Getting a refund from Home Affairs.

Not the first instalment, which is the charge paid when you apply. The Regulations have no refund ground for a refusal. It comes back only if a separate ground also applies, such as the application having been made because of a mistake by the Department.

A second instalment is different. It is not payable once the application is finally refused, and if it was already paid it must be refunded on a written request.

reg 2.12F(2) · reg 2.12G(1)(b) · reg 2.12H(2)(c)

Generally no. A change of mind is not a refund ground, and the Department says it will not refund for that reason.

Two exceptions are written into the law. A second instalment that was paid must be refunded if the application is withdrawn in writing before it is decided. And for a Business Talent (subclass 132) application, or a subclass 188 application in the Business Innovation, Investor, Significant Investor or Entrepreneur stream, the charge must be refunded if the application had not been finally determined and the written request to withdraw was made on or after 31 July 2024. The 188 Extension streams are not covered.

reg 2.12H(2)(a) · LIN 21/007 s 11 · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

The Regulations list the circumstances in which the first instalment must be refunded:

• the application was unnecessary at the time it was made;
• the application was made because of a mistake by the Department;
• the applicant died before the application was decided;
• a subclass 407 or 482 application was withdrawn because there was no approved nomination identifying the applicant, or because the applicant did not need one and had no approved work sponsor;
• a subclass 408 application of the kind in Schedule 1 item 1237(3), table item 3, was withdrawn because the applicant had no approved work sponsor;
• a narrow case for some visitor and medical treatment visa applications made in Australia, set out in paragraph (2)(db);
• any circumstance the Minister specifies in a legislative instrument.

A written request is needed from the person who paid (or their legal personal representative or bankruptcy trustee), although the Department can also refund without one where it considers that reasonable.

reg 2.12F(1)–(2B)

The Regulations do not define it. The Department adds a condition of its own: there must be no evidence that the applicant contributed directly to the department mistake by giving incomplete or incorrect information.

If you believe incorrect Departmental advice led you to apply, provide that advice with the request: the email, the letter or the page as it read at the time.

reg 2.12F(2)(b) · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

Possibly. Where the application was made because of your own mistake, the Department may refund the charge. It is a discretion, and three steps must happen in this order:

1. you withdraw the application in writing;
2. after the withdrawal, the person who paid makes a written request for the refund;
3. the Department decides the request.

The Department gives, as examples, applying for the wrong visa class, stream or duration, and says it expects the correct application to be lodged and paid for after the refund request.

Withdrawing an application can affect your visa status if you are in Australia, so check that before you withdraw.

reg 2.12F(3) · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

Yes, if the first instalment is refunded under regulation 2.12F. When the Department decides to refund the charge under that regulation, it must also refund a fee paid for priority consideration of that application, to the person who paid it.

reg 2.12P

Some visas carry a second instalment of the charge, paid before the visa is granted. It is not payable at all if the application is withdrawn before it is paid, or if the application is finally refused. An application a court sends back to the Department is not finally refused.

reg 2.12G

On a written request, it must be refunded where:

• the application is withdrawn in writing before it is decided;
• the application is finally determined and the visa is not granted;
• the applicant dies before first entering Australia on the visa;
• the visa is granted and then cancelled, or otherwise ceases, before the applicant first enters Australia on it.

Where the second instalment was paid under a Schedule 1 provision listed in LIN 23/022 (permanent and some provisional visa classes), it must also be refunded if, within 12 months of the visa commencing and before the holder starts the English tuition they are entitled to, the holder dies, the visa is cancelled or ceases (with an exception in subregulation (2A)), or the Commonwealth’s obligation to provide the tuition ends under section 4A(1)(b) of the Immigration (Education) Act 1971.

reg 2.12H · LIN 23/022

The same regulation applies to partner visas as to every other visa: a refund needs one of the listed circumstances, such as a Departmental mistake or the applicant’s death.

