Working Holiday Visa: The 88 Days That Decide Your Second Year

A first-year working holiday maker who asks whether they can stay for a second year is usually asking two questions at once, and the two have different answers. The first is whether the work they are about to accept counts at all. The second is whether, when the time comes to apply, the record of that work will show what the Department of Home Affairs needs it to show. A job can satisfy the first question and fail the second, and many people only discover the distinction on the evening they sit down to lodge.

This article addresses both questions for holders of the Working Holiday visa (subclass 417) who are still in their first year and who would like to keep the option of a second, whether or not they are yet certain they will use it. Holders of the Work and Holiday visa (subclass 462) will find the same structure applies to them, with one important difference that is set out below. The figures and rules here come from the Home Affairs page on specified work for the subclass 417 visa, as read on 17 October 2026.

None of this is migration advice. Where a circumstance is unusual, such as a contract that changed partway through, an employer who has since closed, or work that sits on the edge of an industry definition, a registered migration agent is the proper person to consult.

One group of readers can set most of what follows aside. According to Home Affairs, holders of a United Kingdom passport who lodge their application on or after 1 July 2024 are not required to complete specified work for a second or third 417 visa. For every other 417 holder, the 88 days remain the condition on which the second year depends.

What the 88 days measure

The phrase that circulates among backpackers is “three months of farm work”. Neither part of that phrase is precise, and the imprecision is where most of the trouble begins.

Home Affairs defines “3 months” as the three shortest calendar months, which comes to a minimum of 88 calendar days. Those 88 days include weekends and equivalent rest days. They are therefore not 88 shifts. A person who works a normal full-time week for 88 consecutive calendar days, with the usual days off, has met the period.

The test underneath the count is one of equivalence. The department asks whether the applicant has worked the same number of normal days or shifts that a full-time employee in that role would work over the same period. A worker who picks up two shifts a week for three months has not met the requirement, because a full-time employee in the same role would have worked far more. A worker who does the equivalent of five days a week over three months has.

The work does not need to come from a single employer or a single stretch. Home Affairs allows it to be split across different employers and different periods, and it may be full time, part time or piecework, provided that the total adds up to the equivalent of five days a week over three months. This is the flexibility that makes the requirement achievable for many people. It is also what makes record-keeping so important, because a patchwork of short engagements is harder to demonstrate than one continuous job.

For those already thinking further ahead, the third 417 visa carries a longer requirement. Home Affairs sets it at six months of specified work, a minimum of 179 calendar days, with the work performed on or after 1 July 2019. Anyone who may want a third year has good reason to keep the record described below running well beyond the first 88 days.

Which work counts on a 417

The second half of the definition is the word “specified”. Not all regional work qualifies, and not all work in a qualifying industry qualifies in every location. Home Affairs lists the approved industries for the 417 as follows:

• plant and animal cultivation
• fishing and pearling
• tree farming and felling
• mining and construction in regional Australia
• tourism and hospitality, but only in Northern or Remote and Very Remote Australia, and only for work performed on or after 22 June 2021
• bushfire recovery work in declared areas, performed after 31 July 2019
• recovery work following floods, cyclones or other severe weather events in declared areas, performed after 31 December 2021

The dates matter as much as the industries. A hospitality role in a remote town counts only if the work was performed from 22 June 2021 onwards, and recovery work counts only within the declared areas and after the stated dates.

Home Affairs also indicates that support roles within a specified industry, in an eligible postcode, may be accepted. The word “may” is deliberate on the department’s part and should be read the same way by the applicant. A role that supports a qualifying operation is not automatically excluded, but it is also not automatically included, and that is precisely the kind of case in which advice from a registered migration agent is worth obtaining before the work begins rather than after it ends.

The postcode is half the test

An approved industry is necessary but not sufficient. The work must also be performed in an eligible location, and Home Affairs publishes postcode lists for each type of area: regional Australia, Northern Australia, and Remote and Very Remote Australia. A fruit-picking job in a postcode that does not appear on the relevant list does not count, however much it resembles a job a few kilometres away that does.

All postcodes in the Northern Territory are eligible for work in Northern Australia, which simplifies matters for anyone heading to the Top End. Elsewhere, the list must be checked.

The order in which this check is made is the point most worth emphasising. The postcode that matters is the postcode of the place where the work is performed, which is not always the address on the employer’s letterhead. The applicant should check that location against the Home Affairs list before accepting the position, not after the 88 days have been completed. A job accepted on assurance alone is a job whose value to the second-year application has not been established.

