How to Apply for Permanent Residency in Australia: Costs and Pathways

To apply for permanent residency in Australia, you choose one of four visa pathways — skilled, employer-sponsored, family, or regional — satisfy the health, character, and (for most visas) English and skills-assessment requirements, and lodge an online application through the Department of Home Affairs’ ImmiAccount portal. For the two most common skilled visas, the Skilled Independent (subclass 189) and Skilled Nominated (subclass 190), the visa application charge for the primary applicant is AUD 4,910, and you can only apply after being invited through the SkillSelect system.¹ Family and employer-sponsored applicants follow different rules, and the surrounding costs — skills assessments, English tests, medicals, police checks — add up well beyond the headline fee.

Pick Your Pathway First

Your circumstances decide which visa you can apply for. Australia’s permanent residency system has four broad routes.

Skilled migration. The Skilled Independent (subclass 189) needs no sponsor. The Skilled Nominated (subclass 190) requires nomination by a state or territory. Both use a points test and require your occupation to be on Australia’s Core Skills Occupation List.²
Employer-sponsored. The Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) is for workers whose Australian employer nominates them permanently. Under the Direct Entry stream you generally need to be under 45, have three years of relevant experience, and hold a positive skills assessment.³
Family. Australian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor partners, parents, and children. The partner route starts with a temporary visa (subclass 820 onshore or 309 offshore); permanent residency (subclass 801 or 100) typically becomes available two years later.⁴
Regional. The Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491) places you in a designated regional area for five years as a provisional visa, after which permanent residency is available through the subclass 191.⁵

Business and investment visas also exist, though these typically involve provisional stages before permanent residency becomes available.

Meet the Core Requirements

Every applicant, regardless of pathway, must clear the same baseline checks.

Health

You and every family member on the application undergo medical examinations by a panel physician approved by the Department. The tests required depend on your age, medical history, and intended length of stay.⁶

Character

You must declare every recorded criminal offence and, if asked, provide a police certificate from each country where you have lived for a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years (since turning 16).⁶ Non-disclosure can damage your application more than the offence itself. The Department assesses character under section 501 of the Migration Act 1958.⁷

English

Most permanent visa subclasses require proof of English proficiency through an approved test — IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, Cambridge C1 Advanced, OET, and others are accepted.⁸ The score you need varies by subclass, and results are generally valid for up to three years.

Skills Assessment

For skilled visas, you need a positive skills assessment from the relevant assessing authority for your nominated occupation before you can be invited to apply.⁹ Each occupation has a designated body — Trades Recognition Australia handles trade occupations,¹⁰ with separate authorities for engineering, accounting, IT, and so on. Fees commonly range from roughly AUD 500 to over AUD 1,000, and processing can take weeks to months.

What It Actually Costs

The visa application charge is the largest single line, but not the only one.

Primary applicant charge for a Skilled Independent (subclass 189) or Skilled Nominated (subclass 190): AUD 4,910.¹
Additional charges apply for secondary applicants (partners and children).
For the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186), a second instalment of AUD 4,890 applies for any adult family member on the application who does not have functional English.³
Skills assessment: roughly AUD 500 to over AUD 1,000 depending on the authority.
English test, medical examinations, police certificates from each relevant country, and certified translations of any non-English document.¹¹

Fees change on July 1 each year, so check the Department’s current pricing page before you apply.¹

Start collecting documents early. Police certificates and skills assessments in particular take time you probably don’t have once the clock starts on an invitation. The core set covers your passport and birth certificate, marriage or relationship certificates if applicable, education qualifications and transcripts, employment references, English test results, the skills assessment letter, police clearances, and the panel physician’s medical reports.

Skilled Applicants: SkillSelect and the Points Test

For the subclass 189, 190, and 491 visas, you cannot lodge a visa application whenever you like. You first submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) through the SkillSelect platform and wait to be invited.¹²

The EOI is a profile, not an application. It records your points score, nominated occupation, and personal details. Once submitted, it enters a pool ranked against every other candidate. The Department runs periodic invitation rounds, and higher scores get invited first. Where two candidates tie, whoever reached that score earlier goes ahead.¹³

The pass mark on the points test is 65, but competitive rounds often need 80 or more depending on your occupation. Points come from age (up to 30, with the highest score for applicants aged 25 to 32), English (up to 20), skilled work experience (up to 20 for Australian experience and up to 15 for overseas experience), and education (up to 20, with doctoral qualifications at the top).² State or territory nomination for the 190 adds 5 points; sponsorship for the 491 regional visa adds 15. Bonus points also apply for specialist education, partner skills, professional year programs, community language credentials, and regional study.

