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Hello everybody. I hope that you are well. My name is Christian and welcome to my channel Backpacking Bananas. I am currently on my second year working holiday visa in Australia and I have learned a fair number of things over my time here. I'm currently living in Sydney. I'm actually going on a trip soon, which is why my backpack's here. But in this video, I wanted to share with you the things that people do not tell you about working holiday visas in Australia. The things that you should know, things that are useful to know. So, without further ado, let's get into it. There is no singular best place to live, to start, way to go about spending your working holiday visa and don't let
anyone try to convince you that there is. I've chosen to settle in Sydney, which seems like the obvious choice and yes, it's iconic, the beaches are incredible, there's a big city energy, you have everything that you want here and of course for all of those reasons, that's why I've chosen to be here. That and the fact that my circumstances are slightly different here on my second working holiday visa than what they were on my first. The main thing being is that I'm living here with my boyfriend and he ideally needs to be in Sydney for his work. But Sydney, of course, is a big city and it's very expensive. So, it is certainly not going to be everyone's first choice. You've got Melbourne,
which is such a hub for culture, coffee, the arts. It is cooler weather down there for the most part. People say it's like Manchester down under, which I can't exactly argue with. Then you've got Perth with the most stunning blue beaches, the most amazing weather over there. It's a very livable city and it's the hub to traveling the west coast, but other than that, you are very isolated over there. And then you've got Brisbane, which is warmer and more relaxed and growing very fast. But many people who come here on their working holiday visas don't want to be in a city at all and I completely understand that and I wasn't when I was here on my first year working holiday visa. I made a
beeline for Cairns because I wanted somewhere tropical and adventurous. I wanted to work in nature doing something a little bit different. But here's the other cool thing. Not only is there no best place, you also do not have to stay in the same place. You have the freedom to travel throughout your working holiday visa. You can change destinations every few weeks, every few months, whatever is suiting you at the time. And that is one of the coolest parts about the visa. Something that's not quite so great though, a struggle that some people run into, is moving abroad can create a lot of weird digital problems. Being in a different country can sometimes make it difficult to download certain apps, to stream certain
TV shows. With you being constantly on the go, in transport terminals, staying in hotels, in hostels, in Airbnbs, you're connecting to lots of different Wi-Fi networks, and it can be a little frustrating and it takes time to get used to all of these things. But one thing that's going to make your life so much easier, and at this point I would like to introduce you to the sponsors of today's video, Surfshark, and that is a VPN, a virtual private network. Now, what a VPN does is it turns your connection to the internet into a private one, and it encrypts all of the data, which for one just makes everything safer, because when you're connected to a public Wi-Fi network, like in an airport or in a hostel, where
it's just a free open network, your device is actually at risk of being hacked when you're connected to that. However, when you switch your Surfshark on, it acts like a virtual shield on your device so that none of the evil hackers can get in. Not only that, but Surfshark allows you to switch the virtual location of your device to pretty much anywhere in the world. So, even though you are here in Australia, you can switch your VPN back to the UK, back to your home country, and honestly to whatever country you want to fool your device to be in to give you access to media, to apps, to services that you want access to. So, you can still watch all of your TV shows from back home. If
you need to access anything, which being in Australia is making that difficult to do, you will no longer have those problems. So, it's really worth downloading Surfshark before you go abroad, and I can get you four extra months for free. You can start your 7-day free trial. Just use my code backpacking or head straight to surfshark.com/backpacking. I will have the link to that in the description as well. The next point, I'm not too sure how much you think it might cost to move to Australia, but generally the whole thing costs a lot more than you might think. And I actually made a whole video previously on how much it cost me to move to Australia this time, but also potentially how much it can cost you depending on your preferences
and what you're after when you first move to Australia. So, I'll link the video up here. But essentially, as well as the visa itself and the flight itself, you want to have enough money to cover your entire first month in Australia at least. That would be if you arrive and you search for a job straight away in the hopes that you find one within a month, which can then financially sustain you for the rest of the year. However, if you want to travel a bit before you start working, which I would recommend and which is what most people do, you want to budget for a fair bit more than just one month and then also have an extra bit of cash for when you might start renting somewhere and
need to put down a deposit. You almost definitely will get sucked into the fun of Australia when you arrive and want to pay for some bucket-list activities when you first arrive. And I'm not saying that as a bad thing at all, as you should when you're on this trip of a lifetime. Actually, I'm a huge fan of the Welcome to Travel Tours, which are tours designed for travelers arriving in Australia on the working holiday visa or just for traveling for their very first week. So, that immediately upon arrival, you're put together with a group of like-minded people who you can make friends with. You get to do some bucket-list experiences. You get the support from the team on the ground.
