26 Oct Australia raises Working Holiday Visa age limit to 35 – and other news!

Breaking news! 

#Australia to raise the age limit for their #workingholiday visa to 35 from 1 January 2017. They will also drop the application fee by $50 and decrease the tax payable on working holiday visa holder wages.

Earlier this year the Australian Government opted to increase the tax payable by working holiday visa makers – however, after seeing a noticeable drop in applications this year they have reversed this measure.

The working holiday visa is a great way to get to Australia quickly, easily and for relatively little outlay (the application fee is only AUD $440, and from 1st January will drop to AUD $390). For this, you get an Australian visa for 12 months with full work rights and can work in any field you like. If you work for 88 days in a regional area (in certain occupations such as farming or construction) then you can apply for another year of a working holiday visa.

This makes it a great way to try out living in Australia for up to 2 years without having to go through skills assessments and English tests and lengthy visa application processing.

To be eligible you need to hold a passport from one of the following countries:

• Belgium
• Canada
• Republic of Cyprus
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Republic of Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Republic of Korea
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• United Kingdom.

UPDATE – the age limit was not increased on 1st Jan 2017 as anticipated. The Australian Government say there are ‘complexities’ they need to sort out first. We will let you know when the age limit increase comes into effect. Email us your name, date of birth and country of passport to visas@hightreeslaw.com and we will advise you as soon as the age limit increases.