Second year visa jobs - How to find specified work for your second year visa

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The Australian government allows working holiday visa holders to extend their visas for another year, provided they meet the requirements of working in specified work in a regional area of Australia.

What is specified work and why is it necessary for the second year visa?

To qualify for your second year Working Holiday Visa, you'll need to complete three months (or 88 days) worth of specified work in a regional area of Australia.

You can find full details of what counts as specified work and where the regional areas of Australia are on our second year visa page. However, more often than not, the easiest work to find will be as fruit picking, farm work or horticultural work.

While you're working, make sure you collect evidence to prove you've completed the requirement - this can be in the form of bank statements, payslips or employer references, among other things.

Then, once you have your three months of work under your belt, you can begin the easy process of extending your visa and delay the prospect of returning home for another year!

How to find specified work

If you've decided you definitely want to stay, you'll have to get your work sorted in plenty of time before your first Australia visa runs out. Here are a few things to bear in mind.

Get ahead of the game

More than 40,000 Brits alone applied for an Australian working holiday visa last year and plenty decide to stay on an extra year so you won't be short of competition for places.

Most farms and orchards will use working holiday visa holders almost exclusively, so they'll know exactly how many they need. It can be worth staying in the closest town or city in advance to make sure you're first in line when they begin taking workers on.

If you leave it to the last minute you could be heading home sooner than you think.

Know where you want to go, what you want to do and when you can do it

There are plenty of options available in plenty of places but most of them will involve manual work and will be outside. If you don't cope to well in the heat you might want to avoid the Outback.

If you'd prefer not to over exert yourself, you might prefer a fruit sorting rather than picking job, again, you'll have to get there early to get your pick.

The work is defined as seasonal, so there will only be work available in each place at certain times. It will be no good if you're stuck in Sydney while the work is going in Queensland. Find out when the harvest periods are and make the most of them.

Where to stay and how you're living

When looking for work, make sure there's either accommodation available onsite and if not, that you can stay somewhere in a nearby town and can get there each day quickly and cheaply. Don't assume any of these things will be taken care of, find out.

Remember, chances are you'll be out in the sun, make sure you're stocked up on sun screen, insect repellent and anything else you might need, you could be miles away from a city or large town and you might not be able to get everything you need quickly.

Your seasonal work might not sound as fun as the other nine months of your trip but it needn't be that way in reality. You'll most likely be with groups of other people in the same situation, you'll be getting paid, you'll probably get a better tan than any amount of sitting on a beach doing nothing and above all you'll be getting paid.

Specified work listings

Below are some listings to check out when looking for farm work in Australia:

IMPORTANT: Please note that we have done our best to ensure that every agency, orchard and farm listed here is located in an eligible area to count as 'rural Australia' but please do check before you begin work.