The Department lists cases it treats as not eligible, including a relationship that has ended, a change of mind, and a visa the Minister cancelled other than at the holder’s own request. It also says the application cannot still be awaiting a decision: it must be withdrawn first, on Form 1446 through ImmiAccount, and the refund requested after that.

The Department’s partner list of cases that may be eligible also includes a sponsorship or nomination that was not successful. The Regulations have no partner-visa ground in those words, so if that is your situation, include the facts in the request and let the Department decide it.

For how partner applications are assessed, see the partner visa guide.

reg 2.12F · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

It depends on the visa.

• 482 or 407: the charge must be refunded if you withdraw the application because there is no approved nomination identifying you.
• 186 or 187: the Department may refund if you withdraw in writing for a listed reason. The reasons include the nomination naming the wrong occupation by mistake, sanctions against the employer under section 140K, and the business ceasing to operate actively and lawfully after you applied.
• 494: a similar list, including the wrong occupation or stream by mistake and the business ceasing to operate lawfully.

A refused nomination is not itself on the 186, 187 or 494 lists. For the 186, 187 and 494 routes the request must come after the written withdrawal.

reg 2.12F(2)(f), (2B), (3B), (3C)

Yes, for the Business Innovation, Investor, Significant Investor and Entrepreneur streams of the subclass 188, and for the subclass 132, where the application had not been finally determined and the written request to withdraw was made on or after 31 July 2024. The Department says refunds are not available for the Business Innovation Extension and Significant Investor Extension streams.

The Department’s process is to request the refund in ImmiAccount after the formal withdrawal notice arrives, choosing the reason Voluntary withdrawal of BIIP application.

LIN 21/007 s 11 · Home Affairs, BIIP closure and refunds

The Department says a Resident Return visa charge is not refunded if the application is refused, if the travel facility on the previous visa is lost when the new one is granted, or if the visa is never used for travel. Where a Departmental mistake caused the application to be made in error, a refund may be available, with evidence of the mistake.

reg 2.12F(2)(b) · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

No. The refunds for Working Holiday, Work and Holiday, student, Prospective Marriage and Pacific worker visas affected by the border closures each required the request by 31 December 2021 or 31 December 2022.

Separately, the Department says the partial refund for Pacific Island and Timor-Leste Student and Student Guardian visa applications lodged between 1 July 2024 and 21 March 2025 closed on 23 June 2025.

LIN 21/007 ss 5–10 · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

The nomination fee and the Skilling Australians Fund levy may be refunded in listed circumstances. They differ by visa, but the main ones are:

• the nomination was made because of a mistake by the Department;
• it was withdrawn before decision because the details used to work out the levy were wrong;
• for a 482 or 494, it was withdrawn because a pending standard business sponsorship application was withdrawn or refused;
• labour agreement cases: the occupation is not in the agreement, the yearly cap is reached, or no agreement was ever entered;
• the visa was refused on character grounds or under a listed public interest criterion;
• the visa was granted but the worker never started in the position.

A nomination withdrawn before decision because it named the wrong stream by mistake can also qualify for a 494, 186 or 187, and so can the wrong occupation for a 494, or for a 186 or 187 in the Temporary Residence Transition stream. The refund goes to whoever paid.

reg 2.73AA · reg 2.73C · reg 5.37A

For a 482 or 494 nomination, possibly. Where the nominee stops working for the employer within a year of starting, the Department may refund part of the levy:

• 482: the levy paid, less the levy a one-year nomination would have attracted. The nomination must have proposed a stay of more than one year, and employment with an associated entity counts.
• 494: the levy paid, less $600 where the business turnover is under $10 million, or less $1,000 otherwise.

