Subclass 417 & 462 Working Holiday Maker visa

The two visas

Both are temporary visas that let a young person holiday in Australia and work to support the trip. The Subclass 417 (Working Holiday) is a Class TZ visa [Sch 1 item 1225]; the Subclass 462 (Work and Holiday) is a Class US visa [Sch 1 item 1224A]. They are not interchangeable, and the decisive factor for which one a person can use is passport country.

Eligibility by passport country

Eligibility runs off the applicant's passport country, and each subclass has its own legislative-instrument schedule [LIN 26/048] [LIN 26/072]. The lists differ; neither should be described as the generally broader visa, and the current 462 schedule contains more passport-country entries. The applicant must also be aged at least 18 and no more than 35, unless a lower maximum age is set by instrument for the applicant's passport country, and the same age structure applies to both subclasses. For applications made from 1 July 2026 this age requirement is a Schedule 1 validity requirement, tested at lodgement rather than as a Schedule 2 grant criterion [Sch 1 item 1225(3AA)] [Sch 1 item 1224A(3)(aab)]. The passport requirement operates at both levels for the 417: Schedule 1 requires the specified passport at lodgement, and Schedule 2 requires the applicant to hold the relevant passport at the applicable decision stage [Sch 1 item 1225(3A)(b)] [Sch 1 item 1225(3B)(e)] [cl 417.211(2)(a)] [cl 417.221(2A)]. For the 462, the passport is a Schedule 1 validity requirement [Sch 1 item 1224A(3)(a)] with continued-holding criteria [cl 462.221(aa)] [cl 462.221A(b)]. Because the instruments change, check the eligible-country list and any age variation against the instrument in force before lodgement.

What the 462 adds

A 417 does not carry the 462-specific first-visa requirements. An ordinary first 462 carries three further requirements that no 417 applicant faces: a letter from the applicant's home government stating that it agrees to the stay under the bilateral arrangement [cl 462.213]; at least functional English [cl 462.215]; and satisfaction that the application meets the requirements of the arrangement between Australia and that country [cl 462.216]. These are not uniform across every 462: for a passport class the Minister specifies, the government-support letter is not required and a different first-visa criteria set applies [cl 462.211] [cl 462.211A] [Sch 1 item 1224A(3)(b)(iii)], and for specified passport countries a first 462 is valid only if the applicant was selected through a pre-application ballot [Sch 1 item 1224A(3A)]. A minimum educational qualification for the passport country can also apply as a separate grant criterion [cl 462.221(c)]. Other country-specific extras, such as a yearly cap, sit inside those arrangements and vary by country, so do not assume that the 462 operates in the same way as the 417.

The genuine holiday-maker test

The applicant must genuinely seek to enter or remain as a visitor whose principal purpose is to spend a holiday in Australia [cl 417.211(4)] [cl 462.217]. For a straightforward first application from an eligible passport country, it becomes material where the history, such as repeated stays or prior refusals, suggests something other than a genuine temporary holiday.

Funds and dependent children

The applicant must have sufficient money for the fare out of Australia and for personal support during the working holiday [cl 417.211(4)] [cl 462.217]. The 417 additionally requires a reasonable prospect of obtaining employment, a limb the 462 does not carry [cl 417.211(4)]. Neither visa may be accompanied by dependent children during the stay [cl 417.211(4)] [cl 462.217], although the 462 allows a Minister-specified class to be exempted from that bar [cl 462.217].

Public interest criteria and lodgement

At decision the applicant must meet the health and character public interest criteria, including the integrity criterion PIC 4020 (bogus-document, false-information and identity limbs) [cl 417.221(2)] [cl 462.221(b)] [cl 462.221A(c)] [PIC 4020]. A first WHV must be lodged from outside Australia [Sch 1 item 1225] [Sch 1 item 1224A]. For an ordinary first 462 under cl 462.211, the government support letter [cl 462.213] belongs to this first-visa assessment; a Minister-specified passport class proceeds under cl 462.211A and does not need it. The functional-English requirement [cl 462.215] belongs to this first-visa assessment.

