Pacific Engagement Visa Factsheet 2025

If you want to apply for a Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) and come from a participating country in the Pacific Islands region, or from Timor-Leste, here is a summary of key information as of 15 August 2025.

Ballot registration

• Open from 28 July to 25 August 2025.
• Family members (partner and legally dependent children) can be included in the application.
• Primary applicants must be aged 18 to 45, be a citizen of one of the participating PEV countries (Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu) and have been born in or had a parent born in one of these countries or Australia or New Zealand.
• The primary applicant needs a passport; other family members don’t.
• Applications are made online via the Australian Department of Home Affairs’ ImmiAccount and can be made from anywhere in the world. You also need multi-factor authentication (MFA) as an additional verification step.
• Ballot fee A$25 (whether or not family are included) to be paid online (for example, by credit card).

After the ballot

Applicants selected in the ballot will be sent a “Notification of Selection” letter by the Australian Department of Home Affairs which will explain next steps including the cut-off date to lodge the visa application and pay the visa fee.

You will have 120 days (four months) to lodge the visa application. You only require a passport to complete the initial lodgment step.

Other supporting documents like evidence of a job offer can be provided AFTER lodgment to complete the visa application procees, include the following:

• Evidence of a formal 12-month job offer in Australia (the Australian government’s free PEV Support Service will help you with job matching).
• Health check.
• Police clearance.
• English language test results. You will be exempted from this requirement if you: completed secondary school in your country; worked in or studied at the secondary level in Australia for a year; lived for a year in the US, UK, Canada or New Zealand; or undertake to improve your English in Australia via study.
• Passport information for all the family members included in your ballot registration.
• Evidence that you are able to support yourself financially for the first 12 months after arrival — this requirement is listed separately, but in fact what you need is the job offer, which is then regarded as meeting this requirement.
• Payment of the visa fee (A$335 per primary applicant, and A$80 per family member).

The Pacific Engagement Visa Support Service has a website at pev.gov.au. Follow the Pacific Engagement Visa Facebook page for further updates.

The Australian Department of Home Affairs website contains full details on the PEV visa and the PEV ballot.

Go to this page to get the link to register in the ballot:
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/pacific-engagement/ballot-registration/how-to-register

You can hear an explanation of the 2025 ballot process on this recent Devpolicy Talks podcast.