Australia’s Working Holiday Visa
If the British summer isn’t quite doing it for you and you long for something a little warmer, then you might be interested in taking a trip down under for a year or two. One of the main priorities for any would-be traveler is to organize a visa, so here is the basic process to getting one that suits your circumstances.
Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417)
The main purpose of this visa is if you plan to travel and work to supplement your time in the country. You can do the following:
– Enter Australia withing 12 months of being granted the visa. That means that even if I apply on 1st, I don’t need to be in the country til the following year, at which point my 12 month allowance is activated.
It would be recommended to organize the visa before you book flights, as your holiday depends on it.
– Stay up to 12 months in Australia.
– Enter and leave the country as many times as you wish during this 12 month period.
– Work for up to 6 months with one employer.
– Study for up to 4 months.
– You can also apply for a second WHV, which gives you an additional 12 months in oz, although to be accepted you will normally have to do rural or agricultural work to ensure this application is approved. This includes things like fruit picking and manual work in remote areas of the country.
Currently, I’m rocking a 417 visa as I expect my employer to fork out for a 457 work sponsored visa. This is quite common and can save the hassle of initially finding a company that will sponsor you. For work in restaurants, bars etc you will normally find that they will not sponsor you, unless in a senior or indispensable role.
How to apply:
You can geek up on all the information on the official immigration website:
http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/417/
or go straight to the application forms here:
http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/417/apply-online.htm
Costs:
The Working Holiday (Subclass 417) visa costs $365AUD for most countries in Europe, along with a few others. Be very wary of third party companies reselling the visa application process. They will tack on charges that are unnecessary and can be avoided by filling in the forms yourself.
Overall, i found the application process to be very simple and im sure you will too, when considering a move to oz.