Reaching the work is a practical consideration in its own right. Many qualifying properties sit well outside the reach of public transport, and a vehicle often becomes part of the plan. Anyone weighing up a few weeks of rental against the cost of buying a car may find our notes on hiring a car without the extra fees useful before committing to either.

A note for subclass 462 holders. The Work and Holiday visa has its own specified-work page on the Home Affairs website, with its own list of industries and eligible areas. The two lists are not interchangeable, and the 417 list set out above should not be applied to a 462. A 462 holder should read the page for their own visa before relying on anything in this article beyond its general structure.

Paid properly, or it does not count

The third condition is the one most often overlooked, because it concerns the employer rather than the work. Home Affairs states that all specified work for the 417 must be paid in accordance with Australian legislation and the relevant awards. Work that was underpaid is not simply a grievance to be raised later; it is work that may not count towards the visa at all.

Two consequences follow. The first is that voluntary work does not count, with one exception: Home Affairs accepts volunteer work only for recovery efforts in declared disaster areas. An unpaid arrangement on a farm, however generous the accommodation, does not satisfy the requirement.

The second is that the worker has an interest in knowing what the correct rate of pay is. Awards set minimum rates for roles, and a working holiday maker is entitled to them on the same basis as any other employee. Understanding what a role should pay is a skill that serves well beyond the visa, and our guide on how to ask for a pay rise sets out how to establish what a position is worth before raising it with an employer.

A correctly paid job leaves a trail behind it. The most important part of that trail is the pay slips your employer must give you. Every one of them should be kept, in its original form and preferably in a second copy stored somewhere other than the phone that may be lost in a dam or left on a bus.

Counting the days as you go

The simplest protection against a disputed count is a running record, kept daily from the first shift. It need not be elaborate. A notebook or a spreadsheet with the following columns is sufficient for most people:

• the date of each day worked
• the employer’s name and Australian Business Number
• the postcode where the work was performed
• the hours worked that day
• the reference or date of the pay slip that covers it

Rest days should be noted as well, so that the calendar count of 88 days can be reconciled against the full-time equivalence test. Where the work is split across several employers, the record shows at a glance whether the gaps between jobs have left the total short.

A boundary should be stated plainly here. This is a record-keeping method recommended as good practice. It is not a list of documents that Home Affairs requires, and it should not be read as one. The department’s own requirements are set out on its website and may change; the running record exists so that the applicant can answer whatever the department asks, quickly and from their own notes, rather than reconstructing three months of work from memory and bank statements.

Is the second year worth three regional months?

Among working holiday makers themselves, this question divides opinion fairly evenly, and the division is reasonable on both sides. Some people know from the outset that they want to remain longer, and they complete the work early so that the option is secure. Others are confident that one year is enough and see no reason to spend a quarter of it in a role they did not come to Australia to do. A third group is undecided, and it is this group that is most at risk.

The risk arises from timing. The specified work for a second 417 must be completed while the applicant holds the first visa. A person who decides in month eleven that they would like to stay has very little time left in which to complete 88 days, find eligible work in an eligible postcode, and be paid correctly for all of it.

This article does not take a position on whether the second year is worth the cost. That is a judgement about a person’s own plans, finances and tolerance for early mornings, and it belongs to them. What can be said is that the decision is better made early than late, because the option closes quietly. Deciding in the first few months whether the option matters is the most useful single step a first-year holder can take, whichever way the decision falls.

Before the first shift

Three checks, made before any regional position is accepted, resolve most of the difficulties described above.

The industry. Confirm that the work falls within one of the approved industries for the visa held, and that any date conditions attached to that industry are met. A 462 holder checks the 462 list, not the 417 list.

The postcode. Confirm that the location where the work will be performed appears on the relevant Home Affairs postcode list for that industry. The employer’s assurance is not a substitute for the list.

The pay rate. Confirm that the offered rate meets the applicable award. Work that is not paid in accordance with Australian legislation and awards may not count, and the worker bears the consequence of that at the time of application.

With those three settled, the remaining task is administrative: count the calendar days, keep every pay slip, and maintain the running record from the first day. None of it is difficult. All of it is considerably easier to do at the time than to reconstruct afterwards.

Sources: Specified work for Working Holiday visa (subclass 417), Department of Home Affairs (https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417/specified-work)