Just so you feel a lot more confident about what you're about to do in Australia. Anyway, they have these welcome tours in Sydney and Melbourne. They also have an East Coast trip. They have a bunch of tours that they now run, so I definitely recommend checking out the website. And I have a bunch of discount codes for them as well, and I'll leave them in the description. But going back to money and how much money you need to save before moving to Australia, something that people don't realize is that you actually need to provide proof of funds. Now, when you apply for your working holiday visa, I
had to attach a bank statement showing that I had enough was in my account. You need to show that you have in your bank account over the equivalent of 5,000 Aussie dollars, which is about 2,700 pounds. And I believe if you're not able to show that proof, you can't even get the visa. Not only that, but it's not impossible that an immigration officer on your arrival into Australia can also ask to check your bank account. So, just be aware of that. It's not something that you should worry about because honestly, if you don't have that amount of money in your bank account, I don't think you should be moving to Australia because you are putting yourself in a very potentially sticky situation. But
maybe this can just act as some more motivation for you to save up some more money for your trip. The next point is you may not be able to get the job that you have back at home here in Australia. And it is unfortunate, but there is a reason for it. Because I've seen lots of working holiday makers, especially in the city here, trying to get a job which they are completely overqualified for back home, depending on what their degree is. Maybe they've been working in marketing, maybe in law and consulting. I don't know what it is. And they try to interview for that same line of work here, and even if they are way overqualified for the role, they are still struggling. And the main reason
being is that unfortunately, especially in corporate jobs, it's a big turn-off for the employer when we are on working holiday visas. Because at the end of the day, it is a temporary visa. And actually, one of the rules of the working holiday visa is that you cannot work for the same company for more than 6 months. And the employers know that, and they're like, "What's the point in employing this person if I can only have them for 6 months?" The thing is for us working holiday makers, this visa is not designed for us to have the same corporate jobs that we would be back home because they don't actually want us to stay, even if you do want to stay. They want us to get temporary jobs
working on a farm, working in a cafe, working in a restaurant, in events, in hospitality. And I think you really need to have that in mind if you are considering coming here on a working holiday visa, that is the lifestyle that you're kind of supposed to be leaning into. And also, those kind of jobs are what is going to give you the full Australian working holiday visa experience, which is so epic and such a unique experience that you can have in your life. But of course, and I'm not going to be hypocritical here because I am someone who is wanting to stay in Australia beyond my working holiday visas, and I know I'm not the only one.
