Recently there have been a lot of changes to the Australian Working Holiday Visa. This includes the Subclass 417 and 472 visas.
The biggest of which is that applicants may be eligible extend for a 3rd year Working Holiday Visa AND applicants from certain countries can now apply for the Australian Working Holiday Visa up to the age of 35. Although these were the biggest changes, However, there were numerous other changes recently as well such as: additional regional areas, an increase in countries eligible for the WHV and an increased specification of what is classified as regional work.
Note: Application ≠ Approval
This is a gentle reminder to note that a visa application doesn’t mean approval. If you follow the process and submit all the requirements, getting a visa grant is possible.
3rd Year Working Holiday Visa
Starting from 1 July 2019, applicants will be able to extend their second working holiday visa by one more year. But wait, as opposed to the second year, the third working holiday visa will require 6 MONTHS of regional specified work. 6 months! That’s a really long time to be regional. The main reason for the introduction of the 3rd working holiday visa was to help farmers find employees to work.
Currently, to apply for the second working holiday visa, applicants are required to do 88 days of regional work. If you wanted to apply for the 3rd year WHV, you would then need to do an additional 6 months of regional work whilst on your second working holiday visa. The availability of a third-year visa will attract working holiday makers to work for longer in regional Australia.
The types of work which will allow you to extend for your third-year visa can be found here. But an overview of industries and areas that are approved for specified work can be found below:
- tourism and hospitality in Northern or Remote and Very Remote Australia, from 22 June 2021
- plant and animal cultivation in Northern Australia and other specified areas of regional Australia
- fishing and pearling in northern Australia only
- tree farming and felling in northern Australia only
- construction in northern Australia and other specified areas of regional Australia
- bushfire recovery work in declared bushfire affected areas carried out after 31 July 2019
- recovery work in flood, cyclone, or other severe weather affected areas carried out after 31 December 2021
- Critical COVID-19 work in the healthcare and medical sectors anywhere in Australia, after 31 January 2020
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Increase in Age to 35
Immigration now also allows applicants from Ireland and Canada to apply for the working holiday visa up to the age of 35! Applicants from all other eligible countries can still only apply from 18 – 30. However, the age is expected to increase for a lot of other countries in the future too.
Currently, the government has given no indication about which countries will also increase the age to 35. However, the program is reciprocal, so if your home country currently allows Australians a WHV up to the age of 35, then there is a good chance the Aus Government will increase the age for your country too.
2026 Updates:
- Prioritizing regional development (with specific postcodes)
- Specified work – 6 months of eligible work are completed
- Application Fee: AUD670 (from AUD495) – March 2026
- Work limitation: certain exemptions may be applied to applications
- Application process: must be done outside of Australia, and applicants must not be travelling with dependent children
New Areas Classified as Regional
The Australian Government has increased the regional areas where you can work in order to extend your visa. Additional areas of Australia represented by their postcodes for Northern Territory, New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania have been included as of November and applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the Home Affairs website to familiarise with the new arrangements. Work carried out in these additional areas must only be for the additional kinds of work. The additional kinds of work are for plant and animal cultivation including:
- harvesting and/or packing of fruit and vegetable crops;
- pruning and trimming vines and trees;
- 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;
- immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery, packing and tanning;
- manufacturing dairy products from raw material.
Immigration now stricter on what documentation must be provided for the second year working holiday visa
There is no doubt that over the last 12 months Immigration has been a lot more specific about which documentation must be provided to demonstrate the regional work. From what we see, a lot more Australian working holiday visas.
- Be sure specified work that you do meets the requirements
- Also, ensure you provide the correct evidence for this work
- Ensure you calculate your days correctly
Acceptable evidence of specified work is:
- original or certified copies of pay slips and
- a completed employment verification form (form 1263) signed by the employer
Easier to apply
Immigration has streamlined the visa process for many applicants. Previously, numerous countries have to provide paper applications to their closest Immigration Office. This now allows for online lodgment for countries such as Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Hungary, the State of Israel, Luxembourg, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino and Slovenia. When applying for their first Work and Holiday visa (Subclass 462) , applicants from these countries must now apply online using Form 1208(Internet).
All Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417) applications must be made by using Internet Form 1150
Additional Changes
- Applicants may work with the same agricultural employer from six to 12 months.
- Like anything, the costs are only expected to increase in the future.
PTA Related Resources
Working Holiday Visa
WHV Application Guide
WHV to Permanent Residency
WHV Extension
WHV 417
WHV Over? Here’s the plan
Can you study on a WHV?
Switching from WHV to Student Visa
Can I extend my WHV?