Planning for your visit to Australia

Why come to Australia on your working holiday visa?

If you’re aged between 18 and 30 you can get a working holiday visa for Australia and spend a year working and travelling in oz.

There are so many awesome well-paid jobs in oz that there’s a good chance that you’ll end up doing something that you’ll not only love doing but something that will give you invaluable work and life experience.

Whether you want to work on an outback cattle station, or become a divemaster and teach people how to scuba dive on the great barrier reef, or pick fruit on a farm in tropical Queensland, or serve cocktails at a cool bar on Sydney harbour, working your way around Australia is an experience you’ll never forget!

Planning your Australia Working Holiday Visa visit

Check your passport

In the first planning stages of getting your working holiday visa it’s important to check your passport. Do you have a passport? Is it valid? Always good to have validity on your passport for the whole time you are in Australia. So if that’s something that needs actioning get onto it now in those first planning stages rather than at the last minute when you will have to pay extra to rush one through.

Also, check passport validity requirements for any other countries you will be visiting, as many require your passport to be valid for at least six months in order to let you into their country.

How to get your Working Holiday Visa

Are you eligible?

All the official info can be found on the Australian immigration website:

Mostly you will be going for the subclass 417 working holiday visa.

The basics you need to know to get this visa

Must be 18 to 30 years old (inclusive) – except for Canadian and Irish citizens up to 35 (inclusive)

Must have a passport from an eligible country

Must not be accompanied by dependent children

Pretty simple right. And you get 12 months on this one. Costs around 450 AUD.

Want to know a secret? You don’t have to pay any company to get this visa for you. They will take a commission and charge you a booking fee. No need at all you can get this visa yourself. You are a smart intelligent person about to head to another country and work there. You can apply for a visa yourself online. It will be the start of your independence! And save you some cash for more travel!

Check out the immigration website for more details. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/

Immigration website

The processing times can be found on the website but mostly you will find 75% of applications are completed within 23 days.

This visa also has the ability to extend to a second-year working holiday if you have completed some criteria. Always good to be prepared for the future. Maybe don’t tell your parents just yet you intend to be away for 2 years.

Other good news- From 1 July 2019, WHM visa holders who carry out 6 months of specified work in regional areas while on their second Working Holiday (subclass 417) visa or Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa may be eligible to apply for a third visa. Eligible types of work and regional areas will correspond with the requirements for the second visa.

Once you have the passport and visa sorted it’s time to really begin planning for the trip.

“The food in Australia is amazing as its pretty multi-cultural. Fantastic Vietnamese and Japanese food and of course local Aussie fare too.” Real Adventure Group

Australia Working Holiday Visa planning ahead

Sort your Flight, travel insurance, and save!

This will give you an idea of your initial main outlay and they’re things to organize and pay for first. Flights you can take a browse on Skyscanner for a guestimate.

We recommend landing with $4,000-$5,000 in your bank and so do the Australia Government. Add this to the above and you’ll have a savings target figure.

Work out how long will it take you to hit your savings target and then you can get a date in mind. Get an extra job at home, tell all your friends and book it!! Exciting stuff!

What to pack

What to pack is another important question we get asked all the time so we have written a blog to help you. Work on the Marie Kondo method and pack everything neatly to fit in more. And watch plenty of capsule wardrobe and packing videos on Youtube. You don’t need to bring much and you will buy items here in Australia when you start working and earning money.

Read more: a-guide-on-what-to-pack-for-your-australia-trip

Insurance

Travel insurance is not included when booking one of our tours, but we strongly recommend you get covered in case anything happens whilst you’re on holiday. Make sure that your travel insurance policy provides cover for emergency medical expenses, evacuation, personal belongings, and interruptions to your trip that may prevent you from traveling on the confirmed departure date.

For more information check out our full info page on travel insurance here.
Compared to the rest of Australia New South Wales doesn’t look much on the map, but looks can be deceiving. New South Wales contains Australia’s largest city, Sydney. Teaming with life, multiculturalism, and the iconic Opera house this city by the sea is the perfect place to start your Australian adventure.

So what is life in Australia really like day to day?

Is it exactly like living in an episode of Neighbours or is every day about the beach like Bondi Rescue?

It’s mainly about being outdoors, with evening BBQs, sunset beers, and chilling in the park on your lunch break.

The lifestyle is whatever you make it if you want to sit in an office all day and watch TV all night you’ll have no worries doing it, but for the most part, the warm climate and outdoor living make getting into the great outdoors hard to avoid.

Even in busy cities like Sydney and Melbourne you’re never too far from some sand and surf.

The drinking culture is pretty big in Australia. Aussies love the pub life and a cheeky after-work beer or Sunday session is never passed up! You’ve got to be 18 to drink in Oz and most places will ID you, so always keep your driving license or passport to hand if you’re going out or buying booze.

The food in Australia is amazing as it’s pretty multicultural. Fantastic Vietnamese and Japanese food and of course local Aussie fare too. The pie is an institution and they know how to make them well here in Australia. Plus a Sausage sizzle- which is a barbequed sausage in a bun or bread but also an event in Australia as locals host them to fundraise.

Plus you have to try Tim Tams… it’s like a Penguin bar but not individually wrapped so you don’t feel guilty eating more than one. Amazing!