The Ultimate Guide to a Working Holiday Visa in Australia

Before heading to Australia you’ve been working your ass off to fund your travels right? All those extra hours at work, the missed nights out, the food shops that consist of 50p pasta and whatever you can get your hands on in the reduced section. It really is quite the sacrifice BUT, there is a way of working AND travelling around Australia by grabbing yourself a Working Holiday Visa…travelling and making money at the same time, sounds good right!?

Travelling with a Working Holiday Visa is ideal for those of you who are keen to stay in Aussie for an extended period of time. If you want to have the best time ever and experience all that the country has to offer, a decent amount of dosh is essential.

You’re also going to need a Tax File Number (TFN), an Aussie bank account, Aussie phone number and to create a CV with all of these new details on. Sounds hectic right? Well, all of this is actually pretty simple and we’re going to tell you exactly how to do it.

What is it?

A working holiday visa will allow you to stay in Australia for 12 months, compared to a tourist visa which only allows 3 months. You can also leave and come back during this period.

The visa costs 670 AUD and you can apply online here. You also need to meet a few eligibility requirements. You must:

• Hold a valid passport from an eligible country
• Be 18 to 30 years old (or 35 years old if you’re from some specific countries)
• Have at least 5,000 AUD in savings (and money for your ticket out of Australia)
• Not be accompanied by children or other dependents
• Be in good health
• Agree to the “Australian Values Statement”

You can always see the most up-to-date eligibility requirements here.

If you’d like to stay longer than 12 months, you can be entitled to a second working holiday visa if you complete at least 88 days of farm work, fruit picking or construction work (or a few other work categories) during your time there.

If you’re keen to find out what it’s like to work in Australia, click here.

Of course it is completely up to you, this is your adventure, but we would advise that you travel first and then work. Why?

• Have a bit of fun before settling down to boring ol’ work
• Check out the East Coast first and then decide which place you vibe with and where you would like to base yourself
• Make connections as you travel and you may fall in to work or meet others trying to find jobs too

Where to start?

The choice is yours, you can start anywhere!

We would advise that finding a job in a city would be easier, simply because there are more opportunities or, if farm work sounds like your kinda vibe, then you’ll probs find yourself in more of a rural area.

Some example of starting points:

• City jobs: If you’re looking for a city job such as housekeeping, retail, hospitality (restaurants and bars) or construction work, then look at finding a job in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.
• Farm work: If you want to go full on backpacker vibes, then look in to farm work. They’re dotted all over the country, but start by having a look around the Gold Coast and around Cairns.
• Volunteer work: Again, you can find jobs dotted up and down the coast. Check out this website if this sounds like your kinda thing (here).

Setting up a bank account

If you’re going to be working in Australia, you’ll need to set up an Aussie bank account. It makes life so much easier for both you and your employer.

How to set up an Australian bank account?

This is easier than it seems. You can set up your bank account online before you leave. Then, when you land in Australia just head to your chosen bank and present your passport as identification.

You will then receive your bankcard within a few days to a week. If you don’t have a permanent address at this point, just have your card sent to a post office or ask to pick it up at the bank directly.

Here are some Aussie banks so you can start looking: HSBC, Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB and ANZ.

Sorting out a tax number

A tax file number (aka TFN) is a personal 9 digit number which you must provide to your employer to work legally in Australia.

Sounds boring and confusing, but they’re actually super easy to apply for.

All you need in order to apply:

• An address in Australia (so apply when you get out there).
• Your passport number
• An Australian phone number
• Valid email address

You can then apply online at the Australian Tax Office website (here) which is free! Your number will then be sent within 28 days to the postal address indicated in your application.

Getting a new phone number

As you’re in a completely different country, if you’re going to put your phone number on your CV, it’s going to need to be an Aussie phone number.

There are two ways to do this:

• Buy a cheap brick phone and set it up over there, simply to be used for calls and texts.
• If you want to use your current phone to do everything on, get a new pay as you go sim card. Plus, this way you will have 4G for maps (which believe us, will come in handy).

Finding your home base

This is the easy part…hostels! Hostels will become your best friend. They’re cheap, backpacker friendly and a great laugh!

Jump on to Hostel World and you’ll be sure to find a hostel pretty much anywhere in Aussie.

Hostels are the perfect place to land when you first arrive. A few nights or a couple of weeks in one and you’ll have settled in, met a crew, and picked up the kind of local tips that never show up in a Google search: which areas are hiring, where the good sharehouses are going, and who’s selling a cheap car before they fly home.