This partial refund covers the levy only, and the 186 and 187 refund regulation has no equivalent.

reg 2.73AA(3F) · reg 2.73C(9) · reg 5.37A

None of the refund regulations lists a refused nomination as a ground. A refusal of the visa qualifies only where it was on character grounds under section 501, 501A or 501B, or under one of the public interest criteria each regulation names. A refused nomination may be reviewable by the ART instead: see employer sponsored refusals.

reg 2.73AA(3D) · reg 2.73C(7) · reg 5.37A(8)

Only where the sponsorship application was made because of a mistake by the Department. The Regulations give no other ground, so a refused or withdrawn sponsorship application does not qualify.

reg 2.61(4)

Half of it is. Where the Tribunal sets aside or varies the decision, or remits it to the Department, 50% of the fee is refunded.

The whole fee is refunded where the applicant was not entitled to apply, the decision was not reviewable, or the Minister issued a conclusive certificate. It is also refunded if the review is withdrawn because a visa applicant, a member of their family unit or a review applicant has died since the visa application was made, because the visa applicant has since been granted a visa of the class applied for (other than through a points-test reconsideration), or, for a parent visa, because after lodging the review the applicant applied for another parent visa and wants that one decided.

If the fee was paid in full and financial hardship is then accepted, part of it is refunded. For the fee itself and the deadlines, see refusals and ART review.

reg 4.13(4) · reg 4.14

That fee is payable after the Tribunal decides, and not at all if the Tribunal remits with a permissible order. It is refunded if already paid, or waived if not, where a court sends the decision back and the Tribunal then remits with such an order, or where the Minister substitutes a decision favourable to the applicant for the Tribunal’s decision, under section 351 or the equivalent protection power that has since been repealed.

reg 4.31B · reg 4.31C

The Department may refund all or part of it where:

• an earlier application under the same section is still undecided;
• the application was made because of incorrect advice from the Department;
• the person is already an Australian citizen, or paid the wrong fee (these two do not apply to renunciation or evidence of citizenship);
• evidence of citizenship was issued with a Departmental error in it.

A partial refund is possible where a conferral applicant did not sit the citizenship test. The Department says withdrawing is not a refund ground on its own, that it cannot refund where the applicant died before a decision or before attending a ceremony, and that there is no internal review of a refused citizenship fee refund.

Australian Citizenship Regulation 2016 s 17 · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

For the visa application charge, the request comes from the person who paid it. If that person has died or has a serious physical or mental incapacity, it comes from their legal personal representative; if they are bankrupt, from their trustee.

Who counts as the payer is set by the Regulations. If an agent paid on the applicant’s behalf, the applicant is the payer. Otherwise it depends on how the charge was paid: the person named on the card, the drawer of a cheque, the PayPal account holder, the person presenting cash, or, for a bank cheque, draft or money order, the presenter or purchaser.

The refund is paid to the person who made the request, or, where the Department refunds without a request, to the payer or their representative or trustee. Where the applicant has died, it is given to that person for payment to the applicant’s estate. It may be paid in the currency the charge was paid in.

reg 2.12F(2A), (6), (8) · reg 2.12K · reg 2.12L

If you paid through ImmiAccount, the Department’s steps are: My Payments, then Manage Payments; where the payment shows as Credit or Paid, choose Request Refund from the actions menu and select the refund reason. If the money is to go to someone other than the original payer, attach the completed authorisation with the banking instructions.

If you did not apply or pay through ImmiAccount, the Department uses Form 1424, sent to the office processing the application. Where a death is relied on, the request must include satisfactory evidence of it.

Home Affairs, Getting a refund · reg 2.12F(4)–(5)

The Department says there is no standard time frame. Requests take longer when details are incomplete, supporting documents are missing, or information has to be verified.

Home Affairs, Getting a refund

The Department offers one internal review of a refused visa application charge, sponsorship fee or nomination fee refund. The request must say why the decision was wrong and include any new supporting evidence. The Department says there is no internal review for citizenship fee refunds, and it directs enquiries about SAF levy refunds to its Cost of sponsoring page.

Home Affairs, Refund decision internal review request · Home Affairs, Getting a refund

No. The Department warns that reversing or cancelling a payment may make the application invalid, may leave a debt to the Commonwealth, and may limit your ability to get another visa. Use the refund request.

Home Affairs, Getting a refund