Lisa-93

Hello everyone,

I have just been granted my working holiday visa and have arranged to complete my regional work as soon as I arrive, however I am struggling to calculate how long it will take me to complete my three months/88 days. I am planning on working 5 days a week full time (min. 35 hours) as this is standard for the farming industry. As this is the case, will my 88 days only count the 5 days a week that I am working (which equates to nearly 18 weeks - evidently this is more than three months) or will it simply be 5 days a week for 12 weeks?

Hope this makes sense and thanks for your help.

Lisa

Pollyana

I'd say its 5 days a week, thats standard for the industry i believe, but as you are working fulltime, it seems you can count the weekends - see the end of the paragraph below.

From the visa Applicants tab at Working Holiday visa (subclass 417)

'Three months' means three 'calendar' months or 88 days. Work can be either:

in one block with one business
in separate blocks with one business or a number of businesses. Blocks of work may be in different kinds of specified work.
One full day of work is defined as having worked the minimum number of hours considered to be a standard day by the particular industry in which the applicant is employed. Generally, the Australian working week is 35 to 40 hours, consisting of seven to eight hours of work each day. Individual employers can not set a smaller period of time than the industry standard to satisfy the specified work requirement.

In calculating the period of time for which the applicant has undertaken specified work, the type of employment relationship the applicant may have with their employer, including full/part time employment, casual employment or voluntary employment, is not as important as whether the relevant industry considers the period of work completed to be equivalent to full time work for that industry. For example, if the applicant's paid employment involved two weeks on and then two weeks off, and this is standard practice in the industry, the applicant would be considered to have worked for four weeks (28 days). If the employer is satisfied that the applicant has undertaken the equivalent of full time work for that industry for the specified period, the visa decision maker may be satisfied that the applicant has undertaken full time work for the specified period.

Applicants whose work is equivalent to full time employment may count weekends in the 88 day period. However, if the applicant's work is not equivalent to full time employment, for example, part time or casual, they may only count the full days actually worked.

Lisa-93

That's great thanks for your advice - I'm sure they love to make it confusing for the fun of it!

Pollyana

Its called red tape, the Aussies are masters at it, far more so than the Brits!

Lisa-93

We will get there in the end!!