Written by Adam Whitehouse
Posted, 18th June 2021
It looks like Boris and the gang heard about Feel Free Travel taking on Australia! He and Scott Morrison (Aussie PM) got together early this week and made some uber exciting changes to the Australia Working Holiday Visa. If you’re looking to jump on a working holiday visa in Australia anytime soon you should definitely keep reading!
Fresh off the press 🗞
With this still being very fresh news, the officials are yet to put this into policy and exactly when this change will take place is unknown… but still… HOW EXCITING!?
So what’s changing?
During the recent trade talks, negotiators identified that Aussies coming to the UK on working holiday visas are not required to carry out mandatory farm work to extend their stay. The UK rightfully challenged this and proposed a reciprocal agreement that made it fair for both nations.
What is the current farm work agreement?
Young travellers aged between 18-30 from a number of countries including the UK qualify to apply for a ‘Working Holiday Visa’ also know as the ‘subclass 417‘. This visa allows young travellers to work and travel in Australia for a period of 12 months. During this time travellers can complete 3 months of regional work in specified sectors to qualify for their 2nd-year visa or 6 months to qualify for their 3rd-year.
What is ‘specified work’ and in which industries?
- 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 only, after 31 July 2019
- Critical COVID-19 work in the healthcare and medical sectors anywhere in Australia, after 31 January 2020
You can find full details of specified work on the immi.homeaffairs.gov.uk website or you can click here.
So how does the new deal look?
In the most simple way possible, they are completely scrapping the regional work that travellers are required to carry out to extend their stay in Australia. The deal looks to give Brits a full 3 years on the initial application of the working holiday visa. For the tourism industry, this is great news as the idea of 3 years in Australia without regional work is extremely attractive. It will not only give travellers the freedom to focus their time in Australia on travel, but it will also allow travellers to focus their employment in Australia on sectors more suited to their future careers.
But wait there’s more…
To add the cherry on the cake to this fantastic new agreement, the age limit has been increased from 30 to 35. This means that once the new deal has been put into policy, any Brits below the age of 36 will be eligible to apply for a working holiday visa.
Ok, so wheres my passport?!
Hold your horses! Like everything that involves new policy, things take time to be finalised. Rumours are circulating that the new rules will be good to go sometime in 2022.
For now, just sit back, keep planning that dream trip and we’ll do our best to keep you posted. Find out more about what we do in Australia and check out our trips to both Melbourne and Sydney.
