Australia temporarily suspended its Work and Holiday visa agreement with the Czech Republic on 1 March 2026.
As a result, Czech citizens cannot currently apply for an Australian Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa. Additionally, Australian citizens are not able to apply for a Czech Work and Holiday visa for the time being.
Why is the visa agreement suspended?
1 March 2026 marked the eight-year anniversary since Australia and the Czech Republic initially launched reciprocal Work and Holiday visas for each others’ citizens (which happened on 1 March 2018).
The agreement was up for renewal on this date. Rather than immediately renewing it, the Australian government decided at the last minute to temporarily suspend the program.
The Australian Department of Home Affairs did not give a specific reason for this, other than that the program has been temporarily paused “to allow the department to make extension arrangements”.
It’s worth noting that Australia previously limited the number of Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visas issued to Czech citizens each year to 500. However, that quota has generally filled very quickly, meaning demand in the Czech Republic for these visas is considerably higher than this.
Perhaps the Australian government could be considering moving the Czech Republic onto its new ballot system? It’s already done this for three other countries where there is enormous demand for Australian Work and Holiday visas: China, India and Vietnam. But I’m not sure why the Czech Republic in particular would be the next country to move to this system. There are plenty of other nations where demand for these visas is also higher than the available quota.
What happens next?
The Czech and Australian governments will provide an update once they reach a new Work and Holiday Visa agreement.
The two governments have not provided a timeline for when they expect this to happen. Personally, I can’t imagine it would take more than a year… but you never really know for sure how these kinds of negotiations will go.
Other options
In the meantime, unfortunately, Australians can no longer access working holiday visas in the Czech Republic – and vice versa.
If you’re an Australian citizen and don’t want to wait for this situation to be resolved, you could consider getting a working holiday visa in another country in Europe instead. For example, all of the countries that border the Czech Republic – Germany, Austria, Poland and Slovakia – continue to offer working holiday visas to Aussies.
Australians could also consider applying for a different type of Czech Republic visa, if eligible.
Czech citizens can continue to access working holiday visas in other countries including New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Chile.
Matt is the founder of Working Holidays for Aussies. Passionate about travel and always looking for great deals, he believes that a gap year is the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture and learn all the things they didn’t teach you in school.
Originally from Australia, Matt has travelled to over 100 countries, lived in 7 countries, and has extensive real-world experience with working holiday visas.
Learn more and connect with Matt Graham on LinkedIn.
