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Australian Working Holiday Visa

To work in Australia you must first have a working holiday visa. The Working Holiday Program offers young people the opportunity to travel and work overseas.

The program is based on reciprocal arrangements that the Australian Government has with governments of selected overseas countries. Australia has reciprocal Working Holiday Maker arrangements in effect with the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Republic of Ireland, Republic of Korea, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China, Finland, the Republic of Cyprus, France, and Italy, Belgium, Estonia and Taiwan.

This allows you to work for up to 6 months with the one employer and working in Australia is to help backpackers supplement their money for further travels. The other import fact about the working holiday program is that you must be under the age of 31 when you apply and you can only stay in Australia for a total of one year. Although recent changes to the working holiday program show that you can now apply for a second working holiday visa under the conditions that you can show evidence that you have worked for at least 3 months doing “seasonal work” for example picking fruit. For all the information on the working holiday program and to apply for your working holiday visa on line go to www.immi.gov.au.