Specified Work
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Specified work* is work that is undertaken in a 'specified' field or industry in a designated regional area.
See: Regional Australia Postcode List
* Work that is eligible for a second Working Holiday visa was changed on 1 July 2008. Eligible work is now referred to as 'specified work' not 'seasonal work'. The specified work definition below applies to:
- visa applications lodged on or after 1 July 2008
- work undertaken at any time.
If you were refused a second Working Holiday visa for not meeting the seasonal work requirement, but now meet the specified work requirement you may be able to apply again. You would need to pay another visa application charge.
See: Working Holiday and Work and Holiday Visas
Definition of specified work
Specified work is any type of work in the list below:
- plant and animal cultivation
- cultivating or propagating plants, fungi or their products or parts
- general maintenance crop work
- harvesting and/or packing fruit and vegetable crops
- immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery in an abattoir, packing and tanning
Note: Secondary processing of animal products, such as small goods processing and retail butchery is not eligible - immediate processing of plant products
- maintaining animals for the purpose of selling them or their bodily produce, including natural increase
- manufacturing dairy produce from raw material
- pruning and trimming vines and trees.
- 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
- felling trees in a plantation or forest
- planting or tending trees in a plantation or forest that are intended to be felled
- 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
- construction material engineering
- exploration
- metal ore mining
- mining support services
- oil and gas extraction
- other non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying.
- construction
- building completion services
- building installation services
- building structure services
- heavy and civil engineering construction
- land development and site preparation services
- non-residential building construction
- residential building construction
- other construction services.
Specified work:
- does not need to be paid work.
Example: Work undertaken as a volunteer or through the Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) scheme may also qualify if the work you undertook falls with the specified work definition above. - does not need to be undertaken as a direct employee.
Example: Work in the list above as a contractor is eligible. - must be listed above
Example: Working as a nanny for a farmer would not be eligible.
How to calculate specified work
'Three months' means three 'calendar' months or 88 days. Work can be:
- in one block with one business
or - in separate blocks with one business or a number of businesses. Blocks of work may be in different kinds of specified work.
Full time workers 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 workers 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 specified 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.
- Shift work
You are employed as a miner 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 harvest work, followed by a period of travel for two months. Then you complete another 28 days in construction, 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.
- Work done on another visa type
You complete three months of specified 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 specified work
The department may contact you to confirm you meet the specified work requirement, and may request evidence that the actual work was undertaken in regional Australia. Acceptable evidence of specified 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 (92KB PDF file)