The two mandatory conditions

Every 417 and 462 carries two mandatory conditions, 8547 and 8548 [cl 417.611] [cl 462.611]. Condition 8548 limits study or training to no more than four months [sch 8 cl 8548]. Condition 8547 is the six-month work limitation.

The six-month employer limit

Condition 8547 provides that the holder must not be employed by any one employer for more than six months without the prior written permission of the Secretary [sch 8 cl 8547]. It caps time with one employer, not work itself. Current Departmental guidance explains separately how the rule applies to the same employer at different locations, affiliated businesses, labour-hire agencies and the end user. A change of business name, ownership or ABN is not a fixed statutory test and should not, by itself, be treated as deciding whether the employment is with a different employer. Because this treatment is operational policy, the current Home Affairs guidance must be checked when the six-month limit matters.

Working beyond six months

The six months can be exceeded in two ways. First, the holder can ask the Secretary for written permission before the six months expire, given in limited cases such as where the holder has applied for a visa allowing ongoing full-time work and awaits the outcome, or the work is critical to the employer. Second, and more common in practice, a set of work is treated as already permitted without any request. As a government-policy arrangement in force from 1 January 2024, and running until the Government decides otherwise, no permission is needed to stay with one employer beyond six months where the work is: in different locations for the same employer, with no single location exceeding six months; plant and animal cultivation anywhere in Australia; natural disaster recovery anywhere in Australia; a critical sector anywhere in Australia, namely agriculture, food processing, health, aged and disability care, childcare, or tourism and hospitality; or, in northern Australia only, fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, construction, or mining. Because this is a policy setting and not part of the condition, check the current Home Affairs list before relying on an exception.

Discretionary conditions

Further conditions may be imposed at grant, including condition 8503 (no further stay) [cl 417.612] [cl 462.612]. Whether 8503 is on a particular visa has to be read off the grant notice, because it changes what the holder can later do onshore.

Carry-over to a bridging visa

Unless one of the special rules in cl 010.611(1)–(3E) applies, the residual rule carries listed conditions from the visa held at application, including condition 8547 [cl 010.611(4)]. For example, a BVA based on a listed skilled or employer-sponsored application under cl 010.611(3B) is nil-condition [cl 010.611(3B)]. Where 8547 is carried over, current departmental policy treats the six-month period as starting again when the bridging visa comes into effect rather than continuing the count from the WHV. The four-month study limit in 8548 is not on the residual carry-over list.

The cap of three

At decision, the applicant must not already have held more than two visas of the same subclass in Australia; COVID-19 affected visas are disregarded [cl 417.222] [cl 462.224]. For a further 417 the applicant must also have complied substantially with the conditions of any visa they have held [cl 417.222], so a breach of 8547 or 8548 on an earlier 417 can defeat the next one; the 462 cap carries no such compliance limb [cl 462.224]. The second and third grants are ordinarily earned by specified work done during the earlier visa. For a passport class the Minister specifies, the specified-work criteria are switched off, so a holder of that passport can be granted a second or third visa without specified work [cl 417.211(1A)(b)] [Sch 1 item 1225(3BA)] [cl 462.211B(2)(a)] [Sch 1 item 1224A(3)(d)]; under current arrangements this covers United Kingdom passport holders applying for a further Subclass 417 from 1 July 2024, and the specified passports have to be checked against the current instrument.

The second visa

A second WHV is available where the applicant has held only one WHV and, as the holder of that visa, carried out at least three months of specified work, was remunerated for it in accordance with Australian legislation and awards, and did not do it for an excluded employer [cl 417.211(5)] [cl 462.218] [reg 1.15FB].

The third visa

A third WHV requires at least six months of specified work, carried out while the applicant held the second visa or a bridging visa granted on the application for it, on the same remuneration and excluded-employer terms [cl 417.211(6)] [cl 462.219].

