How long can you work for one employer on a working holiday visa?

Last checked: 15 August 2026

Six months, unless an exemption applies. Visa condition 8547 is the 6 month rule. It caps how long you can work for one employer on a 417 or a 462, and it applies to everyone holding one in Australia regardless of when they arrived — plus anyone on a bridging visa with 8547 imposed. It covers every kind of work: full time, part time, casual, shift and voluntary.

Since 1 January 2024 the exemptions are wide enough that most backpackers never hit the limit.

The five exemptions

From 1 January 2024 you can work for the same employer for longer than 6 months without asking permission if you work in any of these:

• different locations for the same employer, as long as no single location exceeds 6 months
• plant and animal cultivation anywhere in Australia
• natural disaster recovery work anywhere in Australia
• a critical sector — agriculture, food processing, health, aged and disability care, childcare, and tourism and hospitality — anywhere in Australia
• fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, construction or mining, in Northern Australia only

Home Affairs adds one line under that list that everyone should read: this applies until the Government makes further decisions. It is a policy setting, not a permanent right, and it can move.

Hospitality is the exemption that matters

Tourism and hospitality is one of the five critical sectors, and the critical-sector exemption applies anywhere in Australia. Same definition you already know: accommodation, food and beverage, and work that directly serves tourists. So a hotel, hostel, pub, cafe or tour operator can keep you past 6 months without either of you filing anything.

One trap. Being exempt from 8547 anywhere in the country is not the same as the work counting toward a second visa. For the 88 days the postcode still has to be on the right list — that is a separate test, covered in what counts as specified work. A year at one Melbourne bar is legal and worth nothing toward a second year.

Different locations, same employer

If your industry is not exempt, location is the other way through. Work in any one location must not exceed 6 months, but the employer can stay the same. Home Affairs accepts two hotels in the same chain at different premises, independently-owned franchises trading under one brand, state and territory schools and health facilities at different addresses, the same business with one ABN at two different orchards, a subsidiary with a different ABN on your payslip, and separate legal entities owned by the same employer.

Working from home counts as a location, and a change to or from working remotely counts as a change of location.

If nothing above fits

Then 6 months is the hard cap, and going past it without written permission breaches your visa. Ask first, using the online permission to work longer than 6 months form. Home Affairs may say yes on two grounds: you have applied for a visa allowing ongoing full-time work and are waiting on the decision, or your work is critical to your employer and you attach a supporting letter from them.

An exemption or an approved permission covers the rest of your stay on that visa. The 6 months restart when a new Working Holiday Maker visa is granted, or when a bridging visa carrying 8547 takes effect.

The 6 month rule, answered

If the plan is a second year, the requirements are in the second working holiday visa guide, and the rest of the rules are in the guides. For the venues that hire in postcodes that count, start with regional work.