When people say they are on a ‘working holiday’ visa in Australia it might suggest that there is only one visa for that purpose. Well, that’s not quite right. There are in fact two different visas:
Working Holiday (subclass 417), and
Work and Holiday (subclass 462)
The starting point to check which one applies to you is to find your nationality on either of the lists below. If you are from a country not listed below, then unfortunately you are not eligible. I have included a brief summary of the Working Holiday/Work and Holiday program which could assist you to decide if it is worth to consider these visas or not.
Let’s have a quick overview of what these visas are:
Working Holiday (subclass 417) is for passport holders from:
Belgium
Canada
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Ireland
Italy
Japan
South Korea
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Taiwan
UK
Work and Holiday (subclass 462) is for passport holders from:
Argentina
Bangladesh
Chile
Indonesia
Malaysia
Papua new Guinea
Thailand
Turkey
USA
Uruguay
To apply for either Working Holiday (subclass 417) or Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa an applicant must:
- be aged 18-30 at time of application
- hold a passport from an eligible partner country
- not bring any dependent children with them to Australia
- meet health and character requirements
- meet financial requirements.
Work and Holiday visa applicants must meet additional requirements, including:
- functional English (IELTS of at least 4.5 unless exempt)
- successful completion of at least two years of undergraduate university study
- a letter of home government support in association with their visa application (normally from the department of Foreign Affairs in your home country).
Moreover Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visas have extra limitations:
- they are capped which means that there is a limited number of visas that can be applied for each year
- they can be only issued once unlike Working and Holiday visas that can be issued second time if work is done in regional Australia in agriculture, mining or construction.
At the moment Australian Government is working on expanding the Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa program to include the following countries:
Andorra
Czech Republic
Greece
Hungary
Israel
Latvia
Mexico
Poland
Portugal
San Marino
Slovakia
Spain
Vietnam
If the countries above join Work and Holiday program, it would be the biggest expansion of Working Holiday Maker scheme since it was established in 1975. The progress of negotiations so far has been described as “substantial”.
I find Working Holiday/Work and Holiday program a very good option for young people. What make them so interesting?
- visas are relatively easy to get as long as you are the passport holder from eligible country
- you can work wherever you wish for up to one year but you can stay with one employer for no longer than 6 months (second Working Holiday visa has limitations as explained above)
- option to study up to 4 months during 12 month stay
- quick visa processing times of around 1 week for Working Holiday and 2 weeks for Work and Holiday (online US passport holder applications 6 working days)
- very high grant rate of 99% for both visas.
References: “Working Holiday Maker visa program report” as of 30 June 2013.
By Bartek
