Working holiday health insurance

What is the working holiday visa for?

The 417 and 462 visas are both types of working holiday visas, allowing eligible young adults to travel and work in Australia for one or two years. Both let people aged 18 to 30 live and work in Australia for 12 months. Both allow you to extend your stay for another 12 months under certain conditions, including completing 3 months of specified work during your first 12 months.

The 417 vs 462 visa

Whether you get the 417 or 462 visa is based on what country you're applying from. There are also some additional requirements for the 462 visa, which makes it a bit harder to apply for. Here's a bit more detail on the differences between the two:

• Partner countries: Each visa is available to a different group of passport holders. If your passport doesn't give you access to the 417 visa, it may give you access to the 462 visa.
• English language requirement: The 417 visa doesn't have an english language requirement, whereas the 462 visa does.
• Education requirement: The 417 visa doesn't have an education requirement, whereas the 462 visa does.
• Letter of support: The 417 visa doesn't ask you to get a letter of support from your government. For the 462 visa, there are 12 or so countries that require .
• