says nomination fees are not refunded under any circumstances.
Our Agent’s Fees
Earlier I said that I would keep our agent’s fees private. For this post I am sharing the amounts: 2,200 for the husband’s skills assessment, 2,500 for the EOI, nomination and visa, and the 100,000 won first call. As far as I know, the 2,500 does not include the nomination fee or the visa charge. I do not name our agent. We paid in stages.
What Is Not in This Total
- English tests, in Canadian dollars. My IELTS cost about 340 from memory. My two PTE bookings were 366.12 each with tax, 732.24 together, and I used a coupon on the second. My husband sat the PTE once, on the same day as my first sitting, and his booking cost about the same, but I do not have his receipt. He also sat the IELTS twice, and each of those cost roughly 330 from memory. Across the two of us, that is roughly 2,100 for six tests. My two PTE amounts come from my payment record. The rest are from memory. I explain the tests in IELTS vs PTE.
- Health examinations, in Canadian dollars. The clinic’s fees were 400 for age 15 and over and 150 for under 11, before tax. With tax, an adult paid about 440, so about 880 for the two of us. If the same tax applies to our son’s 150, that is about 165, which would make about 1,045 for the three of us. That total is my own calculation. I describe the day in the medical exam post.
- Police certificates. The RCMP checks cost 90 Canadian dollars plus tax per person (65 plus tax for the fingerprinting and 25 for the RCMP fee), so about 180 plus tax for my husband and me. The fingerprinting for the Japanese certificate cost about 60 to 70 Canadian dollars, which is from memory.
- Our dog, which is a separate budget. I write about it in bringing our senior dog to Australia.
Adding up the Canadian-dollar items I do remember (six English tests roughly 2,100, the three medicals about 1,045, the RCMP checks about 180 before tax and the Japanese fingerprinting about 65), that is roughly 3,400 Canadian dollars on top of the Australian-dollar total.
How This Compares With the Estimates
In my document checklist post I gave a rough budget for a family, before agent fees. Our actual payments split into two groups. The visa charge, the TRA fee and the nomination fee came to 9,851.55 (8,715.33 + 795 + 341.22). The people we paid, the RPL organisation and our agent, came to 7,850 (3,150 + 2,200 + 2,500). Add them together and you get the 17,701.55 above.
Two things surprised me. First, the cost of the people was nearly as large as the official charges, because we needed RPL as well as an agent. Second, the visa charge was the single biggest line, so lodging before the July increase mattered.
What I Would Do to Spend Less
- Do not pay for an English test just to see the format. My first IELTS and my first PTE were both avoidable, and each cost over 340 Canadian dollars.
- Ask what happens to a fee if your plan changes before you pay it.
- Check the date you lodge. The visa charge went up on 1 July, so the same application would have cost more if we had lodged later.
- Plan how you will send money from abroad. A daily transfer limit meant that we had to send the RPL payment in parts, and we split the visa payment in two.
Before You Pay Anyone
- Write down what each payment covers, in your own words.
- Check each official fee on the Home Affairs, TRA or state page, and note the date you checked.
- Ask your agent for a written list of what is included and what is not.
- Keep every receipt in one folder, because you will want the dates later.
I also wrote about the order of the whole process in the Start Here guide.
These are our own payments and are not migration, financial or tax advice. Fees change, so confirm every amount on the official pages before you rely on it.
