482 Visa Cost: Every Fee the Worker and the Employer Pay

A 482 visa costs $4,015 for the main applicant from 1 July 2026, plus $4,015 for each family member aged 18 or over and $1,005 for each child under 18, under Schedule 1 item 1240 of the Migration Regulations 1994. The employer pays separately: $420 to become a standard business sponsor, $330 for each nomination, and a Skilling Australians Fund levy of $1,200 a year below $10 million turnover or $1,800 a year at or above it, for each year nominated. The employer cannot pass any of its charges on to the worker, and the first step is to enter both sides in the calculator below.

An Australian migration lawyer can work out which charges apply to a particular 482 before anything is lodged.

What does the worker pay for a 482 visa?

The worker pays the visa application charge for each person in the application, in all three streams:

The conditions:

• The concession: the lower charge applies from 1 July 2026 when the main applicant holds a valid passport of the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu or Vanuatu. The main applicant’s passport decides, and the family is charged the lower rate too.
• No second instalment: the 482 has none (Schedule 1 item 1240(2)(b)).
• A child applying alone later: a child who applies on their own as a subsequent entrant is charged the base charge, not the child rate (Home Affairs subsequent entrant page).
• Other costs: the worker also pays for English tests, health examinations, police certificates and biometrics, which the Core Skills stream page lists as other costs; the Home Affairs Visa Pricing Estimator does not include them.

A partner or child is charged at lodgement or later as a subsequent entrant; the 482 dependent visa page covers who counts as family and what each can do.

Which charges fall on the employer?

The employer must pay every cost of becoming a sponsor and of nominating and sponsoring a worker, including recruitment, advertising and the fees of any lawyer it engages. Under regulation 2.87 of the Migration Regulations 1994 it cannot transfer them to the worker or the worker’s family; the Home Affairs cost of sponsoring page states “You can’t transfer these costs to the visa holder”. Levy payments are tax deductible. The totals an employer pays over one to four years are on the 482 visa sponsorship cost for employer page.

How is the SAF levy calculated?

The Skilling Australians Fund levy is the base amount multiplied by the whole years in the nomination (1, 2, 3 or 4), paid in full when the nomination is lodged. The online nomination form calculates it from the turnover and the years entered. Under section 4 of the Migration (Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Regulations 2018, “annual turnover” for a business operating in Australia is its total ordinary income for the most recent income year before the nomination.

The levy is payable on every nomination, including one lodged so a 482 holder can change employer or occupation. Only ministers of religion and religious assistants nominated under a labour agreement are exempt. Home Affairs gives its own example: a four-year nomination at the higher rate costs $7,200.

What does a 482 visa cost in total?

The three scenarios below are built from the charges above, and each ends in one total for the employer and one for the worker.

Scenario 1: a single worker and a new small sponsor

A single Core Skills worker applying from outside Australia; a small employer sponsoring for the first time; a 2-year nomination.

Scenario 2: a family of four and an established large sponsor

A worker, a partner and two children under 18 applying from outside Australia; an employer with turnover of $10 million or more that is already an approved sponsor; a 4-year nomination.

Scenario 3: a 482 holder moving to a new employer

A 482 holder moving to a new employer that is already an approved sponsor, with turnover of $10 million or more; a 3-year nomination in the same occupation; the visa is not expiring.

The worker pays no new visa charge in Scenario 3 because a change of employer needs only the new nomination, unless the visa is expiring, the occupation changes, or the move is from a labour agreement employer to a standard business sponsor (Home Affairs change in situation page).

The calculator above gives any other combination. Lawyer fees are not government charges and are not included.

What other costs apply?

• Subsequent temporary application charge: $700 for each applicant who owes it, worked out on that person’s own visa history. It applies when the person applies in Australia after an earlier temporary visa applied for in Australia. It is not charged to anyone applying from outside Australia, or to anyone making their first substantive temporary visa application in Australia (Home Affairs subsequent temporary application charge page). The page on switching to a 482 covers onshore applicants.
• Health insurance premiums: for the whole stay, under condition 8501; insurers set the price.
• Provider fees: English tests, health examinations, police certificates, skills assessments and translations are paid to the providers, separately from the visa charge, and the Home Affairs Visa Pricing Estimator does not include such other costs.

When is a 482 fee refunded?

For the worker, the visa application charge is not usually refunded, even if the application is refused or withdrawn (Home Affairs refunds page). The Core Skills stream page states “We will not refund the application fee if we refuse your application”.

For the employer:

1. Sponsorship and nomination fees are not refunded when the application is unsuccessful.
2. If the employer withdraws a nomination before any decision, Home Affairs may refund the nomination fee and the levy.
3. Once the nomination is approved, generally only the levy, or part of it, can come back, and a levy refund is available only in the 482 cases the cost of sponsoring page lists:
   • the nomination and visa are approved but the worker does not arrive or start work;
   • the nomination is approved but the visa is refused on health or character grounds;
   • the employer withdraws the nomination because the turnover or the employment period was entered wrongly;
   • the employer withdraws a labour agreement nomination before the agreement is in place, at the agreement’s yearly ceiling, or with the wrong occupation;
   • the worker leaves within the first 12 months of employment where the visa period was longer than that, for unused full years only;
   • the nomination is withdrawn because a concurrent sponsorship application was refused or withdrawn (regulation 2.73AA).

How has the 482 visa charge changed?

The Pacific Island and Timor-Leste concession started on 1 July 2026. The employer’s sponsorship fee, nomination fee and levy are set separately from the visa charge, and this guide shows them as current amounts because Home Affairs publishes no start date for them.

When does professional help save money on a 482?

An Australian migration lawyer is more likely to keep these charges from being wasted, because the visa charge is not usually refunded after a refusal and the levy comes back only in the listed cases, so a nomination lodged with the wrong turnover, period or stream costs the employer money it may not recover.