417 – Australia Working Holiday visa

A Working Holiday visa will allow you to enter Australia within 12 months of grant. This cannot be extended or deferred.

You can stay in Australia for up to 12 months. You may leave and re-enter Australia as often as you like as the visa allows multiple entries during the visa validity period.

During your stay you will be allowed to work for short periods of time as a means of supplementing your funds as you travel through Australia.

You may work in Australia for up to six months with any one employer and you may also study for up to four months.

In some cases, carrying out Specified Work in a Regional of Australia for up at least three months will enable you to apply for a second working holiday visa.

If you are granted a working holiday visa, you may:

• enter Australia within 12 months of the visa being granted
• stay in Australia for up to 12 months
• travel to and from Australia as long as the visa is valid
• study for up to 4 months
• work for up to six months with any one employer

If you return to Australia on a second working holiday visa, you can work for a previous employer for up to six months.

First Working Holiday visa

There are a number of requirements that must be met in order to be eligible for your first working holiday visa. The applicant must:

• be outside Australia at the time of application and when the visa is granted
• be between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) of age at the time of application. Canadian and Irish passport holders must be between 18 and 35 years (inclusive)
• apply within 12 months of intended travel to Australia
• not have previously entered Australia on a Working Holiday Visa (subclass 417) or a Work and Holiday Visa (subclass 462)
• not have dependent children accompany them at any time during their stay in Australia

Important: Your age will be determined according to your age in Australia (Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)). It is not advised to delay your application until you are nearly 31 years of age.

Should you wish to have a dependent child accompany you during your stay in Australia, you should apply for a Tourist visa.

If you have dependent children who will not accompany you during your stay in Australia, you must apply using the paper application form. This application cannot be processed online.

To be eligible to apply for a Working Holiday visa you must hold a passport from one of the following countries:

• Belgium
• Canada
• Republic of Cyprus
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Republic of Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Republic of Korea
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• United Kingdom

Second Working Holiday visa

There are a number of requirements that must be met in order to be eligible for your second Working Holiday visa. You can apply for this visa if you hold a valid Working Holiday visa, or you can apply at a later date.

The following list includes general requirements. The applicant must:

• have completed 3 months of designated work in regional Australia (there is no requirement to carry out further specified work on the second visa)
• be between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) of age at the time of application
• apply within 12 months of intended travel to Australia if applying from abroad
• not have previously entered Australia on a Work and Holiday Visa (subclass 462)
• not have dependent children accompany them at any time during their stay in Australia

Should you wish to have a dependent child accompany you during your stay in Australia, you should apply for a tourist visa. If you have dependent children who will not accompany you during your stay in Australia, you must apply using the paper application form. This application cannot be processed online.

For the initial stage of your holiday, you will be required to have access to sufficient funds to support yourself. The amount may vary depending on the duration of your stay, however, generally $5000 will be deemed to be enough.

In addition, you will also be required to have a return ticket or an onward ticket to another destination.

You may be asked to demonstrate any required evidence of an onward ticket.

Please refer to Australia visa costs and fees.

There are certain health criteria that must be met by all applicants. In some circumstances you may need to undergo a medical examination. Tests include chest x-ray, Hepatitis B and/or Hepatitis C and HIV.

A decision on your visa application can only be made after the required examinations have been completed.

The cost of any health examination is not included in the visa application fee.

Note: The results for certain examinations can take a number of weeks to be processed, please take this into consideration before planning your journey.

Some countries have a reciprocal health care agreement with Australia. If your country does not have this reciprocal agreement, you are not covered by the Australian national health scheme. In this case medical treatment is likely to be extremely expensive, we therefore recommend that you seek either health insurance to cover your stay or to take out travel insurance which covers medical costs in the case an emergency.

To find out whether your country has a reciprocal health agreement with Australia, please contact your local authority.

Visit Medicare Australia for more information.

• plant and animal cultivation
• fishing and pearling
• tree farming and felling
• mining
• construction

• Plant and animal cultivation
  • the harvesting and/or packing of fruit and vegetable crops
  • pruning and trimming vines and trees
    Note: This must be the applicants primary employment task and directly associated with the cultivation and commercial sale of plant produce, such as fruit and nut crops (commercial horticultural activities). General garden maintenance is not eligible.
  • general maintenance crop work
  • cultivating or propagating plants, fungi or their products or parts
  • immediate processing of plant products
  • maintaining animals for the purpose of selling them or their bodily produce, including natural increase
    Note: Maintaining animals for tourism or recreational purposes is not eligible.
  • immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery, packing and tanning Note: Secondary processing of animal products, such as small goods processing and retail butchery is not eligible.
  • 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
• Mining
  • coal mining
  • oil and gas extraction
  • metal ore mining
  • construction material mining
  • non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying exploration
  • mining support services
• Construction
• residential building construction
• non-residential building construction
• heavy and civil engineering construction
• land development and site preparation services
• building structure services
• building installation services
• building completion services
• other construction services

Work undertaken in the areas of plant and animal cultivation, fishing and pearling, and tree farming and felling must be described in the list above to meet the specified work requirement.

The Australian New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) provides further detail about eligible work in mining and construction​. Work undertaken in the mining and construction sectors must appear in the ANZSIC division for these sectors to meet the specified work requirement.

Supporting work, such as book-keeping, in any industry described in the list above does not meet the definition of specified work.

Specified work

• must be an activity listed above
• must be the primary role, function or activity performed during the applicant’s employment

Examples of eligible specified work

• picking fruits on an orchard
• feeding and herding cattle on a farm
• horse breeding and stud farming
• landscaping the grounds of a construction/house site
• painting the interior/exterior of new buildings
• conservation and environmental reforestation work
• zoo work involving plant or animal cultivation
• erecting fences on a construction site
• scaffolding