I appreciate that maybe your goal with coming here on a working holiday visa is to try and find one of the loopholes to make it work long-term. So, in my case, I am dating a Kiwi man. So, my avenue, hopefully, is being able to hop onto his visa after my working holiday visas and then going from there. The most obvious option, though, would be to try and get sponsored by your employer. And a lot of people go, "Oh, well, if I'm limited to 6 months with an employer, how likely is it that I'm going to get sponsored after such a short amount of time?" Well, there are loopholes to this 6-month rule, which I'm going to go through with you now. So, one, it does not apply to all sectors. There are certain sectors,
and I will list them here, where this 6-month rule does not apply. So, if you are looking for a job in any of these sectors, you are able to work for the employer for longer than 6 months. The other loophole is if the company that you're working for has several locations. Let's say you work for McDonald's for 6 months. You work for McDonald's uh in the middle of Sydney CBD. And then after 6 months, you transfer to another McDonald's with a different postcode. Then you can continue working for the same employer for a longer amount of time. But the best loophole, my favorite of them all, and the one that people really don't seem to know about, is that you can kind of hack the system because this rule is
just 6 months on one of your working holiday visas. So, if you arrive in Australia and you travel for the first 6 months or you travel and you do a few odd jobs and then at the 6-month point of your first working holiday visa, you get a good job that you want with an employer, you can say to them, "Yes, I may be on a working holiday visa, but I can work for you for a whole year because you will have 6 months on that first working holiday visa and then 6 months on the second working holiday visa and so it can just roll over." Yes, that is a loophole that not a lot of people know about and another thing that a lot of people don't realize before moving to Australia is that being
employed here is pretty cool because you get this thing called superannuation, which is essentially like your pension. So basically, your employer pays you and they will also pay into your super. Now, if you're on a working holiday and you're eventually going to be going home, at the end of your working holiday visa, you can claim all of that super money back. So basically, you're going home with a big fat bonus of money, which is lovely. Something you may not also know, depending on how up-to-date you are with your working holiday visa information, if you are a British national, you no longer have to do farm work in order to get a second and a third working holiday visa. So previous
to 2024, British nationals would have to complete 88 days of approved regional work within their first year working holiday visa in order to even apply for their second year. Not only that, but there was an age limitation of 30. However, for the past couple of years, they have abolished that rule. Not only do we not have to complete the 88 days regional work anymore in order to apply for your second year working holiday visa, we also can apply for a third year working holiday visa without any extra information or prerequisites that you need to accomplish. And as well as that, they have increased the age to 35, which for a 32-year-old like me was incredibly pleasing. Now, unfortunately, if you are
not a British citizen, I'm afraid I don't think that rule applies to you. I think most of you do still have to do your regional work, and I'm very sorry about that. But, what I will say for you if you do still need to do your regional work, is that you don't actually have to work on a farm, unless you want to. But, there are so many regional areas now. I'm pretty sure it's the same for the Northern Territory, as well. There's also some awesome destinations on the East Coast, which count, like Hamilton Island. Can you imagine working there, and then it just counting towards your farm work? So, there's some really cool things that you can do if fruit picking doesn't sound like it's right up your street. A lot of
people, understandably, before they arrive in Australia on their working holiday visa, are afraid of meeting people, you know, especially if this is your first time solo traveling. You're probably thinking, "What am I doing? I'm moving to the other side of the world, where I know absolutely nobody." But, I want to tell you the good news is that you will probably make friends way faster here than what you will back home. That's mostly because when you arrive, especially if you're staying in a hostel, if you're applying for jobs that other people on working holiday visas are, everyone is in the same boat as you. And let me tell you, that is a bonding experience like no other. And I
often say that the more chaotic a trip is, the more fun that you have. And I can guarantee you the more friends that you will make, as well. And as well with making friends, I mentioned before the Welcome to Travel Tours, absolutely incredible for that. And the final thing that maybe people don't tell you about working holiday visas in Australia is that most people do not stay for 1 year. You may be planning 1 year, but you're going to find it really hard to leave. Even when I had to do regional work back in 2015, and it fell through, so I didn't even get to apply for my second-year working holiday visa at the
time, I still came back to Australia every single year, because I love it here so much. It's a fantastic country. It's an amazing lifestyle. There are endless places to explore, and I have no doubt that you are going to have the best time. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video and perhaps learned something new about Australian working holiday visas. Make sure you subscribe to my channel and have a look back at some of the previous videos I've made even more information on Australian working holiday visas and I will see you in the next video. Bye-bye.
