NEW Work and Holiday Visa - Hungary (subclass 462 visa)

On 24 February 2016 Hungary became the latest country to sign a reciprocal arrangement with Australia, allowing young people from both countries to visit each other’s nations under the Australian Government’s work and holiday arrangements.


The arrangement was signed at Parliament House between the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton and Hungarian Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Dr Attila Laszlo Gruber.


Mr Dutton said this was a great development as it would encourage young people to add Australia or Hungary as another holiday destination when going abroad to travel, work and study for a short term.


“Under the arrangement, people aged 18 to 30 years will be able to travel to each other’s country for one year and undertake short-term work and study under the Work and Holiday subclass 462 visa,” Mr Dutton said.


“We will be working closely with our Hungarian counterparts to establish a mutually agreed start date for this arrangement as soon as possible.


“Once the arrangement has commenced, eligible young people from Hungary and Australia will be able to apply for this visa programme.”


The arrangement will be capped at 200 places each year.


The commencement date will be announced on the Department’s website.


SOURCE: DIBP

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Farmers dealing with labour shortage calling against new tax on visa holders

Right now, there is no tax payable on the 1^st eighteen thousand two hundred dollars ($18,200) the working holiday visa makers are going to earn. However, from the 1^st of July of 2016, these visa holders are going to have to pay tax on every dollar they earn. The farmers who state that up to fifty per cent of their seasonal workforce is made up of a lot of these visa holders are making plans to do a major lobby against this planned tax change.


The peak horticulture lobby groups of Queensland, Growcom, Cotton Australia, and the Queensland Farmers Federation are all planning to launch an ‘intensive lobbying campaign’ so that the severe impact of the measures on the agricultural sector can be highlighted, as they fear it can set an exodus of seasonal farm labour.


”It is very simple,” Mr Pat Hannan, the chief executive officer of Growcom, stated at a recent interview with ABC Rural Radio. ”It will deter backpackers from coming and working on our farms.”


Mr Hannan continued on to say, “Without labour to get the crop into the ground and particularly to get the crop out of the ground, our farmers, some of them, are under threat of losing their businesses. It’s really that serious.”


”When you are saying to backpackers, ‘you might have been paid $22.62 an hour before but now we’re only going to pay you $14.59 an hour’, I have got to say that gets around pretty quickly and the backpacker community is going to be less inclined to come to Australia to enjoy their working holidays,” the Growcom CEO said.


Mr Hannan said that this kind of decision is going to hurt farmers and rural communities, which heavily relies on labour provided by backpackers.


”There are a lot of rural communities that survive based on the backpackers and labourers that come into those communities during peak planting and harvest times,” said Mr Hannan. ”It is very short-sighted not to take the dramatic effect on the economies of those areas into account when you make changes the way the Government has.”


He also added that the ones who are affected are the backpackers, as well as the growers and the farmers, which in turn are going to affect the local rural economies.


Source: MigrationAlliance.com.au

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Commening 21 September 2015 - China added to eligible countries for Work and Holiday visa (subclass 462 visa)

Starting from 21 September 2015 Migration Regulations 1994 - Specification of Arrangements for Work and Holiday and Working Holiday Visa Applications 2015 adds China to list of eligible countries for Work and Holiday (462) applicants.

Applicants from China must:

• Hold a valid passport issuesdby the People's Republic of China,
• Holders of this passport are not required to provide evidence of Government support for the grant of the visa,
• Chinese applications cannot be lodged by post,
• Application must be made by appointment and in person at one of the the three addresses provided in the Instrument in either Beijing, Guangzhou or Shanghai.

There are no changes to the Working Holiday (417) provisions in this Instrument, but from 31 August 2015, applicants for second WHVs will be required to provide pay slips as evidence of the appropriate remuneration required these subsequent visa applications. 

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