Lo que cobran los agentes de migración en Australia y qué debería estar incluido en el precio

Professional fees in Australian migration are not standardised and never have been. Two competent agents in the same suburb can quote $2,800 and $6,500 for the same visa and both be entirely reasonable, because they are describing different amounts of work.

The problem is not the spread. The problem is that most quotes do not say which work they are describing.

Rangos típicos#

These are professional fees only - the agent's own charge, including GST. They do no include the government's visa application charge, which is usually the larger number. Ranges are what the market broadly does in 2026, not a recommendation and not a price we set.

Sponsorship and nomination stages for employer-sponsored visas are often quoted separately, and are frequently paid by the employer rather than by you. Check which.

Fixed fee or hourly?#

A bare hourly rate with no estimate is not compliant, and it is also the arrangement most likely to end in an argument.

Tarifa fija is what most applicants should want. You know the number. The agent carries the risk that the file is harder than it looked. In exchange the fixed fee is usually a little higher than the hourly estimate would have been, which is the price of certainty and is generally worth paying.

Por hora makes sense for genuinely open-ended work - complex tribunal matters, character cases, a situation nobody can scope until they have read six years of history. If you are quoted hourly, ask for the estimate in writing and ask what happens if it is exceeded.

The eight things a quote must contain to be comparable#

1. The professional fee, including GST. Not "plus GST" alongside another agent's inclusive number.
2. Whether it is fixed or hourly, and if hourly, the estimated hours.
3. The visa application charge, separately, with the number of applicants it assumes.
4. The other disbursements, at least as an estimate: health, police checks, translations, skills assessment, English test.
5. Qué está incluido. Named stages, named tasks.
6. Qué está excluido. This is where the money is. Requests for further information, section 57 responses, tribunal review, a second stage, a change of circumstances.
7. El calendario de pagos. How much, when, against what.
8. The refund position. What happens if you withdraw, if circumstances change, if the visa is refused.

A quote with all eight can be compared to another quote with all eight. A quote without them cannot be compared to anything, and "from $2,200" is not a price - it is the beginning of a conversation you have not had yet.

Where quotes hide money#

"Lodgement only." The fee covers preparing and lodging. Everything after - a request for more documents, a natural justice letter, a follow-up eighteen months later - is billed separately. Not dishonest. Just not what most people assume they are buying.

La segunda etapa. For partner visas especially, a low headline fee often covers stage one only. Ask for the total across both.

Per-applicant pricing. Some fees are per application, some per applicant. For a family of four this is an enormous difference.

"Plus GST" on a consumer quote. Legal for a business-to-business quote. Confusing and non-compliant on a consumer one, where section 46 requires the GST-inclusive figure.

Disbursements at cost "plus handling". A handling margin on a $600 medical is fine if disclosed and not fine if it appears as though the doctor charged $700.

What a fee should buy you#

• Someone who reads your history properly before deciding what to do
• A written assessment of what evidence you need and what is weak
• Preparation of the forms and the evidence bundle
• Lodgement, and being the authorised recipient so that Department correspondence goes to a professional rather than an inbox you check monthly
• Responses to Department requests
• Being told what is happening without having to chase
• Someone accountable to a regulator if it goes wrong

That last one is not a small part of the price. It is most of the difference between an agent and a stranger with a template.

Is the cheapest quote the wrong one?#

Not automatically. A low fee can mean an efficient practice, a simple file, a junior doing supervised work, or an agent building a client base. All fine.

It becomes a problem when the low fee is low because something was left out - and the only way to know is the eight-point list above. This is the entire reason VisaBid makes agents quote in a fixed shape: not to push prices down, but to make the number mean the same thing on every quote you receive.

Preguntas que hace la gente#

Should I pay everything up front?#

No, and a compliant agent will not ask you to. Payments should fall due in stages against work actually done, each one invoiced before and receipted after under section 49. Money you have paid for work not yet done must be held in a client account under section 50, separate from the agent's own money.

Is GST charged on migration services?#

Yes, for services supplied to a person in Australia, and section 46 requires the quoted fee to include it. Some services to clients outside Australia can be GST-free, which is why an offshore applicant sometimes sees a different figure. Ask which applies to you rather than assuming the difference is a discount.

Can an agent charge me a success fee?#

A bonus payable only on grant sits very close to section 26, which prohibits an agent from stating they can procure a particular decision. More practically, it creates an incentive to over-claim in an application, which is the last thing you want. Be wary.

The agent wants a "consultation fee" before we sign anything.#

Section 51 says no money before the agreement is in place. In practice a compliant agent will send a short written agreement covering the consultation itself, you sign it, then you pay. The sequence is the point.

What if the work turns out to be much bigger than the quote?#

With a fixed fee, that is the agent's risk and the fee stands unless the alcance genuinely changes - a refusal, a new applicant, a different visa. With an hourly estimate you should be told before the estimate is exceeded, not after. Either way, a variation belongs in writing, and on this platform it becomes a new quoted stage rather than a surprise line on an invoice.

How do I get comparable quotes without ringing ten offices?#

Describa su caso una vez. Registered agents and immigration lawyers reply with quotes in a fixed format - fee including GST, government charge separately, inclusions, exclusions and payment stages - so they line up side by side. It is free, and your name is not released to anyone until you choose.

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Sobre esta guía. Esta es información general sobre cómo funcionan los costos y tarifas de visas en Australia. No es asistencia de inmigración y no es asesoramiento sobre su situación — solo un agente de migración registrado o un profesional jurídico australiano pueden darle eso, y según la sección 280 de la Migration Act 1958 es un delito penal que cualquier otra persona lo haga. Las cifras cambian, la mayoría el 1 July. Verifique cualquier cargo con immi.homeaffairs.gov.au antes de confiar en ello, y verifique el registro de cualquier agente en el registro de OMARA (autoridad de registro de agentes migratorios).