If you want to stay in Australia for another year, you have the option to apply for a Second Year Visa and even a third year visa. Prerequisite: You must have completed 3 months or 88 days of specified work in a rural area in Australia for a second year and 6 months for a third year. How you calculate these days for your second and third year visa in Australia is a bit complicated, but this article will surely shed light on the matter.

Requirements for the 2nd Working Holiday Visa

The same as when applying for your 1st Working Holiday Visa, you have to meet the following requirements when applying for the Second Year Visa. When applying, you must be between 18 and 30 years old (you can apply until your 31^st birthday or 35th if you are an Irish, French or Canadian citizen. You must have a valid passport. You must have worked for 3 months or 88 days in a specific job in a rural area.

Please note age limit should increase to 35 for UK passport holders within the next few months (prior July 2022).

Calculate the 3 months or 88 days correctly

The Australian government has implemented some rules regarding the 88 days work. Three months is taken to mean a period equivalent to the 3 shortest ‘calendar’ months of the year. This is a minimum period of 88 calendar days, including weekends or rest days during your period of employment. You can either work :

• in one block with the same employer OR
• several blocks for one or more employers. The different period of work can be performed in different kinds of specified work and different industries. For example, you can work as a harvest helper in the Northern Territory for one month and as a miner in Tasmania for two months. You are free to spread the work over the stay period of your WHV visa.

You can complete the 3 months or 6 months requirement in a variety of ways:

• working multiple short periods of work in full time, part time or on a piecework rate, which add up to the equivalent of 5 days a week over 3 months
• working 5 days a week for a continuous period of 3 months (including piecework rate agreement)
• working less than 5 days a week over a period longer than 3 months

Number of hours

A day’s work: One single day of work is considered to be the normal number of hours per day that is considered standard practice in the industry in which you are employed. In Australia, these are usually 35 to 40 hours a week and 7 to 8 hours a day.  

For a full day to be accounted you must work 7 or 8 hours depending on the industry. Public holidays and sick days can be counted as a day of specified work if you are paid for that day.

You cannot count work carried out on any one calendar day as more than one day of specified work. For example, if the industry’s standard day is 5 hours, working 10 hours on one day cannot be counted as 2 days of specified work.

If you are working on Piece Rate (make sure it is written in your contract), there is no minimum hours needed to work to count a day.

Contract type

In general, it doesn’t matter whether you are a casual, full-time or part-time employee. The important thing is that you don’t work below the industry standard. For example, if you work two weeks on two weeks off, you can count the full four weeks (28 days). But only if this is common in the industry (e.g. in mining, nursing etc).

In general, weekends are included when you work 5 days a week. If you work for several employers on the same day, only one day counts.

What about the salary?

Some applications for a second visa were refused because the government considered that the worker had been underpaid. So remember to check that you are paid the legal minimum wage.

Minimum wages for all jobs in Australia are set by collective agreements (awards). They can vary depending on your age and the type of contract under which you are employed (full time, part-time or casual). Casual workers must be affected more than permanent employees (15 to 25% depending on the collective agreement).

To know the legal minimum wage to which you are entitled, it is important to know the professional sector on which you depend. Indeed, the minimum wage varies from job to job because it is set by collective agreements. For example, if you work in horticulture, you will depend on the Horticulture Award. On the contrary, if you work on a construction site, it will be the “Building and Construction General On-site Award”.

The national minimum wage has been set at $20.33 per hour since July 2021 (before tax). This represents $772.60 per week.

Eligible Jobs

There are several jobs you can do to count towards your second visa. Industries differ depending on your visa type (417 and 462).

For 417 visa holders

Industries approved for specified work:

• plant and animal cultivation
• fishing and pearling
• tree farming and felling
• mining
• construction
• bushfire recovery work in declared bushfire affected areas only, after 31 July 2019
• Critical COVID-19 work in the healthcare and medical sectors, after 31 January 2020
• Tourism and hospitality in northern, remote or very remote Australia only (from 22 June 2021)

For 462 visa holders

Approved industries and areas for specified work:

• plant and animal cultivation in northern Australia and other specified areas of regional Australia
• fishing and pearling in northern Australia only
• tree farming and felling in northern Australia only
• tourism and hospitality in northern Australia only
• construction in northern Australia and other specified areas of regional Australia
• bushfire recovery work in declared bushfire affected areas only, after 31 July 2019
• Critical COVID-19 work in the healthcare and medical sectors, after 31 January 2020
• Tourism and hospitality in northern, remote or very remote Australia only (from 22 June 2021)

Subclass 408 COVID-19 Pandemic event visas

For applications lodged on or after 14 November 2020, former WHMs can count critical COVID-19 work in the healthcare and medical sectors undertaken on a 408 visa towards eligibility for a second or third WHM visa.

Sick leave, accidents, weather

In the case of illness or an accident, the missed days for are still counted. Provided that it was agreed on in advance that sick leave will be paid. In these cases, the employer has to provide evidence.

If employees are unable to work and are not paid due to illness, an accident or weather-related circumstances (such as a storm during harvest), the days are not counted.

Calculate 88 days for your second year visa in Australia – Examples

Examples where the requirements for a 2nd working holiday visa are met:

Examples where the requirements for a 2nd working holiday visa are NOT met:

Conclusion

Firstly, remember to check that the job and the geographical area are eligible. Be sure to check your status when you sign your Tax File Number Declaration when starting a new job (full-time/part-time/ casual) as this will affect your day count. If you are employed on a “casual” basis, we advise you to count only the days actually worked in order to be completely sure that you have completed your specified work.
If you do your 88 days in several instalments, be sure to keep a count of your days so you don’t have any bad surprises.

Each case is unique, so the decision will always depend on the goodwill of an immigration officer.

Remember to keep all documents proving your work (payslips, photos, bank statements, etc.).

Apply for a third year working holiday visa

Since July 2019 it is possible to do a third year of WHV in Australia!

For this, it is necessary to perform 6 months of specified work in regional areas while being on your second WHV (417 or 462). The types of jobs and eligible regional areas are the same as for the second visa.