First Working Holiday Visa A Working Holiday visa gives you 12 months to travel to Australia from the date the visa is granted, and allows you to stay in Australia for 12 months from the date you first enter Australia. See DIAC website for more information

You can leave and re-enter Australia within the 12 months from the date of initial entry to Australia. However, if you depart Australia during your 12 month stay, you are not able to recover in any way the period of time spent outside Australia. Click here to go to application form # 1150

Second Working Holiday Visa If you are planning to apply for A Second Working Holiday Visa, it is advisable to start early on your 3 months of work in Regional Australia, rather than doing it at the end of your first year, as people often end up running out of time and will fail to qualify if they are 1 or 2 days short of the required 3 months. Remember, if you are building up the 3 months at a number of different WWOOF Hosts, or with a mixture of paid work and WWOOFing, to allow for travel time in between hosts as this does not count as days worked.

It is the WWOOFers responsibility to bring this form with them to each Host property, the Hosts do not have the forms on hand (and should not be asked to supply it), so ensure you download and print the form BEFORE you visit any Hosts. Click here to go to application form # 1263

To be eligible for a second Working Holiday visa, you must meet a number of general requirements:-

• have completed three months of Specified work in regional Australia while on your first Working Holiday visa

• be aged between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) at the time of applying

• if applying from outside Australia, be applying no more than 12 months before you intend to travel to Australia

• not have any dependant children

• hold a passport for a country or region participating in the Working Holiday program.

WWOOFing is accepted by DIAC as a suitable activity to qualify for this visa, you must ensure that the Hosts you work for are located within the areas set out by DIAC Go to the DIAC website for more information

For the purposes of meeting the requirements for a second Working Holiday visa, see the DIAC definitions for 'Specified work' and *'Regional Australia'

The work need not be paid work e.g.: "work undertaken as a volunteer or through the WWOOFing scheme (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) may be counted toward the three months of specified work if your WWOOF Host is in regional Australia. You will still need to provide evidence that you have done a minimum of three months of specified work.

Three months work can be spread over a number of WWOOF Hosts, each Host must be located in one of the postcodes listed on DIAC's Postcode list, and must sign your form stating the number of days you have worked with them, so make sure you ask the Host prior to staying with them if they are happy to sign your form. Hosts will only sign these forms if WWOOFers have actually done the required amount of specified work each day as agreed with the hosts when arranging to stay. DIAC check almost every application with WWOOF Hosts and other employers to see if the specified work has been done for the number of days stated on the form, so ensure your host records this information in their guestbook.

Please note: Hosts do not need to be a commercial operation or hold an ABN to sign your form, but you cannot lodge the form online if they don't have one, in this case you will need to mail your completed form.

With voluntary work DIAC prefer that Hosts actually sign your form 1263 as this is good evidence that you have stayed with that host, volunteers do not have pay slips or tax records to prove they were on a particular farm, so if you want your application to go through smoothly it is good to ensure you can document your stay on each farm clearly. There are many unscrupulous people who are paying people to sign their form without them ever getting out of the city, so DIAC are checking almost every application. Some of the things you could do to prove you stayed with a host are:

• Keep a journal or blog, and take photos you can show DIAC of you working on the farm.

• Make sure you sign you Host's guest book and fill in the dates you were there, if you can, scan or copy this page.

• If you can, give your host a copy of your form 1263 after they have signed it and ask them to keep it with their guestbook page in case DIAC call them to check the dates you were there.

• Keep records of the bus/train you took, or petrol receipts showing you were in that area.

• Fill in the back of your WWOOF book, recording which Hosts you stayed with and the dates you were there

• Keep ATM or eftpos receipts that show you were in the area.

Hours of Work for the 2nd Working Holiday Visa

Three months is considered to be three calendar months or 88 days. Time worked is taken from start date to end date e.g., if a person works for one employer for two weeks, weekends will not be deducted (i.e. this counts as 14 days). Work must be full time. Full time work is taken to be the norm for that employer, that region and that industry, as WWOOFing is 4-6 hours per day, this is considered the norm for WWOOF.

DIAC recommend that WWOOFers work the same period that is considered full time work on each individual WWOOF Host farm. If this is more than 6 hours per day, then you will need to make arrangements with the WWOOF Host for any additional hours you work over 6 hours per day. These hours can either be paid work (but please note this is not considered WWOOFing and WWOOFer Insurance would not cover these hours) or you could have time off on weekends or other days in exchange. As with all WWOOFing arrangements flexibility is the key, but in all cases flexible hours must be negotiated in advance with your WWOOF Host to avoid misunderstandings and conflict. Here are a couple of examples:

For long stays, 7 days or longer:

* Hosts could have their WWOOFers work for 8 hours each day for 5 days in exchange for 7 days food and accommodation (8 hours x 5 days = 40 hours, 6 hours x 7 days= 42 hours) This counts as 7 days on form 1263. WWOOFers work a maximum of 42 hours as WWOOFers in exchange for their food and accommodation, so any hours they work over 42 needs to be either paid hours or time off in lieu.

* Hosts who consider a full time week on their farm to be 28 – 38 hours could have their WWOOFers work these hours over 4 1/2 or 5 days then have 2 days off. The WWOOFers would have all their meals and accommodation provided for 7 days and the host would sign for 7 days on their 1263 form.

For short stays DIAC have given the following ruling:

"In regards to a standard day, WWOOF Australia's volunteer work hours are 4 to 6 hours/day. We (DIAC) therefore count a minimum of 4 to 6 hours worked on a WWOOF farm as one day of work. If a worker chooses to work more than the standard 4 to 6 hours, eg 8 hours or more in a single day, this does not count as 2 days work of the specified work. Similarly WWOOF Hosts should not require workers to work for more than 4 to 6 hours/day given that this is the standard for volunteer work hours set by WWOOF Australia."