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WHV 462 specified work: what actually counts
If you’re on a first-year Subclass 462 Work and Holiday visa and want a second year, you need 88 calendar days (three months) of “specified work” completed while you held that first visa. Home Affairs defines specified work narrowly, by industry and, for most categories, by location too: certain agricultural, fishing, forestry and construction work in regional and northern Australia, plus tourism and hospitality in Northern or Remote Australia, and a few disaster-recovery and health categories. Get the industry, location or paperwork wrong and your second visa application can be refused.
What counts as specified work
Home Affairs currently approves the following as specified subclass 462 work, each tied to a defined industry and, in most cases, a defined area:
- Tourism and hospitality, but only in Northern Australia or in Remote and Very Remote Australia (a specific set of postcodes, not simply “regional”). This covers accommodation roles (hotels, motels, caravan parks, backpacker hostels), food and beverage roles (cafes, restaurants, pubs, catering), and roles delivered directly to tourists (tour guides, dive instructors, tour bus drivers, gallery and museum staff).
- Plant and animal cultivation, in Northern Australia and other specified regional areas: harvesting or packing fruit and vegetables, shearing, butchery, dairy processing, and comparable primary production work. General garden maintenance and secondary processing (winemaking, brewing, milling, retail of dairy or meat products) don’t qualify.
- Fishing and pearling, in northern Australia only: work directly taking or catching fish and other aquatic species, or taking or culturing pearls.
- Tree farming and felling, in northern Australia only: planting, tending or felling trees in a plantation or forest, and transporting felled timber to milling or processing.
- Construction, in northern Australia and other specified regional areas: residential and non-residential building work, civil engineering, site preparation, and related support and cleaning services.
- Bushfire and natural disaster recovery work, paid or voluntary, in officially declared affected areas, carried out after set dates (31 July 2019 for bushfire recovery; 31 December 2021 for flood, cyclone and severe weather recovery).
- Critical COVID-19 work in healthcare and medical settings, carried out anywhere in Australia after 31 January 2020.
Every category is defined by specific eligible postcodes that Home Affairs publishes and updates, sometimes several times a year as bushfire and disaster zones are added or removed. Don’t assume a town or region qualifies because it “feels regional.” Check the postcode against the current official list before you take the job, not after.
Except for bushfire and disaster recovery, specified work must be paid at the correct legal wage or award rate. You need the equivalent of a full-time worker’s schedule over the 88-day period: five days a week for three calendar months, or a longer stretch of part-time or piecework hours that adds up to the same total, across one employer or several. You can’t compress it into fewer than 88 calendar days no matter how many hours you work.
How to prove it
When you apply for your second visa, Home Affairs asks for proof covering every period you worked. Acceptable evidence includes payslips or other proof of payment such as Australian bank statements, a signed piece-rate agreement showing the pay rate and how it’s measured, group certificates, payment summaries, tax returns, employer references, and any signed agreement covering lawful pay deductions. Home Affairs states it may contact your employer directly to verify your claims, so the details on your paperwork need to match what your employer will confirm.
If your specified work was voluntary bushfire or flood recovery work, you instead need a signed letter from your volunteer coordinator or host organisation stating your passport details, a description of the duties, the location (including postcode) and the number of days worked.
Keep every payslip and any written work agreement as you go. Reconstructing three months of proof after you’ve left an employer, or after you’ve left Australia, is far harder than filing it as you earn it.
Common mistakes
- Assuming any regional job qualifies. A hospitality job in a regional town outside the approved postcodes doesn’t count, even if the town is remote-feeling. The postcode list, not your impression of the location, decides.
- Working part-time and assuming the calendar, not the hours, matters. Two days a week for three months is not equivalent to three months of full-time work. You’ll need a proportionately longer stretch to reach the same total days.
- Doing unpaid “specified” work outside the bushfire or disaster categories. Standard specified work must be paid correctly; unpaid farm or hospitality work generally won’t count toward your 88 days.
- Not keeping records. Verbal agreements and cash-in-hand arrangements leave you with nothing to show Home Affairs, and cash-in-hand pay below award rates can itself disqualify the work.
- Confusing first-year eligibility with second-year requirements. Some search queries conflate the two. The specified work requirement applies to your first 462 visa’s work, assessed when you apply for your second.
Where to check the current list
Eligible industries and postcodes change, sometimes with little notice, as labour shortages, bushfire zones and natural disaster declarations are updated. Before you accept a job counting on it as specified work, verify the current industry definition and postcode against the Department of Home Affairs’ specified work page linked above. If in doubt, ask your employer to confirm in writing that the role and location meet the current specified work criteria before you start.
For the full second and third-year visa requirements, see our guide to the Subclass 462 Work and Holiday visa, and for broader working rights while you’re in Australia see working in Australia.