Dear John,
My husband and I are six months into our first working holiday visa. My husband has been granted his second-year visa as he has been working in construction and this has covered him for specified work. Is there anyway I can stay on for a second year because my husband has the visa or do I also have to do the regional specified work to get my own second visa? If I have to do the work, what’s the best way to secure safe specified work? I will be doing it on my own.
Val.

Dear Val,
Working Holiday Visas (WHV) can only be applied for and granted to individual applicants. Unlike sponsored work or student visas, the WHV does not allow partners to join each other’s application or visa at a later stage.

To get the second wHV you will need to do your own minimum 88 days “specified work” in a” regional area” of Australia.

There is a range of work that counts as specified work including picking fruit, feeding or herding cattle, constructing houses, extracting ore on a mine site.

It is often possible for couples to find work in or near regional towns where one partner works at construction while the other does farm related work.

I cannot recommend specific places for work but checking with hostels in an area you are considering may help you find work and meet like-minded people to work with.

A useful blog with many tips is www.fruitpicking-aus.com or a good place to look for regional harvest work is the government job search Harvest Trail.

A last resort option for a couple where only one has a second WHV is for the other to apply for a 12-month tourist visa towards the end of the first WHV. The fact that your partner already has a visa with work rights might win the day.

I would not recommend singles to try this option as it is unlikely to be successful. The downside here is the tourist visa holder has no work rights.