Australia Issues Half of the World’s Working Holiday Visas
Ever since it signed its first working holiday visa agreements with the UK, Ireland and Canada in 1975, Australia has been a beacon for backpackers.
In fact, Australia’s economy now relies heavily on working holiday makers to fill a lot of different jobs. This is especially the case in rural communities, where backpackers are incentivised to work in order to renew their working holiday visas for a second or third year.
Today, Australia offers working holiday visas to young citizens of a whopping 49 countries. And Australia’s popularity as a working holiday destination isn’t slipping.
In fact, in November 2024, a record 213,400 people were in Australia on working holiday visas. That’s around half of all people living around the world on a working holiday visa!
That’s significantly higher than pre-COVID levels. In December 2019, for example, there were 141,100 working holiday travellers in Australia.
UK citizens are the largest cohort of backpackers in Australia
Part of the increase is due to the new agreements that the Australian government has signed in recent years, as well as increased quotas for some countries with existing agreements. But the biggest change is in the number of Brits coming to Australia on a 417 visa – and staying longer.
In July 2023, the Australian government increased the age limit for British working holiday makers from 30 to 35.
In the 2023-24 financial year, the Australian government granted 40,253 first-year working holiday visas to people from United Kingdom. That’s in addition to 6,300 second-year and 681 third-year visas. But with Brits also no longer required to complete “specified work” to renew for another year, many more are now choosing to stay for a second or third year than previously.
The number of backpackers in Australia would be even higher without the caps in place
Australia offers two different types of working holiday visas – there’s the subclass 417 visa, and the subclass 462 (“Work and Holiday”) visa which has a few extra restrictions. Most new agreements that Australia has signed since 2005 are for the latter type of visa.
Unlike with Working Holiday (417) visas, Australia has imposed a reciprocal annual limit on the number of Work and Holiday (462) visas it issues to citizens of most of the countries with that type of arrangement. The Department of Home Affairs publishes these quotas, and the status of each country’s application cap, on its website.
At the time of writing, quite a few countries had already reached their annual cap for the current year (which is based on the Australian financial year from July to June). In fact, demand from three countries in particular – China, India and Vietnam – is now so much higher than the number of annual places available that the Australian government has set up a ballot system for citizens of those places.
Without those caps in place, Australia could potentially have tens or even hundreds of thousands more people coming to the country each year on working holiday visas.
This brings incredible opportunities for young Aussies
The sheer number of different countries that Australia has working holiday agreements with is great news for young Australians. With just three current exceptions, all of Australia’s working holiday visa deals are reciprocal.
This means eligible Australians can apply for working holiday visas in 46 countries. That’s almost a quarter of the countries that exist in the world!
The UK, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan are among the most popular destinations for Australian working holiday makers. But the vast list of countries open to Aussies now even includes places like Slovenia, Türkiye, Malaysia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Mongolia.
If you’re an Australian citizen, don’t take this for granted. Citizens of most other countries simply don’t have these kinds of opportunities to legally live and work in so many different countries. It’s a huge privilege that more than makes up for the fact Australia has the world’s most expensive passport.
Which other countries attract large numbers of backpackers?
While Australia is the world’s most popular country for working holidays, other countries including New Zealand, France, Canada and the UK also attract large numbers of backpackers.
New Zealand and Canada, in particular, both boast large number of reciprocal working holiday agreements. This means that Canadians and Kiwis also enjoy similar working holiday opportunities to Australians.