You can update your EOI at any time before invitation — a better English score or extra experience should go in as soon as you have it.

If you receive an invitation, you have 60 days to lodge a complete visa application through ImmiAccount.¹² Miss it, and the invitation expires. That window is why your documents need to be ready before you submit the EOI, not after.

Lodging Through ImmiAccount

Once invited (for skilled visas) or otherwise eligible to apply, you file the application online through ImmiAccount.¹⁴ The portal is where you complete the form, upload evidence, pay the visa application charge, and track progress afterwards.

Review everything before you submit. Errors in names, dates, or occupation codes cause delays and, in some cases, refusals that are expensive to fix. Any document not in English needs an approved English translation attached alongside the original.¹¹ On successful lodgement you get a confirmation and a transaction reference number.

Employer-Sponsored: The Route That Skips SkillSelect

If you have an Australian employer willing to nominate you, the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) leads to permanent residency without SkillSelect. Under the Direct Entry stream you must be under 45 at application, be nominated for an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List, have at least three years of relevant work experience, hold a positive skills assessment, and meet the minimum English standard along with the standard health and character rules.³

The Department expects you to work for your nominating employer for at least two years after grant. You must start that employment within six months of arriving in Australia if granted offshore, or within six months of the grant date if granted onshore.³

After You Submit

Bridging Visas

If you are already in Australia on a temporary visa when you lodge a valid permanent residency application, you are generally granted a Bridging Visa A (subclass 010) that keeps you lawfully in the country while the main application is decided.¹⁵ To travel and return during that period you need a Bridging Visa B (subclass 020), applied for before you leave — it is not automatic.¹⁶

Processing Times

Times vary by subclass and individual circumstances. Whether you lodged a complete application, how quickly you respond to requests for more information, and how long external health, character, and security checks take all shape the outcome.¹⁷ The Department publishes current estimates through its processing time guide, updated regularly based on recently decided applications.¹⁸ Check that tool rather than relying on a fixed figure. If the Department asks for more documents through ImmiAccount, respond quickly. Delays on your end extend the timeline.

The Decision

You receive the outcome through ImmiAccount. An approval comes with a visa grant notice setting out the conditions and the date the travel facility begins. A refusal letter explains the reasons and whether you have review rights.

If You Are Refused

A refusal is not always final. For most migration visa decisions, you can seek review at the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). The standard application fee for migration decision reviews is AUD 3,580.¹⁹ Strict time limits apply and the Tribunal cannot extend them. Your refusal letter states the deadline and whether the ART can review your particular decision, so keep it — you need it to file. If review isn’t available or doesn’t succeed, you may need to address the reasons for refusal or consider a different visa before applying again.

Permanent Doesn’t Mean Forever if You Travel

One point catches new permanent residents out. Your right to live in Australia does not expire while you remain in the country, but the travel facility on your visa — the part that lets you leave and re-enter — usually lasts only five years from grant.²⁰ To travel after that, you apply for a Resident Return Visa (subclass 155 or 157) before you leave.²¹ A new five-year facility requires physical presence in Australia for at least 730 days in the preceding five years; longer absences may still qualify for a shorter 12-month facility if you can show substantial ties. For many permanent residents, the cleanest long-term solution is applying for citizenship once eligible.

1
Department of Home Affairs. Current Visa Pricing
2
Department of Home Affairs. Points Table for Skilled Independent Visa Subclass 189
3
Department of Home Affairs. Employer Nomination Scheme Visa Subclass 186 Direct Entry Stream
4
Department of Home Affairs. Partner Visa Apply in Australia Subclass 820 and 801
5
Department of Home Affairs. Skilled Work Regional Provisional Visa Subclass 491
6
Australia in the USA. Visa Requirements
7
Department of Home Affairs. Character Requirements for Visas
8
Department of Home Affairs. English Language Visa Requirements
9
Department of Home Affairs. Skills Assessment
10
Trades Recognition Australia. Migration Skills Assessment MSA
11
Australia in the USA. English Translation of Foreign Documents
12
Department of Home Affairs. SkillSelect Expression of Interest
13
Department of Home Affairs. SkillSelect Invitation Rounds
14
Department of Home Affairs. Applying Online in ImmiAccount
15
Department of Home Affairs. Subclass 010 Bridging Visa A
16
Department of Home Affairs. Subclass 020 Bridging Visa B
17
Department of Home Affairs. Skilled Independent Visa Subclass 189
18
Department of Home Affairs. Visa Processing Times Guide
19
Administrative Review Tribunal. Immigration and Citizenship
20
Department of Home Affairs. Travelling Overseas as a Permanent Resident
21
Department of Home Affairs. Subclasses 155 and 157 Resident Return Visa