Visa Application Charges and Professional Fees

At Down Under Visa we don’t put our professional fees for visa applications onto our website. We don’t, because we are Registered Migration Agents and we operate a migration consultancy practice. We assess prospective visa applicants and their situations, and we advise on the Australian visa type that will best suit their needs, be that onshore or offshore partner visas, prospective marriage visas, tourist visas or other family visas. And as part of that assessment, we give you a detailed assessment document which most certainly includes full costs of Government visa application charges, our professional fees and the costs of any disbursements.

It we were running a “Visa Shop” where every client was the same, then we would have one of those online storefront setups with the built-in checkout. But it’s never quite that simple. And in many cases we have to tell clients we simply can’t help them because we feel certain that their applications would fail. I had to do this twice this morning already, and the day is still young. There is one thing we do NOT do and that is to take on clients and visa applications that we believe have little hope of success. It’s a matter of ethics and a matter of professional pride.

What is the cost of our professional fees?

We will include this as part of our assessment, because it will depend on the application and situation obviously. But click on the Visa Assessment Form link and you will soon see all that you need to make a decision.

A few important things to note:

• Our professional fees are fixed-price, except in very rare situations where we would make that clear to you at the start.
• The fees are for the visa application at-hand. If you apply for an additional visa, it will be a separate agreement and separate fees.
• Once you sign an Agreement with us, those professional fees will never increase.
• We never charge extra professional fees for including kids. The Government do. We don’t.
• You will NEVER get those “Oh, and the Embassy said they want another $2,000.00” phonecalls from us, which seem a fairly standard part of the scam with the sharks out there in the marketplace. Government fees are generally pay-once, and so are ours.

Do we cost more than a local travel agent? Yes, most definitely. You don’t expect to pay the same for a new Toyota Camry as you would for a rusty ol’ jeepney with tyres smooth like a baby’s bottom, do you? Our fees are considerably less than what you pay the Government for their side of it, and you get Rolls Royce service for a fair price.

Are we competitive with our Registered Migration Agents? Yes, most definitely. Generally a fair bit lower than Agents based in Australia, because we’re not paying for office space in the middle of Sydney.

Government Visa Application Charges

These are fixed price once you’ve paid them. If anybody tells you that the Embassy wants a further payment for a visa application, it’s a sure sign that you are being scammed. It never happens, except for Contributory Parent Visas. No other visa type that we handle has a second fee.

However note that whilst we can give you a firm quote for our services, we cannot predict if the Government will increase their fees. They can do so at a day’s notice if they wish, and there is nothing we can do about it. We cannot “hold” the Visa Application Charge part of our assessment quotes, because it’s out of our hands.

And note also that Government fees (Visa Application Charge or VAC) must be paid before a visa application is lodged. No fee means an invalid application which they cannot and will not accept.

So if you would like to know how much a visa application will cost you, please submit an online assessment form from our website. It will cost you nothing to do this, and you will have a clear picture at the end. Please compare our fee with how much work we do, and balance it against the risk of taking it on by yourself. We hope we can be of service to you.