Australian Working Visa - Short Term (U.S. Citizens)
Do you want to work in Australia while you're travelling? Do you have a passport from the USA, Chile, Thailand or Turkey?
If you answered 'yes' to both questions, then this visa (the "Work and Holiday Visa for Australia (Subclass 462)") is the visa for you.
Note that if you have a passport from Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan or the UK you should apply for this visa instead.
The Work and Holiday Visa (Subclass 462) will let you work for 12 months in Australia. However, you can only work for 6 months for each employer. For example, you could work from January to June at a bar in Sydney and from July to December at a different bar in Sydney, a bar in Melbourne, or even a newsagent in Perth! If 6 months with each employer and 12 months in total is too short, you might want to explore the visa for a long working holiday in Australia.
In some cases, you may be able to extend the 6 month limit on working with the same employer by proving that a project or case has taken longer than expected. For example, if you're a web designer working on a large website project that has gone two months over schedule, you may be able to apply for an extension to the 6 month work period.
However, you can't simply get an extension (ie work for more than 6 months with the same company) because there is a shortage of skilled workers in your industry.
You can also study or train for up to 4 months with this visa.
Finally, this visa also acts as a multiple entry visa for Australia. So you could visit New Zealand or Fiji (or any other country) while on your working holiday in Australia.
Age Restrictions
You must be between 18 and 30 years of age to apply for this visa. This means you can be 30 when you apply, but not 31.
Educational Qualifications
If you have a passport from Chile, Thailand or Turkey, you will need a university degree to apply for this visa. If you're from the USA, you only need to have a high school diploma.