Citizenship applications to the Department of Home Affairs will cost more from July 1.
Under the price changes, which the federal government says will more accurately reflect the costs of processing citizenship applications, the standard citizenship by conferral application fee will increase from $285 to $490.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke announced the changes in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
"This is the first change to citizenship application fees since 2016 and has been determined by citizenship application processes and costs," Mr Hawke said.
The fee increase reflects inflation, staffing costs, and the "increased complexity of applications" taking longer to process, he said.
Dependent children aged 15 years and under included in a parent's application will continue to be processed for free; however, the fee for a child applying outside of a parent's application will increase from $180 to $300.
The fee for applying for Australian citizenship by descent will increase from $230 to $315.
Mr Hawke said under the existing fees, the government was only recovering around 50 per cent of the costs of processing citizenship applications.
"The cost of citizenship applications remains comparable with other countries," Mr Hawke added.
"The cost of citizenship by conferral will still be lower than in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada."
Posted Thu 24 Jun 2021 at 10:21am Thursday 24 Jun 2021 at 10:21am Thu 24 Jun 2021 at 10:21am