Working Holiday Visas

[Deleted]

WHV is an excellent programme applied by many countries around the world to allow young people to work in a different country for up to a year. Naturally, this means countries not already covered by automatic deals, such as EU citizens working anywhere else in the EU. The age limits vary, but it often covers people from age 18-30, sometimes up to age 35.

These are always bilateral agreements, so each country has a different list of authorised countries.

France, for example, offers the programme to young people from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Argentina and Taiwan.

Canada has quite a long list, since it covers most (but not all) of the EU. It is also clearly stated that US citizens are not allowed.

More information on the well documented Wikipedia article.

[bjd]

As with many other things, it's a question of reciprocity. The USA does not participate in the WHV program.

Our son's girlfriend just left for Canada on a WHV. There were 12,000 visas on offer in mid-November and gone within 2 weeks. However, the paperwork was a real pain in the ass, especially since among the 17 pages of forms to fill out was a paper that was supposed to be signed by the bank saying the person asking for the visa, or someone who would guarantee them, had a certain amount in the bank. None of the banks we tried (3 different ones) would sign the form, saying they didn't want to commit themselves, whereas all the paper asked was that on the day the form was signed there was 3x$700 cdn in the bank.

And they also had a list of embassy approved doctors for the medical checkup. A regular doctors visit in France costs €23, this guy in Toulouse charged €84 + blood tests+ a chest x-ray, none of which are covered of course.

But once you manage to get over the bureaucratic hurdles, it's a great way to spend a year in another country, allowed to work and travel without the bother of applying for work permits. I believe Australia requires the applicant to change jobs every few months.

[Deleted]

The daughter of one of my colleagues spent 2 years between Australia and New Zealand and she absolutely loved it. In Australia, she worked in bars, cattle ranches, sandwich shops, hostels and covered just about the entire country, starting in Perth and ending up around Brisbane. Apparently those kinds of jobs are very easy to find in Australia, because she just moved on whenever she got fed up with the job, and the WHV placement office always had plenty of other offers for her.