Key Points
- The fee for international students to apply to study in Australia has risen to $1,600 from $710.
- Student visa application fees in the US and Canada cost about $185 and $110 respectively.
- Unlike other measures to tighten student migration that start in July, this change hadn’t previously been announced.
On 1 July, the fee rose from $710 to $1,600.
Data released in March by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed net migration rose 60 per cent to a record 548,800 people in the year to the end of September 2023.
![Three young women with large backpacks on their backs.](http://envision.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/australias-visa-fee-for-international-students-has-more-than-doubled_66840e9809b37.jpeg)
The Australian government has been introducing measures in an effort to reduce the number of migrants coming to Australia, including those coming as students. Source: Getty / kate_sept2004
The rise in fees makes applying for a student visa for Australia far more expensive than in competing countries like the United States and Canada, where they cost about $185 and $110 respectively.
The government said it was also closing loopholes in visa rules that allowed foreign students to continuously extend their stay in Australia, after the number of students on a second or subsequent student visa spiked by over 30 per cent to more than 150,000 in 2022–23.
International education is one of Australia’s largest export industries and was worth $36.4 billion to the economy in the 2022-23 financial year.