Uruguayans become eligible for Australian Work and Holiday Visa

Uruguay has become the 10th country to join the Work and Holiday program, giving young people aged between 18 and 30 from both countries the chance to live and work in the other for up to a year.

Uruguay is now part of Australia's Work and Holiday program.

The Work and Holiday program is counterpart to the Working Holiday Visa Program, of which both the UK and Ireland are party to, both programs allow young passport holders from eligible countries to live and work in Australia for a year.

Such programs are extremely popular and Australia has added several new countries in recent months.

The program intends to foster international relationships between partner countries and agreements are typically only arranged with allied countries with pre-existing economic or cultural ties.

Both the Work and Holiday program and the Working Holiday program have grown in popularity in the wake of the global financial crisis. While job opportunities at home have been limited to younger members of a country's workforce, Australia's resistance to economic downturn offer better opportunities.

Uruguay joins fellow South American countries Argentina and Chile as members of the Work and Holiday program as well as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and the US.

The program opened to Uruguayan applicants at the start of this month and will initially be limited to 200 work and holiday visas a year.

The Australian Visa Bureau is an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications with the Australian Embassy.