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A number of visas will be subject to new conditions from January 1 2012, with some changing in price by as much as 15 per cent.

New measures by the Gillard government have been put in place to help the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to meet the costs of processing incoming applications.

Speaking on the changes, the federal minister for immigration Chris Bowen said that the new pricing system would help to ensure that the system was on a "sustainable financial footing" in the future.

Bowen asserted: "The user-pays approach means that taxpayers will no longer need to subsidise visa applicants."

In addition to some price increases, businesspeople and skilled migrants who wish to bring their dependents will be required to pay more to cover the extra processing requirements ...

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