The Australian Working Holiday Visa (WHV)

The WHV is for people aged 18 to 30 years of age, who are interested in enjoying a working holiday in Australia. This visa will allow you to work and travel in Australia for up to one year.

Applicants must have turned 18, but not turned 31, at the time of visa application.

Australia has an agreement regarding working holidays with:

• Belgium
• Canada
• Cyprus
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China)
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• South Korea
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• United Kingdom

The WHV will allow you to:

• Stay up to 12 months in Australia
• Leave and re-enter Australia any number of times during the life of the visa
• Work in Australia for up to 6 months with any one employer
• Study for up to 4 months

The purpose of this visa is to allow you to enjoy a holiday and enables you to work on a temporary basis in Australia.

What’s possible on the WHV:

• Travel to Australia at any time in the 12 months from the date the visa is granted
• Stay in Australia for 12 months from the date you first enter the country
• Leave and re-enter Australia any number of times within the 12 months from the date you first entered Australia. Any time spent outside Australia while on your first Working Holiday visa does not extend the length of the visa.

How to achieve a second Working Holiday visa:

If you have worked as a seasonal worker in regional Australia for a minimum of three months while on your first Working Holiday visa, you may be eligible to apply for a second Working Holiday visa.

• If you are in Australia on a current first Working Holiday visa, you are eligible to stay for 24 months from the date you entered Australia on your first Working Holiday visa.
• If you are in Australia, not on your first Working Holiday visa, you are eligible for a 12 month stay from the date the second Working Holiday visa is granted.

Application for 2nd Working Holiday visa outside Australia:

You must enter Australia within 12 months of the date the second visa WHV is granted.

• You can stay in Australia for 12 months from the date you enter the country.

Working

You are permitted to do any kind of work in Australia. However, you can only work with the same employer for a maximum of six months.

• After six months you need to change employers.
• The employer is the business which you are directly working for.
• The 6 month work limitation applies to full-time, part-time, casual or shift work.
• If you work in your own occupation, do enquire if you need to be registered or licensed. Eg; electricians must be licensed to work in Australia as do many other trade occupations and certain professionals.

Access to your Superannuation

You are entitled to access your superannuation contributions when you leave Australia. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) www.ato.gov.au website provides information on accessing these funds.

Studying

You can study for a maximum of four months. If you study with one education provider while on your first WHV you can return to the same education provider for a further four months on your second Working Holiday visa.

If you wish to study for a longer period in Australia, you should consider applying for a student visa.

Extending your stay

Your first Working Holiday visa can be extended beyond the 12 month period providing you have completed three months seasonal work in regional Australia on your first Working Holiday visa. Migrate Australia recommend that you undertake your 3 months rural work as soon as possible, just to get this managed in the event that you do decide to stay on for the next 12 months as many WHV people do.

Health Insurance

Please ensure you have adequate health insurance to cover your stay in Australia. Private health funds cover you for treatment as a private patient in private or public hospitals and can include some services such as dental and optical services. The costs and types of cover vary widely so if you decide to get private health insurance, it is important to check the details carefully and know what you are purchasing.

First Working Holiday Visa Eligibility

Health requirements

All applicants are required to meet Australian Government health criteria. Depending on your medical history, you may need to undertake a medical examination which may include a chest x-ray, HIV, Hepatitis B and/or Hepatitis C test. Migrate Australia advise you of this requirement after we have lodged your visa application, however, in general, most working holiday visa applicants do not require a medical.

Character requirements

To be granted a working holiday visa you must meet character requirements which means you don’t have a serious criminal background, MigrateAustralia can very quickly advise you if you have a concern in this area.

Financial requirements

You must have access to sufficient funds to support yourself for the initial stage of your holiday. Generally, AUD$5,000 is considered as sufficient funds to allow you to enter Australia before achieving employment. You should also have a return or onward ticket or extra funds available for an air fare to depart Australia.
You may be asked to provide evidence of your financial ability MigrateAustralia are qualified to assist you in assessing these requirements.

Second Working Holiday Visa Eligibility

• To be eligible for a second Working Holiday visa, you must have completed three months seasonal work in regional Australia while on your first WHV.
• You must be aged between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) at the time of applying.
• If applying from outside Australia, you must be applying no more than 12 months before you intend to travel to Australia.
• You must not have any dependent children.
• You must hold a passport for a country or region participating in the Working Holiday Maker programme — see the above list.
• You must also meet health, character and financial requirements as required for a first working holiday visa.

