Employers will be slugged at least triple the bill to bring foreign workers into the country as the Turnbull government eyes off more than $1 billion in new visa fees.
The federal government has outlined in the budget its plans for scrapping 457 visas for skilled migrants and replacing the scheme with short and medium-term streams.
Application fees for the short-term, two year visas will increase by $90 to $1150, while four-year visa applications will cost $2400 apiece.
The price hikes are expected to bring in an extra $47.6 million over the budget forward estimates.
On top of this, companies will also be slugged whopping annual foreign worker levies.
Until now, employers have contributed one of two per cent of their payroll to training if they employed foreign workers.
But the requirements have proved near impossible to police, so the government is tacking a different tack.
From March 2018, businesses that employ foreign workers on certain skilled visas will instead be required to shovel money into a "Skilling Australians" fund.
Companies turning over less than $10 million per year must make an upfront payment of $1200 (per visa, per year) for each employee on a temporary visa.
They must also make a one-off payment of $3000 for each staffer sponsored for a permanent skilled worker visas.
Businesses with turnovers above $10 million will be required to make up front payments of $1800 for each worker on temporary visas and $5000 one-off levies for those on permanent skilled visas.
The levy is expected to rake in $1.2 billion over the next four years, which will be funnelled into a new Commonwealth-State skills fund.
"States and territories will only be able to draw on this fund when they deliver on their commitments to train new apprentices," Mr Morrison said in his budget speech.
The revenue-raising measures were certainly not lost on the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"It will become a lot more expensive for Australian firms who need to supplement their local workforce with skilled workers from overseas to bring them in," ACCI chief executive James Pearson told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday night.
The government will also index visa application charges in line with CPI, from which it expects to rake in $410 million over the forward estimates.
A new class of temporary sponsored parent visas are expected to make about $99 million, with 15,000 visas to be made available each year from November 2017.
The visas will allow parents of Australian citizens, permanent residents and eligible Kiwis to stay in Australia for up to ten years.
Elsewhere, the Turnbull government has earmarked $185.4 to overhaul visa processing.
Australia's permanent migration program numbers will remain at a ceiling of 190,000, while its refugee intake will increase by 2500 to 16,250.
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