Oh, and FYI, you’ll normally get sick perks working for a hostel, free or cheap food, discounted tours, free laundry, free wifi etc. Keep that in mind!

Once you’ve found your feet, it’s worth looking at other options. Sharehouses, apartments and studios can work out cheaper and a fair bit comfier for a longer stay, especially if you’re basing yourself in one city for a while.

And if you fancy making the country itself your home base, a campervan is properly hard to beat. You wake up wherever you parked up, your bed comes with you, and you can follow the work and the good weather up and down the coast without booking a new place every week.

Here is a list of our fave East Coast hostels.

Finding a job

Ah, the all important question, how do I go about finding a job?

Finding a job can be a pretty hit or miss process. Just be patient and keep on applying so, here are some tips to get you started:

• Online job boards (Seek, Indeed and Gumtree are the big ones)
• Drop off some CVs around the place
• Check out job boards in your hostel
• Ask your hostel if they’re looking for any work in return for free stay
• DON’T bother to apply to anywhere before hand, get a feel for the place first

One thing that works properly well: get out and have a proper look around wherever you’re based. Make a list of the places you’d actually like to work, then jump on their websites and find the careers page. Heaps of businesses post jobs there before they ever hit the big job boards.

Worth knowing too, a lot of places have moved on from paper resumes. You’ll often spot a QR code stuck up near the counter that takes you straight to their online application. Wandering around like this does double duty: you find the work, and you get to know your neighbourhood and the people in it at the same time.

Get on Facebook (still where it’s at in Oz)

Facebook might feel a bit retro back home, but in Australia it’s one of the most useful tools a working holiday maker has.

There are local groups for just about everything: jobs, accommodation, regional and farm work, and big backpacker communities in every city. You’ll even find tighter-knit ones like “Latinos in Byron Bay” where people swap leads and look out for each other.

Then there’s Facebook Marketplace, which is your mate for kitting yourself out without spending a fortune. Surfboards, bikes, camping gear, furniture, cars: it’s all on there, and people heading home will often near enough give things away. Have a proper scroll before you buy anything new.

Volunteering

Another option is to Volunteer.

Whether it’s farming, working for a hostel or a tour company, or caring for animals, volunteering is a sick way to get involved with a local community and really get to know the place.

You’re probs wondering, but I need the money…Well, volunteering jobs have their own perks. It will most likely be work in exchange for accommodation and meals, saving you a tonne of money!

Australia is known for being on the pricey side, which makes it very easy to underestimate your budget or over spend.

Getting a budget plan together for each pay check (so monthly or weekly) is essential.

• Book all tours in advance, this way you can avoid tourist traps and last minute panic buying.
• Put together a little budget diary to keep track of your day-to-day spending.
• Get a travel money card to transfer over a daily budget, so you don’t over-spend.
• Pre-book hostels when you can to avoid paying on arrival which can be more expensive.

Here are some examples of costs to consider:

Hostels: Depends where you are, can vary from $40 to $60 a night

Transport: Stick to walking and use Greyhound coaches for travelling between locations (we can get you a sick deal on Greyhound passes). But for the ultimate freedom, get yourself a campervan and explore Oz at your own pace.

Food: Average cost of a meal out $20-30

Drink: A beer will cost about $10, backpacker bars more like $5

Coffee: Around $5 or just $1 in 7/11

Avo on toast: Will set you back $10 to $18

For more, check out our post on how to budget in Aus.

For a lot of people, the work is just the bit that funds the real reason they came: seeing the country. Australia is huge, and the best way to take it in is at your own pace with your own wheels.

The good news is you don’t need a full plan worked out before you arrive. To give you a feel for what’s possible, here are a few trips backpackers do all the time:

• East Coast Highlights (2-3 weeks): the classic run. Beaches, the reef and rainforest, with plenty of stops along the way where you can pick up casual work to top up the funds.
• Sydney to Byron Bay (7-10 days): a relaxed stretch of coast, surf towns and national parks. Good if you’ve only got a week or so spare.
• Tasmania (1-2 weeks): cooler, wilder and a bit different, with mountains, quiet beaches and some of the best food and produce going.
• Perth to Exmouth (2 weeks): the West Coast at its best. Red dirt, white sand and swimming with whale sharks up at Ningaloo.
• The Big Lap: the whole way around the country. It’s the big one, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.

I did the full lap myself back in my own backpacking days, plus Brisbane to Sydney the long way round, so I’m a little biased. There’s nothing quite like having your home on wheels and the whole coast out in front of you.

