You're quite right about it being confusing. They seem to waffle about all over the place, never making it clear exactly what you have to pay.
This is a
simple diagram of when you pay, although it doesn't say what you pay each time. Personally, I would have thought that submitting an EOI is fraught with all sorts of possible pitfalls for prospective migrants and, therefore, INZ wouldn't expect to take a heap of money off you until you had at least got over the first hurdle. $400 sounds about right to start you off and I would have expected the heavy duty fees to come when you submit your ITA and are in with a shout. I don't know how many people could afford to fork out 600 odd quid on the offchance their EOI was going to go through. If you enter details as appropriate on
here and firstly select EOI - Skilled Migrant - Online, it'll give you the $400 sum. Then if you go back and do it again but select Residence - Skilled Migrant, it'll give you the 685 GBP sum so there's obviously a difference depending which one you select. Initially you're only submitting the EOI, so, as I see it, you submit an initial fee with your EOI, then wait to see if you're going to be Invited to Apply (for residence), therefore you don't need to pay the bigger sum until you've actually received the invitation (ITA).
This tells you how much the Migrant Levy will be and you pay this at the end before receiving your blue stickers.
Just my humble opinion
. Someone out there must know for sure, having just done it for themselves. Come on, own up, whoever you are.
