---
title: "Post-Study Work Visa Costs: What Five Countries Actually Charge"
description: "The post study work visa cost differs sharply across the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland. Here is what each country's own immigration page actually charges."
url: "https://worldwide-scholarships.com/post-study-work-visa-costs-what-five-countries-actually-charge/"
type: "article"
published: "2026-09-17T00:00:00.000Z"
---

[International students](https://worldwide-scholarships.com/topics/international-students/)

# Post-Study Work Visa Costs: What Five Countries Actually Charge

The post study work visa cost differs sharply across the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland. Here is what each country's own immigration page actually charges.

17 September 2026 · Reviewed by the [Worldwide Scholarships editorial team](https://worldwide-scholarships.com/about/)

## A number your student visa budget probably didn’t include

Most students budget carefully for tuition, living costs and the student visa itself, then discover only after graduating that staying on to work costs another separate fee, sometimes a large one. That fee is set by each country’s immigration service, not by your university, and it varies enormously. Here is what five common destinations actually charge, sourced to each country’s own immigration page rather than a listing site.

## United Kingdom: the Graduate visa

The UK’s Graduate Route visa does not require a job offer, and gov.uk states the application fee is £937, plus a healthcare surcharge that gov.uk lists as usually £1,035 per year of the visa. The visa itself lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, 18 months if you apply on or after 1 January 2027, and 3 years if you completed a PhD or other doctoral qualification. That healthcare surcharge is charged upfront for the full length of the visa, not year by year, so a 2-year Graduate visa means multiplying £1,035 by two on top of the £937 fee before you even start job hunting.

## Australia: the Temporary Graduate visa, subclass 485

Australia’s subclass 485 visa is the main post-study route, and its application charge moved with the Student visa’s own fee: Study Australia’s own page confirms both increased from AUD 4,600 to AUD 5,750 from 1 July 2026, with a concession carried over for Pacific Island and Timor-Leste applicants. To qualify, Study Australia states you must “be aged 35 years or under when you apply (exceptions apply)” and must “have held a Student visa in the last 6 months.” Under the Post-Higher Education Work stream, most degree holders can stay “usually between 2 and 3 years, depending on \[their\] qualification,” with unrestricted work rights in any sector. Graduates of regional campuses may qualify for longer under a separate stream. Check Study Australia’s fee page directly before budgeting, since both this visa and the Student visa it follows have moved fees together before and may do so again.

## Canada: the Post-Graduation Work Permit

Canada’s PGWP is an open work permit, meaning it is not tied to one employer, and the Government of Canada’s own application guidance states plainly that applicants must “apply online for your PGWP and pay the correct fee ($255).” That figure combines the standard work permit processing fee with the open work permit holder fee, both payable together as one total rather than as separate line items you calculate yourself. On top of that, most applicants also pay a biometrics fee, which the same guidance caps at “a maximum total fee of CAD $170” for an individual, or “CAD $255” for a family applying for work permits at the same time. To be eligible at all, you need to have completed a program of study at a PGWP-eligible institution lasting at least 8 months, and you must apply within 180 days of receiving confirmation that you completed your program.

## New Zealand: the Post-Study Work Visa

Immigration New Zealand’s own visa page lists the Post-Study Work Visa’s cost as “From NZD $1670,” with processing running “80% within 4 weeks.” The visa allows you to stay and work in New Zealand for up to 3 years depending on your qualification level, and Immigration New Zealand requires you to show “at least NZD $5,000 to pay your living expenses” as part of the application, separate from the visa fee itself. You can only hold this visa once, so it is not a renewable annual permission the way some other countries’ schemes are. Immigration New Zealand’s page also notes a genuine upcoming change: from 16 November 2026, eligibility extends to applicants with an NZQF level 7 graduate diploma studied full-time in New Zealand combined with a bachelor’s degree completed there or overseas, so check the current eligibility rules directly if your qualification combination is unusual.

## Ireland: an extension, not a separate visa

Ireland does not issue a standalone post-study work visa. Instead, the Third Level Graduate Programme extends your existing student immigration permission so you can look for skilled work, and Irish Immigration’s own guidance states the rules differ by qualification level: Level 8 honours bachelor’s graduates get “a twelve-month permission to a maximum of seven years’ student permission overall,” with the programme’s own text stating “a graduate will not be permitted to access the Programme on more than two separate occasions.” Level 9 and above (master’s and PhD) graduates get an initial 12 months, renewable for “a further period of twelve months,” subject to an overall eight-year limit on time spent under student conditions. Because this is an extension of your existing permission rather than a new visa category, there is no separate headline visa fee published for it the way the other four countries publish one; what you pay is the standard Irish Residence Permit registration fee, which is worth confirming directly with Immigration Service Delivery since Ireland’s own guide to studying there does not state a fixed figure either.

## The United States is a different case entirely

If you are weighing the US alongside these five, it is worth knowing upfront that American immigration law does not have an equivalent “post-study work visa” at all. Optional Practical Training (OPT) is work authorization granted under your existing F-1 student status, not a separate visa category, and it comes with its own rules on timing, unemployment limits and a STEM extension that are different in kind from the visas above, not just in price. This site’s guide to [studying in the USA](https://worldwide-scholarships.com/studying-in-the-usa-funding-visas-and-how-the-money-works/) covers OPT and STEM OPT in full, sourced to USCIS directly, since the mechanism doesn’t map cleanly onto a single comparable fee line here.

## Before you rely on any of these figures

Every fee above is a snapshot verified against that country’s own immigration page on the date this guide was checked. Visa fees change on their own schedules, sometimes with no more warning than Australia’s own history of moving its Temporary Graduate visa fee alongside the Student visa fee. Before you budget for the year after you graduate, check the current fee on the immigration service’s own page for your destination country, not a secondhand listing, since even a guide this carefully sourced can go stale the day a government revises its fee schedule.

## Sources

Every deadline and award amount above was checked against these pages before publication.

1.  [The UK's Graduate Route visa application fee is £937, plus a healthcare surcharge usually](https://www.gov.uk/graduate-visa)
2.  [Australia's Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) application charge rose from AUD 4,600](https://www.studyaustralia.gov.au/en/tools-and-resources/news/student-visa-application-charge-increase)
3.  [To qualify for Australia's subclass 485 visa, applicants must be aged 35 or under when app](https://www.studyaustralia.gov.au/en/plan-your-move/your-guide-to-visas/temporary-graduate-visa-subclass-485)
4.  [Canada's Post-Graduation Work Permit applicants apply online and pay a combined fee of CAD](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/work/after-graduation/apply.html)
5.  [To be eligible for Canada's PGWP, applicants must have completed a program of study at a P](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/work/after-graduation/eligibility.html)
6.  [New Zealand's Post-Study Work Visa costs "From NZD $1670," with 80% of applications proces](https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/visas/visa/post-study-work-visa)
7.  [From 16 November 2026, New Zealand's Post-Study Work Visa eligibility extends to applicant](https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/visas/visa/post-study-work-visa)
8.  [Ireland's Third Level Graduate Programme extends student immigration permission rather tha](https://www.irishimmigration.ie/my-situation-has-changed-since-i-arrived-in-ireland/third-level-graduate-programme/)
9.  [The United States does not have a separate post-study work visa; Optional Practical Traini](https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-2-part-f-chapter-5)

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