Subclass 600 Has Six Ways In. They Do Not Cost the Same.

One visa, six streams, three different prices and one that an Indian passport cannot use at all. Most people lodge the right one by accident. This is how to do it on purpose.

Almost everything written for Indian applicants treats "the Australian tourist visa" as a single thing. It is not. Subclass 600 is one visa with six streams, and the differences between them are not cosmetic — they change what you pay, how long the visa lasts, and in two cases whether you are eligible at all.

The single most expensive mistake is not choosing the wrong stream. It is not realising that the same Tourist stream visa costs AUD 250 if you lodge it outside Australia and AUD 630 if you lodge it inside.

The six streams, side by side

Stream	Charge	Who it is for
Tourist — lodged outside Australia	AUD 250	Almost every Indian applicant. Holidays, cruises, visiting family.
Tourist — lodged inside Australia	AUD 630	You are already in Australia on another visa and want to stay on as a visitor.
Sponsored Family	AUD 250	An Australian relative sponsors the visit. A security bond may be required.
Business Visitor	AUD 250	Meetings, conferences, negotiations. Up to three months. No work, no selling.
Frequent Traveller	AUD 1,845	Validity up to ten years — but not available on an Indian passport.
Approved Destination Status	AUD 250	Citizens of China on an organised tour. Not applicable from India.

Charges are the visa application charge only, read from Home Affairs in August 2026. They exclude biometrics, health examinations and police certificates, all of which you may be asked for and all of which you pay for separately.

The AUD 630 trap

This is the one that costs real money and almost nobody writes about, because it only bites people who are already in the country.

If you are in Australia — on a visitor visa that is running out, on a student visa that has ended, on anything — and you want to stay on as a visitor, you cannot extend what you hold. A subclass 600 cannot be extended. You apply for a new one from inside Australia, and the inside-Australia Tourist stream charge is AUD 630.

Same visa. Same subclass. Same twelve-month maximum stay. Two and a half times the price, because of where you were standing when you pressed submit.

If you know before departure that you want a longer trip, ask for it in the offshore application at AUD 250 rather than lodging short and topping up onshore at AUD 630. The case officer may not grant the longer stay — but asking costs nothing, and the alternative costs AUD 380 more.

Condition 8503, which can close the door entirely

There is a worse version of the same problem. Some visitor visas are granted with condition 8503 — No Further Stay. If your visa carries it, you cannot apply for another visa while you are in Australia at all. Not at AUD 630, not at any price.

Home Affairs can waive 8503, but only in limited circumstances — broadly, something major and outside your control that arose after the visa was granted. It is not a formality and it is not granted because plans changed.

Read your grant letter. The conditions are listed on it. If 8503 is there, your return date is not negotiable from inside Australia.

The ten-year visa that Indian passports cannot get

A steady trickle of people search for a three-year, five-year or ten-year Australian visitor visa, usually after hearing that someone got one. The long-validity stream is real. It is the Frequent Traveller stream, it grants validity of up to ten years with three months of stay per entry, and it costs AUD 1,845.

It is open to citizens of the People's Republic of China, Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste.

India is not on that list. There is no ten-year Australian visitor visa available on an Indian passport, and any agent who offers one is describing something that does not exist.

The one real route to more than twelve months

There is an exception, and it is narrow and specific. If you are the parent or step-parent of an Australian citizen or permanent resident, Home Affairs may grant a visitor visa valid for more than twelve months, considered case by case. If granted, you can enter multiple times while it is valid.

Two conditions come attached. You cannot be in Australia for more than twelve months in total in any eighteen-month period — the validity is longer, the permitted presence is not unlimited. And you must have made adequate arrangements for health insurance.

If what you actually want is to stay for longer than twelve months at a stretch, this is not the visa. The Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa is the one built for that, and it is a different application with different costs.

Sponsored Family: same price, extra condition

The Sponsored Family stream lets an Australian relative sponsor your visit. It costs the same AUD 250 as the ordinary Tourist stream, which leads people to assume it is a softer route with a family member vouching for you.

It is not. Home Affairs may require your sponsor to lodge a security bond — money held against your compliance, returned if you observe your visa conditions and leave on time, forfeited if you do not. The bond is set case by case.

Where it genuinely helps is that a sponsor formally accepts obligations for your visit, which can strengthen a file that is thin on independent ties. Where it hurts is that a sponsor with a poor immigration history attaches that history to your application.

Business Visitor, and the line you cannot cross

The Business Visitor stream costs AUD 250 and allows a stay of up to three months. It covers meetings, conferences, negotiations and exploratory business trips.

It does not permit work, and it does not permit selling goods or services. The distinction Home Affairs draws is between conducting business on behalf of an overseas employer and entering the Australian labour market. Attending a trade fair is fine. Staffing a stall and taking orders is not.

What the Tourist stream actually gives you

Worth stating plainly, because it is widely misunderstood:

Stay is granted, not chosen. Home Affairs generally grants three months, and may grant up to twelve in certain circumstances. It decides on the basis of how long you want to stay and why, case by case.

Single or multiple entry, also decided for you. A multiple-entry grant lets you leave and return while the visa is valid. You do not get to specify it.

You can study for up to three months. You cannot work. If study is the main purpose of the trip, Home Affairs says a student visa is the more appropriate visa — and applying for a visitor visa to study is exactly the kind of mismatch that draws a refusal.

Family cannot be combined. Every applicant lodges separately and pays separately, including children listed on a parent's passport. A family of four pays four charges — about ₹68,400 at current rates before biometrics, medicals or anything else.

Choosing, in one paragraph

If you are in India and going on holiday or to see family, you want the Tourist stream lodged outside Australia, at AUD 250. If a close Australian relative is willing to sponsor and your own ties are thin, consider Sponsored Family at the same price, knowing a bond may be asked for. If the trip is meetings and conferences, Business Visitor. If you are already in Australia and need to stay on, it is AUD 630 and only if 8503 is not on your grant letter. The other two streams are not available to you.

And whichever stream you use, the file is judged the same way: funds that were built rather than borrowed, a purpose stated with something behind it, and ties to India documented rather than asserted. The stream decides the price. The evidence decides the outcome.

This guide is for general information and is not immigration advice. Visa charges, rules and processing times change without notice. Always confirm current details on immi.homeaffairs.gov.au before applying. No agent can guarantee a visa approval — the decision rests solely with the case officer.