Australia working holiday visa guide
Ten guides to the Australia working holiday visa, each written against the government page that sets it. Every one carries the date I last checked it, because the fee, the age limit and the minimum wage all moved on 1 July 2026 and most of what you will read elsewhere still describes the rules as they were before that.
Getting a second year
A second Working Holiday Maker visa is another 12 months. It costs 88 calendar days of specified work on your first visa, paid at legal rates, and you have to be inside the age limit on the day you lodge.
- What counts as specified work — which work Home Affairs accepts, which postcodes it has to happen in, and how one day of the 88 is counted.
- The second working holiday visa — what the 88 days require, why the charge is AUD 1,000 from 1 July 2026, when and where to apply, and the exemption that lets UK passport holders skip the work.
- The age limit — 18 to 30 inclusive on most passports, 18 to 35 on ten of them, and why an over-age application is now invalid at lodgement, with no fee taken and no review.
Living on the visa you have
What you are allowed to do for the 12 months, and the things nobody tells you until you need them.
- The conditions and restrictions — any job you like, 6 months per employer under 8547, 4 months of study under 8548, 12 months counted from first entry, and no dependent children.
- The 6 month rule — the five exemptions to condition 8547, and why tourism and hospitality is exempt anywhere in Australia since 1 January 2024.
- Medicare — which passports get reciprocal cover, what that cover actually pays for, and when it runs out.
- ABNs and starting a business — when you are entitled to an ABN, and why a venue that demands one before it hires you is a red flag.
Applying, and what comes after
- How long it takes to process — the 417 and the 462 percentiles, why yours is taking so long, where you have to be when you apply and when it is granted, and what the BCC number actually is.
- How to stay in Australia after it — why a working holiday visa is not a PR pathway, and the two routes that are.
- Is it worth it — the hourly wage, the flat 15% tax on your first $45,000, and the 65% withheld from the taxable part of your super when you leave.
After the rules comes the work
Every one of these guides ends in the same place: paid shifts in a postcode that counts. get88 lists every eligible town and the hospitality venues in it, what get88 costs and how refunds work is on the FAQ, and the setup is on the how it works page.
get88 is a job-application tool, not migration advice. Whether any role counts toward your visa is decided by the Department of Home Affairs — check the official specified-work pages for the 417 and 462 visas directly.