From July 2006 you will be allowed to work for a maximum of 6 months with any one employer as opposed to the current 3 months. This will allow working holiday makers to secure much better positions and salaries working in Australia.

Before you begin your trip to the land down under you must first decided what sort of a trip you're going to undertake. Is it a trip for only a few weeks or do you plan to stay a number of months? Is it a business trip or is it a holiday ? Or, and what has to be said is the most popular of all, Is it A Working Holiday (WHV) ? Each comes with its own visa type and restrictions. One thing you really need to understand is that you can be issued with several holiday visas, but only ever one Working Holiday Visa (WHV) in your lifetime. So even if you spend only a month of the WHV in Australia you can never get another one again. So treat it as a very precious thing and don't waste it. If you only intend going for a month or two try to save enough money here first to survive in Oz and then use a 3 or 6 month holiday visa. You never know, you might totally love the place and need the WHV later.

Here you'll find links to the Irish and Australian government imigration sites that will explain the visas and requirements better than I can. I will however give you a little more advice that I came by as a result of my own experience.

The Working Holiday Visas. Is said to be a 2-year visa. This however does not mean you can stay in the Australia for 2 years. What it means is, that from date of issue, you have a year in which to travel to Oz and then have a further year to stay in the country.

What you need to watch however is when the Visa was issued. For example , if you were to have your visa issued in March of one year, You have until March of the next year to travel to Oz and enter the country. If you intend staying in the country for the whole year that's ok, but if you want to travel from Australia to say New Zealand and back Australia you must do so before March of the following year and not the date you entered the country. A little confusing hey. Just read my example and it should clear things up.

Example : I was issued my working holiday visa in March of 2000. I had until March of 2001 to travel to Australia and enter the country. I entered Oz on the 20th Oct 2000. This meant that I had until 20th Oct 2001 to stay legally in the country. However, and here's the sting in the tail, after March of 2001 I could no longer leave and return to Australia on my Work Holiday Visa, even though I would have had 7 months left on the visa. I would have needed to get a tourist visa to do so.

1. Being an Australian resident or citizen
2. Haven a valid visa to reenter Australia
3. Haven an onward flight from that country.
4. The airlines can now be fined several $1000s of dollars so they wont carry you