Budget-wise it varies massively with how fast you travel and how much you eat out, but the cost breakdown further up this guide gives you a solid starting point for your daily spends. For camper hire, the easiest thing is to get an exact quote based on your own dates.

If a road trip is on the cards, our team can sort you out. Send us your rough dates and the kind of trip you’ve got in mind, and we’ll put together a personalised camper deal that suits you. If you find a cheaper price for the same booking, we’ll beat it. Get in touch here.

What is the difference between visa 417 (Working Holiday visa) and 462 (Work and Holiday visa)?

Alright RatPackers, here’s the quick and dirty on Visa 417 vs. Visa 462.

Visa 462 has a few extra hoops to jump through:

• Requires an educational certificate, generally an undergraduate degree
• Needs proof of at least functional English
• May require a letter of support from your government (depending on your country)

Visa 417? None of that. Simple as.

Visa 417 makes it super straightforward for eligible travellers from many English-speaking countries with links to Australia, like the UK, Canada and several European nations. On the flipside, Visa 462 applicants, hailing from places like the USA, China, and some Latin American and Asian countries, are required to fulfil a few more requirements.

Basically, if you’re from a Visa 417 country, it’s a bit easier to get your application sorted. But if you’re applying for a Visa 462, double-check those extra requirements to make sure you’re all set for your epic adventure in Oz.

Which countries are eligible for a Working Holiday Visa?

The eligible 417 passports currently include:

• Belgium
• Canada
• Republic of Cyprus
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China
• Republic of Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Republic of Korea
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Taiwan (other than an official or diplomatic passport)
• UK (including British National Overseas passport holders)

You can always see the most up-to-date list of eligible countries here.

What is the 88 day rule in Australia?

If you’re on a working holiday visa (either 417 or 462) and you want to extend your stay, this one’s for you.

To score a second-year visa, you need to complete 88 days (or three months) of specified work in regional Australia. This work can be in industries like farming, construction, fishing or mining. The key is that it has to be in designated regional areas.

The list currently includes:

• tourism and hospitality in northern or remote and very remote Australia, from 22 June 2021
• plant and animal cultivation in regional Australia
• fishing and pearling in regional Australia
• tree farming and felling in regional Australia
• mining in regional Australia
• construction in regional Australia
• bushfire recovery work in declared bushfire affected areas carried out after 31 July 2019
• recovery work in natural disaster 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

The eligible regions and postcodes get updated from time to time, so always check the latest list here before you commit to a job.

One important update if you’re travelling on a UK passport: since 1 July 2024, UK passport holders no longer need to complete any specified work to be granted a second or third Working Holiday visa. So you can keep the adventure going without the 88 days. For other passports the specified work requirement still applies, so check the current rules for your country here.

So, if you’re keen to keep the Aussie adventure rolling, get ready to roll up your sleeves and hit the fields, build or fish. Knock out those 88 days, and you’ll be set for another year of epic roadies and good vibes.

Can you leave the country on a working holiday visa Australia?

You bet! When you’re on a working holiday visa (417 or 462) in Australia, you can come and go as you please. Your visa allows multiple entries, which means you can leave Australia and come back without any hassle during your visa’s validity period.

So, if you fancy a quick trip to Bali, New Zealand or back home to see the family, go for it! Just make sure you’re back in time to keep the Aussie adventures going strong.

Can I work two jobs on a working holiday visa?

Absolutely! On a working holiday visa (417 or 462) in Australia, you’re free to work multiple jobs. There’s no limit to how many gigs you can juggle, as long as you stick to the rule of working no more than six months with any one employer.

So, go ahead and mix it up! Whether you’re pulling pints, picking fruit or searching for gold, the choice is yours. Make the most of your time and soak up all the experiences you can!

Can I work remotely on a working holiday visa?

Yep, working remotely on a working holiday visa (417 or 462) in Australia is totally allowed and more common than ever. Whether you’re a digital nomad, freelance writer, or have any other remote gig, you can take your work on the road and enjoy everything this massive country has to offer.

You can also work for companies based in Oz or companies abroad. Just make sure you comply with the visa conditions and stick to the six-month rule with any one employer if you’re also picking up local jobs.

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Ready to get out and see it? Send us your travel dates and the kind of trip you’ve got in mind, and we’ll build you a personalised camper deal, tailored to you. If you find a cheaper price for the same booking, we’ll beat it. Send us your dates here.