-Paul W. Laufenberg

The Working Holiday Program provides opportunities for people between 18 and 30 to holiday in Australia and to supplement their travel funds through incidental employment. 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.

Upcoming changes to the Working Holiday Maker Programme:
From 1 July 2006, several changes will be made to the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) (visa subclass 417) programme, including:

Increasing the work limitation with each employer from 3 to 6 months;
Increasing the study/training limitation from 3 to 4 months; and
Expanding the definition of ‘seasonal work’ (for second WHM visa eligibility) to include some primary industries (see new definition below).
These changes apply only to WHM visa applications lodged on or after 1 July 2006.

Seasonal work completed before 1 July 2006 in the industries listed below may be counted toward the three months of seasonal work in regional Australia requirement for WHM visa applications lodged on or after 1 July 2006.

Expanded Definition of ‘Seasonal Work’

‘Seasonal Work’:

• picking fruit, nuts and other crops
• pruning and trimming vines and trees
• general maintenance crop work
• immediate processing of plant products
• other work associated with packing or transporting the harvest
• cultivating or propagating plants, fungi or their products or parts
• maintaining animals for the purpose of selling them or their bodily produce, including natural increase
• immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery, packing and tanning
• manufacturing dairy produce from raw material
• conducting operations relating directly to taking or catching fish and other aquatic species
• conducting operations relating directly to taking or culturing pearls or pearl shell
• planting or tending trees in a plantation or forest that are intended to be felled
• felling trees in a plantation or forest, or
  transporting trees or parts of trees that were felled in a plantation or forest to the place where they are first to be milled or processed or from which they are to be transported to the place where they are to be milled or processed.
  

The visa allows a stay of up to 12 months from the date of first entry to Australia, regardless of whether or not you spend the whole time in Australia.

You are allowed to do any kind of work of a temporary or casual nature.

Working Holiday Makers who have worked as a seasonal worker in regional Australia for a minimum of three months while on their first Working Holiday visa, will be eligible to apply for a second Working Holiday visa. Applicants need to demonstrate that they continue to meet the requirements for a Working Holiday visa. These include:

• being aged between 18 and 30
• having no dependents; and
• being a citizen of a country named in the working holiday maker reciprocal arrangements

Work and Holiday visa
The Work and Holiday visa is for tertiary educated people aged 18 to 30 to have an extended holiday of up to 12 months in Australia. These people can supplement their travel funds through temporary employment. Most countries under this visa have an annual limit of 100 Work and Holiday visas per year. Currently the Work and Holiday visa arrangement is in place for people from:

• Iran
• Thailand
• Chile
• Turkey (signed in December 2005, expected to come into effect once legal procedures on both sides have been finalised)
• Bangladesh (signed in March 2006, expected to come into effect once legal procedures on both sides have been finalised)

Upcoming changes to the Work and Holiday Programme:
From 1 July 2006, several changes will be made to the Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa programme, including:

Increasing the work limitation with each employer from 3 to 6 months; and
Increasing the study/training limitation from 3 to 4 months.
These changes apply only to Work and Holiday visa applications lodged on or after 1 July 2006

Paul W Laufenberg
Migration Agent MARA Reg No 9790430
Former Attorney from Berlin
Suffolk Park, Byron Bay NSW 2481
AUSTRALIA
Ph: + 61 - (0)2 6685 9643
Fax: + 61 - (0)2 6685 9653
E-mail: info@howtomigrate.com
http://www.howtomigrate.com