Obligations

This page outlines the obligations applicable to Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa holders.

Entering Australia

You must activate your visa by entering Australia within 12 months of your visa being granted. Failure to activate your visa within this period will result in the visa ceasing. If your visa ceases and you still want to travel to Australia under the Work and Holiday program, you will need to reapply.

Visa conditions

You must comply with all your visa conditions while in Australia on a Work and Holiday visa. In addition to the work and study limitations, additional visa conditions may be imposed on your Work and Holiday visa. These will be specified in your visa grant notice. A breach of any of these conditions may result in your visa being cancelled and you may have to leave Australia.

Studying

While in Australia on a Work and Holiday visa, you must not study or train for more than four months. If you want to study for longer than four months, you should apply for a student visa from outside Australia.

Working

While in Australia on a Work and Holiday visa, you must not be employed with any one employer for more than six months.

The 'employer' is the business or organisation for which you are working directly.

You are allowed to work with each employer for up to six months and cannot work for longer than six months in the same position, in the same location, doing the same work. The six month work limitation applies to full-time, part-time, casual or shift work.

If you are referred by an agency or labour supplier to a business, you can work for six months for that business. The same agency or labour supplier can refer you to another business where you can work for another six months.

You cannot stay in the same job beyond six months by using different employment agencies, business affiliates or sub-contracting arrangements.

More information is available on finding work, licensing or registering arrangements and employer obligations.
See: Information on Choosing to Work in Australia

Extending the work limitation

Requests to extend the employment period beyond six months are only granted in exceptional circumstances. An extension may be allowed for a very short period of time (less than one month) and only if there is very strong justification to grant it.

Exceptional circumstances must be extraordinary and unforeseeable, and relate to an Australian permanent resident, citizen or business.

Exceptional circumstances might include:

• Remaining in your current job for a very short time (less than one month) as you are critical to the completion of a specialised project that has unexpectedly gone over time. This generally only relates to highly skilled activities.
  Example: A lawyer in the middle of a trial.
• Performing disaster recovery work following a major disaster.
  Example: Clean-up, re-building or emergency management activities following a major flood.
• Remaining in your current job while a decision is being made on an application for a visa which would allow you to continue full time work with your employer without leaving Australia.
  Example: Subclass 457 – Temporary Business (Long Stay) visa, Subclass 820 – Spouse visa.
  Note: If you intend to apply for a work extension on the basis of such a visa application, you must lodge the visa application before submitting the work extension request. Please direct your request to the Immigration office that is processing your visa application.

Exceptional circumstances do not include remaining in your current job because you:

• have the required skills or because of labour shortages
• are required to complete a project in a job that is not highly skilled
  Example: retail or administration
• intend to apply for another visa that permits you to work but have not yet lodged the application with the department
• are not able to apply for another kind of visa.

Submit your completed form ’Request permission to work with an employer beyond six months on a Working Holiday or Work and Holiday visa’ to the department, at least two weeks before the expiry of the six month employment limitation.
See: Request Permission to Work with an Employer Beyond Six Months on a Working Holiday or Work and Holiday Visa (101KB Word file)

Note: You may be required to provide a letter of support from your employer.

Visa holders who work for more than six months with an employer without prior written permission from the department are in breach of their visa condition and their visa may be cancelled.

If you obtain a new passport

If you intend to obtain a new passport you should do so before applying for your Work and Holiday visa.

Your visa is linked to the passport number you used in your application and you must use the same passport to travel to Australia.

If you obtain a new passport after applying for your Work and Holiday visa you must advise the department of the new details before you travel to Australia. Otherwise, you may experience significant delays at the airport and could be denied permission to board your plane.