Nothing I have done in life has been as scary as quitting my job, selling everything I owned and leaving my family behind to travel. Me and my boyfriend left the UK in 2022 with no return dates and I was sh*t scared! The majority of our time travelling would be spent in Australia with a 12 month Working Holiday Visa.
So what is a working holiday, how do you get the visa and what are your limitations?
Before we get started, some acronyms you will come across and what they mean:
WHV- working holiday visa
WHM- working holiday maker
A working holiday visa allows you to enter Australia for 12 months to travel and work. This gives you a great opportunity to top up your travel funds. Sounds good right? So how do you get one?
I HIGHLY recommended purchasing your visa via the official government website. I have been scammed before when purchasing a visa, it's very easy to do and the best way to ensure you're not getting scammed is to go via the official government website. Don't just Google 'australia visa' and click the top link, no matter how official it looks. Go to a gov.uk website and follow the links to visas until you find the appropriate one.
If you are travelling with a company ask them for the official link and any advice on applying. Some travel companies will do the visa application for you which can be a great help. If you opt to do this, the company will likely send you a questionnaire (with questions similar to what's on the visa) to fill in and then they'll use your answers to complete the visa application. They send it off and then forward you the visa acceptance e-mail when it comes through.
This is how me and my boyfriend did it and it was super easy. I have also applied for a tourist visa for Australia via government websites back in 2018 and it was a very simple and straightforward procedure.
Both times my visa was approved within a few days but it's not uncommon for some visas to take a couple of months to be approved and for some to request a health check before approval.
When I applied for the working holiday visa (2022) I had to prove I had sufficient funds to live for 12 months in Australia (basically, I had to show I had the equivalent of $5000 AUD in my bank). A screenshot or copy of a bank statement will suffice, it can be a savings account or your regular debit account. The account must be in your name and that amount is per person, so my partner, Tim, also had to prove he had the sufficient funds. Is there a way around this? Not really! I've read online of people doctoring their bank statement for the application but being dishonest on a visa application is a risky business and I do not recommend it!!! I've also read of people transferring money between friends and families accounts, getting a statement with the required amount and then transferring all the money back. I really don't recommend either of these methods, Australia enforces the sufficient funds rule for a reason. You need to be able to support yourself as soon as you land. Accommodation isn't cheap and you probably won't find a job for a couple of weeks.
Talking of jobs, you'll find you get a much higher response rate to applications once you are in Australia. A lot of companies won't even look at your application if you haven't got an Australian address or phone number. I even saw some companies that stated you must have resided in Australia for 2 months before applying.
There's lots of places to find jobs in Australia, like the UK there is LinkedIn, SEEK and Indeed. There's also Facebook groups and Gumtree. I found mine and Tim's job via a Facebook group for Australian backpackers! We had a video call interview a few days after I sent over our CV's and was offered the jobs on the video call. There is also a heap of websites to help backpackers find work in Australia:
If you're looking for regional, live in hospitality work that classes towards your 88 days I recommend MLKA as that's what they specialise in! If you see a job advert and want to check if it will count towards the 88 days, use this website to check the postcode.
What are the 88 days? These are the days you need to work in regional Australia or specified fields to be able to apply for your 2nd year working holiday visa. Most people do farm work for this but don't overlook hospitality! It's usually much better working conditions, living conditions, working hours and pay.
Along with the 88 days requirement, there is also an age limit on the WHV of 30. As long as your first visa is approved before you turn 30 you can enter Australia on that visa at 31 but you can't apply for your 2nd year.
As I'm writing this, there is an agreement being written between Australia and the UK to up the age limit to 35 and to abolish the 88 days requirement for your 2nd year visa. I don't know for certain when these changes will be brought in, from what I've read it's possibly the end of May 2023.
There was also a limitation that you could only work with 1 employer for 6 months when my visa was approved, however, that rule was relaxed earlier in the year and then extended during our first few months in Australia meaning you can now work for 1 employer for more than 6 months without having to have it agreed by immigration. I am unsure if this will remain with the new WHV rules or how long it will stay 'relaxed' for.
Once you get your visa approved, you can start thinking about setting up your Australian bank account as you definitely need one of these to get a job. The company I travelled with sent through a detailed step by step guide on how to open a bank account with Commonwealth. This bank has great resources for people applying from overseas. By applying in advance you can collect your bank card upon arrival in Australia which is great for people wanting to find work straight away.
Once you get to Aus, you're going to want to sort out your SIM card pretty quickly. Vodafone is the cheapest but it's not the best for reliable signal outside of the big cities. We went without signal quite a few times in our east coast trip but apart from that, no issues! I pay monthly for a data package too that lets you keep unused data which will be great when I get back on the road.
So you've got your visa, you've opened a bank account and you've got your SIM card. Next step, collect your bank card (you need an Aussie mobile number to do this). The final step I recommend for a WHM is applying for your Medicare! Get a reciprocal health care card. You can download the application form online, fill it in and e-mail it over. It can take quite some time for your card to come through so bare with it. It will ask for your Australian address, you can put down the hostel you are staying at. The way I did all of this was with the support of Ultimate Travel in Sydney. I booked the Working Holiday trip with them via Gap360. They had SIM cards in the office for us to purchase, Medicare forms in office (they helped me fill it in and then scanned it and e-mailed it to me so I could forward it on) and they receive mail for me. They hold mail for the duration of your visa and can forward it on to you anywhere in Australia! I was able to use the office address for all my forms and post whilst I was travelling which was really helpful.
After all this, you should be set for your working holiday! If you've got any top tips leave them in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed this blog, follow along for more here on wix blogs and on Instagram & Tik Tok @bilbo.h
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