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On 17 September 2026, the Australian Government announced significant reforms to the Working Holiday Maker visa program to introduce ballot systems for second and third-year visa extensions and to substantially reduce the number of available places.
Under the previous system, all holders of a first-year Working Holiday visa who complete the required 88 days of specified regional work were eligible to be granted a second year Working Holiday visa. The proposed changes by the Australian Government will now see automatic qualification to apply for a second year working holiday to be decided by ballot set to an annual cap of 45,000 places.
Second year Working Holiday visa applicants who have completed 6 months of specified regional work will also have to enter a ballot to apply for a Third Year Working Holiday visa which will be capped to an even lower number of 5,000 places.
These changes mirror existing ballot systems for Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese Work and Holiday visa applicants and are designed to significantly reduce the number of Working Holiday Makers in Australia.
These new restrictions, however, will not apply to the largest cohort of Working Holiday makers from the United Kingdom (“UK”) as existing rights of UK nationals are preserved under the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement.
Donald Chen, Solicitor
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