If you wish to renew your Working Holiday Visa for a second year in Australia, you must work for a minimum of three months – or 88 days – in a specific job position during your first year. To renew your visa for a third year, you will need to do 179 days (6 months) in a specific job position in an eligible region. Other conditions are also required for the renewal. In this article, we provide you with a list of the jobs eligible for a second year and third year visa.

Eligible jobs for a second and third year visa in Australia

There are many different industries you can work in to qualify for a second and third working holiday visa. You can work in agriculture in such industries as harvesting, cultivation, processing as well as forestry, fishing and pearling, mining and construction industry. Remember that you have to work in a regional area.
Here is the list of all the jobs eligible to renew, extracted from the Australian government website (www.homeaffairs.gov.au).

Plant and animal cultivation

• Agricultural work (Plant and animal cultivation)
• The harvesting and / or packing of fruit and vegetable crops
• Pruning and trimming vines and trees
• General maintenance crop work
• Cultivation of plants, fungi or their products or parts – Cultivating or propagating plants, fungi or their products or parts
• Immediate processing of plant products
• Maintaining animals for the purpose of selling them or their bodily produce, including natural increase
• Primary processing of animal products (shearing, butchery, packaging and tanning) – Immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery, packing and tanning; Note: The secondary stages of these activities are not taken into account (ex butcher sale)
• Manufacturing dairy from raw material.

Note: Your work must be directly linked to the cultivation or sale of the product (fruit, nuts, etc.). Maintenance gardening is not eligible. Tourist activities are not taken into account

Fishing and pearling

• Conducting operations relating directly to taking or catching fish and other aquatic species;
• Conducting operations relating directly to taking or culturing pearls or pearl shell.

Tree farming and felling

• Planting or tending trees in a plantation or forest that are intended to be felled;
• Felling trees in a plantation or forest;
• Transporting trees or parts of trees that were felled in a plantation or forest to the place where they are first to be milled or processed or from which they are to be transported to the place where they are to be milled or processed.

Mining

• Coal mining;
• Oil and gas extraction;
• Metal ore mining;
• Construction material mining;
• Non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying;
• Exploration;
• Mining support services.

The list of mining jobs according to the ANZSIC is available here.

Construction

• Residential building construction
• non-residential building construction
• heavy and civil engineering construction
• land development and site preparation services
• building structure services
• building installation services
• building completion services
• other construction services

The work carried out in the mining and construction industry must be defined by the ‘Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC)’.

For the list of specified work in construction according to the ANZSIC, click here.

Some examples of eligible/no eligible jobs

Here is a list of jobs you can work in which qualify as specified work:

• Fruit picking;
• feeding and herding cattle
• landscaping the grounds of a construction/house site
• conservation and environmental reforestation work
• zoo work involving plant or animal cultivation

Some jobs won’t be qualified as eligible, such as :

• town planning or architecture
• working as a nanny on a farm
• working at a cellar door providing wine tastings
• cooking/catering on a mine site
• cleaning the interior of mine complexes or buildings.

Official Source: Homeaffairs

Addition: Specified Work for 462 visa holders

Subclass 462 visa holders must complete their 88 days working in Northern Australia to become eligible for a second year visa. In this case, eligible industries also include tourism and hospitality. 

Tourism and hospitality

• work in a range of positions where the primary purpose is to directly provide a service to tourists, including tourist guides and operators, outdoor adventure or activity instructors, tourist transport services
• gallery or museum managers, curators or guides
• hospitality workers, including a range of positions in hotels or other accommodation facilities, restaurants, cafes, bars and casinos
• conference and event organisers

Note: Work undertaken in the tourism and hospitality industry must appear in the list of tourism and hospitality occupations, which is based on Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) codes. See the section on Tourism and hospitality occupations for the complete list of eligible occupations.

Eligible jobs in disaster affected areas

Following the tragic fires that hit Australia in the summer of 2019-2020, the government has made temporary changes to existing laws to allow backpackers to help get the country back on track while renewing their WHV. New regions, as well as new jobs, have been added for renewal.

We are talking about “assisting bush recovery efforts” or “disaster recovery work“. More concretely, this includes:

• Construction, farming, or any other work in association with recovery or restitution of land, property, farm animals or wildlife.
• Providing support services or assistance to people living, working or volunteering in the affected areas.

Volunteer work helping to rebuild properties and businesses ravaged by fire will also be considered for the renewal of PVT visas.

More information here: Work in disaster-affected areas

Updated 08.07.2020 – First published 25.10.2016