Working Holiday in Australia

The program called  "Working Holiday Maker Program" from the immigration department, allows a person get a visa to work in Australia, but there are many conditions to get it. The person must not have a dependent children, the age must be between 18 and 30 years, and the passport must be from one country which Australia has agreements. The visa will allow the person to stay in Australia during 1 year. During this period, will be able to work full time, in the harvest, in the office or anywhere the worker could get a job. The only restriction is that it will not be able to work more than 3 months in the same job (but in 2007 they allowed an extension to 6 months, as well as renew for another year the visa, conditions apply).

The basic idea of the program, is to offer the opportunity to have a cultural contact with the Australian culture. During the time of the program the person can get some money working legally and finance the holiday. You may choose to stay or visit any city, and you can change how many times you want.  Moreover, you can do nothing or even study, since the course duration is not over 4 months. Sounds very good the idea of being able to choose between working, travelling, surfing etc until get bored.

In the past this visa was emitted only one time in a life of a mortal person, but today the new legislation regulates that if the person  have worked for more than 3 months during the first visa in harvests or farms, or in a called areas of "Regional Australia" (kind of everywhere else than a big city) the person will be able to apply for a second year. In this  case the person will be able apply inside Australia. The first visa, the application obligatorily has to be done outside Australia (from any country). The petitions to apply are basically a return ticket, age between 18 and 30 years, not having a dependent children, money to support initially, pay the tax, and have a passport from one of the countries below:

 Belgium, Canada, the Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

( Bangladesh, Chile, Iran, Thailand and Turkey the visa is only granted for people with tertiary education level).

If your country is not listed above but you have another passport from one of these countries, you may be able to apply. The applications are done online and for more information consult the links below: 

• Application Online to Working Holiday Maker Program

• Official information from the Immigration

Big John, this is the Regional Australia! Now we can just look for a job or take a holiday for ever.