Specified work

Specified work is defined in the Regulations [reg 1.03] as work of a specified kind carried out in a specified area of Australia, with the kinds and areas set by legislative instrument, currently LIN 22/012 for the 417 [reg 1.15FAA] and LIN 22/013 for the 462 [reg 1.15FA]. Which occupations and areas qualify, and which version of the instrument governs the relevant work, have to be confirmed against the instrument itself. The work must have been carried out during the qualifying period: while holding the first WHV for a second visa, and while holding the second visa or a bridging visa granted on its application for a third visa [cl 417.211(6)(c)(ii)] [cl 462.219(1)(c)(ii)]. Work done outside that period, on an unrelated visa, or after the visa ceased does not count, except that Schedule 13 still credits qualifying work done on eligible COVID-19 pandemic-event Subclass 408 visas and their associated bridging visas [Sch 13 cls 9205-9208]. The application carries a declaration that the work was done [Sch 1 item 1225] [Sch 1 item 1224A(3)(c)].

First visa offshore, later visas either way

A first WHV must be lodged from outside Australia [Sch 1 item 1225] [Sch 1 item 1224A]. A second or third WHV is different: the applicant may be in or outside Australia when it is lodged, provided they are not in immigration clearance [Sch 1 item 1225] [Sch 1 item 1224A]. An onshore application is valid only if the applicant holds a substantive visa, or held one within the 28 days before applying [Sch 1 item 1225(3B)(f)] [Sch 1 item 1224A(3)(c)(iv)]; an applicant with no current substantive visa and none in the preceding 28 days cannot apply onshore at all, whether or not the visa that lapsed was the WHV. So a holder seeking the next WHV does not have to depart to apply. Where the next WHV is granted onshore to an applicant who held the same-subclass WHV at lodgement, it runs until 12 months after that visa would otherwise have ceased [cl 417.511(2)] [cl 462.513]; where the onshore applicant did not hold the same-subclass WHV at lodgement, it instead runs for 12 months from grant [cl 417.511(3)] [cl 462.512].

The no-further-stay bar

The exception that overrides the onshore option is condition 8503 (no further stay). If the WHV carries 8503, the holder cannot make a valid onshore application for a further substantive visa other than a protection visa [MA s 46(1A)] [sch 8 cl 8503], so the next WHV, or another onshore substantive visa application, must be made from outside Australia unless the condition is waived. There are three alternative waiver routes. First, the general route requires compelling and compassionate circumstances that developed after grant, were beyond the holder's control and produced a major change in their situation, together with a written request and, after an earlier refusal, substantially different circumstances [reg 2.05(4)]. Second, condition 8503 has a separate route where the holder genuinely intends to apply for one of the listed skilled or employer-sponsored visas [reg 2.05(4AA)]; after a waiver on that ground, the first onward substantive application is valid only for a listed visa [reg 2.07AG]. Third, condition 8503 has another separate route for a person who holds a Subclass 790 Safe Haven Enterprise visa, or as a lawful non-citizen has held one, and satisfies the regional work or study requirements in reg 2.06AAB(2) [reg 2.05(4AB)] [reg 2.06AAB(2)]. A substantive visa application lodged onshore in breach of an unwaived 8503 is invalid: it brings no bridging visa, and the holder becomes unlawful when the WHV ceases. A non-substantive application, such as one for a bridging visa, is not caught. Check the grant notice for condition 8503 before taking any onshore step.

Section 48 and Schedule 3

Two gates that dominate other onshore pathways matter less here. Schedule 3 does not apply at all: the 417 and 462 criteria contain no Schedule 3 requirement, so an onshore second or third WHV is not exposed to the Schedule 3 hurdle that catches, for example, an onshore partner applicant without a substantive visa. Section 48 is not lifted for the WHV: unlike the partner visa classes, the Working Holiday and Work and Holiday classes are not prescribed under reg 2.12 [reg 2.12], so a person caught by section 48 (broadly, an onshore non-citizen with no substantive visa who since last entry was refused a visa (other than a bridging-visa refusal or a s 501/501A/501B refusal) or had a visa cancelled on specified grounds (ss 109, 116, 133A, 133C, 134, 137J, 137Q) [MA s 48(1)]) cannot make a valid onshore WHV application. This rarely bites a genuine second or third applicant, who ordinarily still holds the WHV, a substantive visa, when applying and so is outside section 48; it matters where the WHV has already ceased and a refusal or cancellation is on record.