Overview

The migration legislation provides a range of visas for temporary workers and business people, and working holidaymakers and students, as well as visas for tourists and people visiting friends and relations. In addition, some temporary visas are issued for special purposes.

Temporary workers

Temporary workers and business people can be employer-sponsored or independent. They range from working holidaymakers to those with a need for long-term, but not permanent, residence.

Working Holiday (Temporary) (class TZ)

The subclass 417 visa aims to allow young people who are holders of passports issued by specified countries to holiday in Australia and supplement their funds through incidental work. The application procedures are relatively simple and brief and in many countries can be done on the Internet. Applicants cannot have held a previous working holiday visa and must be between eighteen and thirty years old and not have any dependent children, demonstrate the intention to have a working holiday (that is, not dedicated to either work or residence) and that they have sufficient funds for that purpose. PAM3 advises that ‘generally, AUD 5000 [in addition to funds for a return airfare] …may be regarded as sufficient to cover the costs of the initial stages of the working holiday for an applicant intending a total stay in Australia of six months’. There is no provision for members of the family unit, so spouses must make their own application.