What Does the Child Visa (Subclass 101) Cost in 2026 — and When Must You Pay?

How the subclass 101 child visa charge is built up, whose passport sets the 2026 concession, and why payment must precede lodgement.

Published: 10 July 2026 Reading time 12 min

A Child visa (Subclass 101) is priced per person, not per family: one visa application charge covers the main applicant — the child being sponsored — and a separate charge applies to each of that child's dependent children who are included in the application. According to the Australian Department of Home Affairs Child visa (Subclass 101) visa listing page, as at August 2026 the department does not state a flat figure there; it directs applicants to the Visa Pricing Estimator to work out the amount for their circumstances. Payment also comes before lodgement, not after: this visa is applied for on paper, and the application charge must be paid before the forms go in the post.

How is the subclass 101 charge actually built up?

The structure is simpler than most family visas, because there is only ever one sponsored child at the centre of it.

Main applicant: the dependent child of an Australian citizen, eligible New Zealand citizen or Australian permanent visa holder. One charge applies.
Dependent children of that child: an extra charge for each one who applies for the visa. They can be added when the application is lodged or at any point before a decision is made.
Siblings: they are not part of the same application. If the sponsored child has brothers or sisters who also want to migrate, each needs a separate application, and therefore a separate charge.

Assume a sponsored child who is 22 and has one child of their own. One main-applicant charge and one dependent-child charge would apply in that single application; a sibling of the sponsored child would sit in a different application with its own main-applicant charge. That per-person structure is what makes the estimator, rather than a published table, the practical starting point for a family budget.

Does a lower cost apply from 1 July 2026?

Yes, for a defined group. From 1 July 2026 a lower visa cost applies to eligible Pacific Island and Timor-Leste citizens who lodge a valid visa application, and the department charges the reduced amount during the application process.

Eligibility is recognised through the passport. The primary applicant must hold a valid passport issued by one of the following:

Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Kiribati
Nauru
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu

Family members included in the application also receive the lower cost, and that follows the passport of the primary applicant (or the visa holder who satisfies the primary criteria) rather than each family member's own travel document. So if the primary applicant qualifies, accompanying family members are charged at the reduced rate even where their own nationality differs.

What costs sit outside the visa application charge?

Three categories are named on the department's page, and none of them appear in the estimator's output:

Cost	Who it applies to	Covered by the pricing estimator
Health examinations	The sponsored child and dependent children applying; also family members who are not migrating in some cases	No
Police certificates	Children over 16, from every country where they spent 12 months or more in the last 10 years since turning 16	No
Biometrics	Only if the department asks for them	No

Police certificates add a timing constraint as well as a cost: for immigration purposes they are valid for 12 months from the issue date, so a certificate obtained well before lodgement may expire before it is assessed. In Australia only AFP National Police Certificates applied for under Code 33 – Immigration/Citizenship are accepted.

Treat these as a separate budget line rather than a margin on top of the visa charge. This article describes published rules for general guidance only and is not personalised advice for any one family's situation; where a figure or an entitlement matters to a decision, the current departmental page and the estimator are the ones to check.

When exactly does the money have to be paid?

Before the application is posted. The subclass 101 is a paper-only visa: Form 47CH (Application for migration to Australia by a child) and Form 40CH (Sponsorship for a child to migrate to Australia) are completed and sent together by post with prepaid postage, or by courier, to the Child and Other Family Processing Centre in Perth.

The department's step-by-step instructions are explicit that the application charge must be paid before posting, that the application will not be processed until it is paid, and that the envelope should also contain evidence of payment along with the supporting documents. Submitting the forms at any other office, or in person, does not produce a valid application.

What happens if the payment is wrong or missing?

The consequences are procedural rather than financial penalties. The department states that it cannot process the application if the correct visa application charge is not paid; if that happens it will contact the applicant and may return the application. Incomplete steps of any kind can also make an application invalid, and invalid applications are not processed.

There is a second, slower consequence worth budgeting for: the department lists failure to make full payment at the time of initial lodgement among the reasons an application may take longer to process. Since an acknowledgement of receipt normally arrives within approximately one month of lodgement, underpayment tends to surface as silence or delay rather than as an invoice.

If you add a dependent child later, does the cost change?

It does. A dependent child of the sponsored child can be added to the application at any time before a decision is made, and each dependent child who applies for the visa carries its own charge. Adding someone after lodgement therefore means a second payment event rather than a recalculation of the first one — worth planning for if a family member's circumstances are still being settled when the main forms go in the post.

Is the fee refunded if the visa is refused?

No. The department states that the application fee is not refunded if the application is refused, and if a visa is refused the applicant is told why and whether the decision carries a right of review. Paying in full and paying early does not protect the money; it only keeps the application valid and moving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there one published price for the subclass 101 visa?

The department's visa listing page describes the charge structure — one amount for the main applicant, plus a charge for each dependent child — but does not print a flat figure there. It directs applicants to the Visa Pricing Estimator, which is the tool to use for a specific family's situation.

Do siblings share one application and one payment?

No. Each sibling who wants to migrate needs a separate application, and each of those applications carries its own main-applicant charge. Only the sponsored child's own dependent children can be included in the same application.

Does the Pacific Island and Timor-Leste concession cover family members too?

Yes, from 1 July 2026 family members included in the application are eligible for the lower cost. Eligibility is determined by the passport of the primary applicant, so qualifying family members benefit even if they hold a different nationality's passport.

Can I pay after I post the application?

No. The charge must be paid before posting, and the application will not be processed until payment is made. The department asks for evidence of payment to be included with the paper forms and supporting documents.

Are health exams, police certificates and biometrics included in the estimator's figure?

No. The estimator does not consider those costs. They are separate and are only incurred for the people the department asks to complete them — for example, police certificates are required from children over 16 who meet the residence threshold.

Is the money refunded if the application is refused?

No. The department states it will not refund the application fee if the application is refused. It will advise the reason for refusal and whether there is a right to have the decision reviewed.

When is the best point to obtain police certificates?

They are valid for 12 months from the issue date for immigration purposes, so obtaining them too early risks expiry before the application is assessed. If the department requires certificates, it will ask for them as part of processing.