One of the promises made in the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (A-UK FTA), which was signed on 17 December 2021 and entered into force on 31 May 2023, was that UK nationals would become the first to be exempt from undertaking specified subclass 417 work to apply for a second or third subclass 417 – Working Holiday visa.

Specified subclass 417 work is generally considered a right of passage, perhaps begrudgingly, to work in a regional area in certain jobs for at least 3 months to apply for a second working holiday visa, and 6 months to apply for a third working holiday visa.

This was designed to help with worker shortages in regional areas and performing mostly labor-intensive tasks. Over the years exemptions and additions to what work can be counted were provided to assist natural disaster recovery relief as well as responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are similar requirements for subclass 462 – Work and Holiday visa holders, namely specified subclass 462 work.

This work must be carried out as the holder of that working holiday visa, or while holding an associated bridging visa for a second working holiday visa if applying for a third visa. There is an exemption to this that counts specified work carried out by those who held the now repealed subclass 408 – Temporary Activities visa in the Australian Government endorsed event COVID-19 pandemic event or an associated bridging visa.

A new instrument registered last week but that will come into effect on 1 July 2024 sees that UK passport holders whose nationality is either a British citizen or British National (Overseas) will be exempt from specified subclass 417 work.

What is interesting about regional work and visa applications is that applicants must make a declaration that they have met the regional work requirements to make a valid application, but the assessment of their regional work is done after lodging. The new exemption for UK nationals is a criterion to make a valid application, and therefore those who have not done their regional work must wait until 1 July 2024 to take benefit of this provision.

As the legislative framework is in place, the instrument could theoretically add more nations to the exemption, however, it would take some political effort to convince the government to do this given it would detriment the labour market in regional areas.

Of course, there are other requirements to be granted a further working holiday visa, including being no older than the age cap. The United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, France, Denmark, and Canada are countries where the cap is 35 years old. For all other countries, the age cap is 30 years old.