Seasonal Work
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Seasonal work is any type of work that is undertaken as the employee of a primary producer.
The work does not need to be paid work. Work undertaken as a volunteer or through the Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) scheme may also count toward the three months of seasonal work if your WWOOF employer is a primary producer.
Work that is seasonal in nature, but not undertaken as the employee of a primary producer, such as ski instruction, is not eligible.
Secondary processing of primary products (eg. small goods processing and retain butchery) is not eligible.
Working for a business that provides services to a primary producer is not eligible.
Examples of eligible seasonal work
Examples of types of work that are eligible include:
- plant and animal cultivation
- harvesting and/or packing 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 in an abattoir, 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.
- mining
- operating equipment to excavate, load and transport minerals
- mining and materials engineering.
How to calulate seasonal work
'Three months' means three 'calendar' months or 88 days. Work can be:
- in one block with one employer
or - in separate blocks with one employer or a number of employers.
The work should be the equivalent of full time work for that employer, that region and that industry.
Full time employees may include weekends in calculating the number of days worked.
Applicants who work part time or on a casual basis can only count the full days actually worked. The shortest period that can be counted is one day of full time work (for that industry).
Full time employees can count sick days only during periods where they were in paid employment and entitled to sick leave or covered by a workers compensation scheme. In these situations, supporting evidence must be provided by the employer.
Applicants who were prevented from obtaining employment because of injury or seasonal circumstances (for example, cyclone) cannot count any time they were unable to work towards the three month period.
Some possible examples to help clarify the definition of three months of Seasonal Work are outlined below.
Examples of 3 months
Examples that meet the three month requirement
- Working week
You work on a farm for three months for five days each week, where the farmer considers five days a week to be full time work.
- Short days
You complete three months of seasonal work in an orchard working 5 hours a day, where the owner advises that five hours is considered a standard full time day.
- Shift work
You are employed to harvest oysters for three months and under the employment contract you are only required to work every second week, which is the standard full time contract for the industry.
- Blocks of work
You complete 60 days of seasonal work, followed by a period of travel for two months. Then you complete another 28 days of seasonal work, bringing the total days worked to 88 days.
- Sick days
You are employed for a three month period but take several days of sick leave during the period.
- Seasonal circumstances
You are employed (and paid) for three months work on a farm but are prevented from actually working for two weeks of that period due to a cyclone.
Examples that do not meet the three month requirement
- Working week
Four days a week is considered full time work by the farm, but you only work three days a week for three months.
- Short days
You complete three months of seasonal work in an orchard working four hours a day, but the owner advises that four hours a day is not considered a standard full time day. - Work done on another visa type
You complete three months of seasonal work during your summer break while on a Student visa. - Seasonal circumstances
You pick bananas for 80 days on a casual basis, but cannot find more work as there is a cyclone and your first Working Holiday visa ceases.
Evidence of seasonal work
The department may contact you to confirm you meet the seasonal work requirement, and may request evidence that the actual work was undertaken in regional Australia. Acceptable evidence of seasonal work (completed while on your first Working Holiday visa) includes either:
- original or certified copies of payslips, group certificates, payment summaries, tax returns or employer references
or - a completed employment verification form
See: Form 1263 Working Holiday visa: Employment verification (52KB PDF file)