How to Extend your Australia Working Holiday for a Second Year

With its vibrant cities, diverse landscapes and epic opportunities for adventure, Australia has firmly established itself as one of the best destinations to travel to, whether you’re on a short term holiday or looking at living abroad.

More than ever, expats have been turning toward the land down under for working and living opportunities, and if you happen to be between the ages of 18 and 30 (35 for a couple of lucky countries), the working holiday visa is a really great option if you’re eligible. The visa offers a lot of flexibility with where you can work, live and travel across the country and it’s unique in that it offers working travellers the option to extend the visa for a second and third year.

Australia has something for everyone, and work opportunities for expats all over the country. During our time living down under, we chose to do work in rural Queensland, the Western Australian outback, and within the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales.

If you need more information on the working holiday, read our generalised guide on the working holiday visa for a brief overview of what it is, how to start your application, and what you can do for work.

Extending your first Working holiday

Australia has a unique working holiday program in that it allows you to be eligible to extend it for a second if you do 3 months of specified regional work within your first year visa. Whether you’re on the subclass 417 or the subclass 462 (which visa you’re on depends on where you’re from, read more about this from our guide below), both subclasses are eligible to apply for the second year.

Getting your first working holiday

The extension visa only applies if you’ve first been approved for your first year, see our guide below for advice on how to apply:

Second working holiday visa requirements

• You must have previously entered on a subclass 417/ subclass 462 visa (you must be applying for the second year under the same visa class) 

• Hold a valid visa (your visa can’t have run out (over 28 days) while you’re applying for the second year)

• Hold a passport from an eligible country

• Be 18-30 (or 35 depending on your country of residence)

• Have completed 3 months of specified subclass 417/ subclass 462 work

• Not be accompanied by dependents

With the second working holiday visa, you can:

• Do short term work in Australia (aka you can’t accept a permanent job)

• Study for up to 4 months

• Travel to/from Aus as many times as you want

• Do 6 months of specified subclass 417/462 to become eligible for your third working holiday/ work and holiday visa (see more info on this below)

Already completed your regional work and ready to apply?
Find the portal on the Australian Immi site, along with eligibility details and up to date payments, here:

What can I do for my regional work?

The majority of questions that come with extending your visa aren’t necessarily with the application process (as it’s very similar to the first WHV), but where you can work that will meet the requirements of the specified regional work.

There are several approved industries for this specified work, and associating postcodes that will meet the requirements. Therefore, you’ll have to work 1. Within one of the listed industries below, and 2. Make sure it’s in one of the approved regional postcodes.

The approved industries and areas for specified work (directly from Immi Australian Gov website):

• 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 only, after 31 July 2019

• Flood recovery work in declared flood recovery areas only, undertaken on or after 1 January 2022, for applications lodged on or after 1 July 2022

• Critical COVID-19 work in the healthcare and medical sectors anywhere in Australia, after 31 January 2020

We chose to do our regional work in North Western Australia, which was an insane and very memorable experience. Read more on our advice and experience below.

The postcode regions ensure that an applicant is working within Australia’s regional areas. It means that all Norfolk Island, Northern Territory, South Australian and Tasmania is classified as part of regional Australia, but only certain postcodes within Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales are applicable and all of these will exclude cities and surrounding areas. The Australian Capital Territory is not classified as part of regional Australia.

To see all of the eligible postcodes, see here.

Our Experience

Steve and I got the opportunity to do our 3 months in the Western Australian Outback, which was one of the most insane but incredible experiences we’ve ever had.

I had initially found the job posted online through a recommendation of a friend of my au pair family. They had cautioned against some of the work advertised to working holidayers which can allegedly offer less than ideal working conditions and wages, so we had this in mind when we interviewed for and accepted a job posting on a cattle station in North Western Australia. I took on the role of station cook for the team, and Steve was a station maintenance hand. Not only did we get an incredible wage, we got all of our food and accommodations paid for, so overall we had a great experience - although it was extremely remote, we worked with a great team of both expats and Aussies who came to do the mustering season. All in all, we stayed for longer than the 88 days because we enjoyed it so much.

Jackaroo and jillaroos are Aussie station workers who work full time on stations during mustering season. It’s a huge operation on helicopter, dirt-bike and horseback. A separate post will follow on our unique experience on the station and the different jobs that come with it.

Our advice looking for regional work

Although this may seem obvious, our first piece of advice is to only accept a job once you’ve triple checked that it will be eligible for your visa. You won’t get the opportunity to go back and do the three months if your first year has expired, so make sure that your work will count towards the second year. This will include making sure the job is in the correct regional postcode, ensuring that the job title is listed under the specific work eligible for the visa, and that you’ll work a certain number of days within the 3 months (part time is not accepted, for example).

Our second piece of advice is to establish the correct expectations of what you’ll be asked to do and the working patterns/ conditions. When we lived in Aus, we definitely met a mixed bag of people who had good/ poor experiences with the regional work, and I found that most of the poor experiences were because of expectations. Understand what you’ll get paid, what’s included within the job, options of local transport, days on/ days off, working hours, and conditions of staff accommodation, if provided. One of our friends picked fruit for her regional work, but because pay got lost in translation within the hiring process, the rate she thought she was on was hourly was actually the rate of per crate of fruit she picked - she did the work, but didn’t leave with the best experience because of it because filling the crates look longer than she anticipated.

Lastly, if you can get a job based off a recommendation, do it. Travelling within regional Australia can be timely and expensive, so if you can get a trusted person to recommend you to a job that you know you’ll enjoy, definitely go for it.

Extending to a third year

Once you’ve successfully extended your first working holiday to a second year, the Australian government has recently made it possible to extend your second year to a third, as long as you partake in 6 months of specified regional work within your visa. A separate post on this will follow.

For an overview from Immi Australia for 417 for your third working holiday, see here.
For an overview from Immi Australia for 462 for your third working holiday, see here.

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Australia’s working holiday visa can be a fantastic way to earn money and develop your skillset while travelling, and it comes highly recommended for anyone looking to make the leap and move abroad.

Happy Travels,
Sam

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