Citizenship applications to the Department of Home Affairs will cost more from 1 July.
The Federal Government said the price changes will more accurately reflect the cost 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 justifying the hike as it 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.
With current fees, the government was only recovering 50 per cent of the cost of processing citizenship appilcations, Mr Hawke said, adding that “cost of citizenship applications remains comparable with other countries.
“The cost of citizenship by conferral will still be lower than in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.”