Immigration Health Surcharge Fees: What Applicants Must Check

If you are applying for a visa to Australia, New Zealand, or the United States, the official government sources do not publish a single unified “immigration health surcharge fee” that applies across all destinations. Each country operates its own health-related cost assessment or surcharge system, and the amounts, waivers, and assessment methods differ. The only specific health-related cost figure published in the official guidance is Australia’s Significant Cost Threshold (SCT), which is $86,000 as of 1 July 2024. For any other fee — including the UK’s Immigration Health Surcharge, police character certificate fees, or New Zealand visa fees — you must check the relevant official government page, because the official guidance does not give those numbers.

What the official guidance actually says about health costs

The official guidance covers three jurisdictions: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. For Australia, the Department of Home Affairs explains how the health requirement is assessed using the Significant Cost Threshold. For New Zealand, the official guidance covers who can give immigration advice and how Immigration New Zealand operates, but it does not mention any health surcharge. For the United States, the official guidance only lists press releases and notices from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR); it does not mention any health-related fee.

This means that if you are looking for a specific “immigration health surcharge fee” for a country other than Australia, the official guidance does not provide that figure. You will need to consult the official immigration website for the country you are applying to.

Australia’s Significant Cost Threshold: the only specific figure

The Australian Department of Home Affairs sets a Significant Cost Threshold (SCT) to determine whether a visa applicant’s condition is likely to be a significant cost to the Australian community. The SCT is the policy underpinning to “contain public expenditure on health care and community services” as outlined in the Migration Regulations 1994.

The current value of the SCT is $86,000. It was last updated on 1 July 2024 and is reviewed biennially.

The SCT is not a fee you pay. It is a threshold used by a Medical Officer of the Commonwealth (MOC) to assess whether your estimated health and community costs exceed what is considered acceptable. If your estimated costs are assessed to be above $86,000, you will exceed the SCT and therefore not meet the health requirement.

How the SCT is calculated and applied

The “average cost for an Australian” is calculated as the average spending for health and welfare services an Australian would require over a 5-year period. The Department uses two published Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports — one on health spending and one on welfare spending — and applies a projection to bring the historical data into the current year. This projected figure sets the SCT value.

The SCT value includes cost items from both health and welfare services:

Category	Included items
Health spending	Hospital care, primary health care (including GP services), unreferred/referred medical services (specialists and pathology), research and public health, pharmaceuticals under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Welfare spending	Aged care (residential, home care, community services), disability services (including NDIS-funded support), specialised education support for children with disability, cash welfare payments (carers payments, Disability Support Pension, Child Disability Assistance Payment)

Having a condition does not automatically mean you will exceed the SCT. The health and community costs depend on what kind of condition you have, how severe it is, and your intended period of stay in Australia.

The way the MOC assesses estimated costs differs depending on your visa type:

• Temporary visa applicants: Your estimated health and/or community costs are assessed for your period of stay in Australia.
• Provisional or permanent visa applicants: Your estimated health costs are generally assessed for a period of 5 years (or 3 years if you are aged 75 years or older). However, if you have a permanent or ongoing condition with a reasonably predictable course, the MOC will assess your health costs over your remaining life expectancy up to a maximum of 10 years.

Regardless of visa type, the SCT value is applied against those estimated costs to determine whether you meet the health requirement.

What happens if you exceed the SCT

If your estimated costs are assessed by the MOC to be above the SCT value of $86,000, you will not meet the health requirement. The Department will not grant you a visa on that basis unless:

• you are an eligible child that is born and ordinarily resident in Australia, or
• a health waiver is available for the visa subclass you have applied for, and a decision has been made to exercise that waiver.

A health waiver enables the decision maker to consider your personal circumstances to mitigate any costs so that the costs can be waived. If a health waiver is available for your visa subclass, the visa processing officer must consider it and will contact you if they require further information.

The Department can consider exercising a health waiver for some visas where it is satisfied that granting the visa would be unlikely to result in significant cost to the Australian community, or prejudice the access of Australian citizens or permanent residents to health care or community services in short supply.

Safeguarding access to services in short supply

Separately from the SCT, the MOC will also consider whether your condition is likely to prevent Australian citizens or permanent residents from accessing health care or community services in short supply. This is called “prejudicing access.”

The Department takes advice from the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing on which services are considered short in supply. Currently these are determined to be:

• organ transplants
• dialysis

If your condition is likely to prejudice access to these services, you will not meet the health requirement, unless you are an eligible child born and ordinarily resident in Australia, or a health waiver is available and exercised.

New Zealand: what the official guidance covers

For New Zealand, the official guidance does not mention any health surcharge or health-related fee. It does, however, cover who can give immigration advice and how Immigration New Zealand operates.

If you are applying for a New Zealand visa, immigration advice must come from a licensed immigration adviser (LIA) or a person who is exempt from being licensed. Anyone can help you fill in your visa application form, but any advice on immigration matters must come from someone approved by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) or exempt.

Licensed immigration advisers must meet competency standards and follow a Code of Conduct set by the Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA). Before you ask an adviser to help you, check the IAA register to make sure the person has a current licence and the right type of licence.

If an adviser named in an application does not appear on the register and is not exempt, INZ will refuse to accept or will decline the application, and will contact the IAA because providing immigration advice when neither licensed nor exempt is an offence.

United States: what the official guidance covers

For the United States, the official guidance from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) only lists notices and press releases about judicial appointments and court closures. It does not mention any health surcharge, visa fee, or police character certificate fee.

The notices include announcements about immigration judges, temporary immigration judges, appellate immigration judges, and court closures in Batavia and San Francisco. There is also a notice about an interim final rule regarding OCAHO electronic filing and updates to the EOIR Payment Portal, but no fee amounts are given.

If you are applying for a US visa and need to know about health-related fees or surcharges, you must check the official US government immigration website, as the official guidance does not provide that information.

What to do next and what to verify

Because the official guidance does not provide a single unified “immigration health surcharge fee” across destinations, you need to check the official government page for the country you are applying to.

For Australia, the key figure to verify is the Significant Cost Threshold. The official guidance states it is currently $86,000, last updated on 1 July 2024, and reviewed biennially. You should confirm on the Department of Home Affairs website whether the SCT has been updated since that date, because the value may change.

For any other country — including New Zealand, the United States, or the United Kingdom — you must check the official immigration website for that country to find out:

• whether a health surcharge applies to your visa type
• the current fee amount
• whether a waiver or exemption is available
• how the surcharge is assessed or calculated

The official guidance does not give these figures, so do not rely on memory or estimates. Name the official page you need to check and verify the current information before you submit your application.