Seasonal Work

Seasonal work is work that is seasonal in nature or is undertaken as the employee of a primary producer, including:

• Plant and animal cultivation
• Cultivating or propagating plants, fungi or their products or part
• Immediate processing of plant products
• Maintaining animals for the purpose of selling them or their bodily produce, including natural increase
• Immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery, packing and tanning
• Manufacturing dairy produce from raw material
• Fishing and pearling
• Conducting operations relating directly to taking or catching fish and other aquatic species
• Conducting operations relating directly to taking or culturing pearls or pearl shell
• Tree farming and felling
• Planting or tending trees in a plantation or forest that are intended to be felled
• Felling trees in a plantation or forest
• Transporting trees or parts of trees that were felled in a plantation or forest to the place where they are first to be milled or processed or from which they are to be transported to the place where they are to be milled or processed.

Work undertaken as a volunteer see Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) see www.wwoof.com.au counts toward the three months of seasonal work.

Calculating seasonal work

Three months means three calendar months — in total you are looking to achieve 88 days and these may be some of the happiest 88 days of your life. Work can be:

• In one block with one employer or
• In separate blocks with one employer or a number of employers.

The work must be full time work. The days and hours worked should equal the standard for a full working day or week for that employer, that region and that industry. We can assist you once onshore with this requirement.

Evidence of your seasonal work

Acceptable evidence of seasonal work completed while on your first WHV includes:

• Original or certified copies of payslips
• group certificates
• payment summaries
• tax returns
• employer references and
• completed employment verification form — as part of our package, Migrate Australia provide you with the employment verification form

You must complete at least three months of seasonal work in one of the regional postcode areas.
These regional areas across Australia are listed as follows:

Postcode Areas Inclusive

New South Wales	2311 to 2312	2328 to 2411
	2420 to 2490	2536 to 2551
	2575 to 2594	2618 to 2739
	2787 to 2898
Northern Territory	Entire Territory
Queensland	4124 to 4125	4133
	4211	4270 to 4272
	4275	4280
	4285	4287
	4307 to 4499	4515
	4517 to 4519	4522 to 4899
South Australia	Entire State
Tasmania	Entire State
Victoria	3211 to 3334	3340 to 3424
	3430 to 3649	3658 to 3749
	3753	3756
	3758	3762
	3764	3778 to 3781
	3783	3797
	3799	3810 to 3909
	3921 to 3925	3945 to 3974
	3979	3981 to 3996
Western Australia	6041 to 6044	6083 to 6084
	6121 to 6126	6200 to 6799

The value of the above table is:

You arrive at Gatton in Queensland and the post code for Gatton is 4343, you can clearly see that 4343 sits in the eligible block of Queensland Post Codes being : 4307 to 4499

To allow you to research suitable regional areas of Australia take a look at: www1.auspost.com.au/postcodes

Visa Conditions

You must comply with all your visa conditions while in Australia. Migrate Australia advises that under no circumstances do you breach your work and study conditions as this could restrict you if applying for a second WHV or you could have a ban imposed on future applications.

Australian Values Statement

Is an important part of the visa application process and you will be required at time of application to sign a declaration that you agree to the following:

Processing time

Government processing standard is 6 days for a WHV and it can take this long at certain peak times. Generally, we can have a WHV granted within 48 hours. Some visas may take longer especially if there is a medical requested or a query on the penal history.

Visa Granted

When your visa is granted, we will email you a Notification of Grant letter.

Notifying change of passport details

Your visa is linked to the passport number used in your application, therefore you must use the same passport to travel to Australia.

If your passport has been lost or damaged after your visa is granted and before you arrive in Australia, you need to arrange for the issue of a new passport. Once you have received your new passport, you must advise the department of the new passport details.

Visa label

You will not have a visible visa label placed within your passport, therefore you must keep a copy of your visa grant notification with you when you travel.

As a backup Migrate Australia will always have a copy of your visa grant letter on file.

Inserting a visa label into your passport

Option 1 — If you arrive at Sydney Airport, you can have your visa label printed before you leave the airport. At entry, when your passport is stamped ask for directions to the visa label desk.

Option 2 — After arrival in Australia, you can go to any Immigration office to have your visa label printed and inserted into your passport, this is what we recommend you do.

This information brief has been prepared by Migrate Australia for your benefit and we trust it is helpful.

Julia Skoglund is a registered Migration Agent (RMA) 0208311 who is authorised to provide Australian immigration and temporary entry advice.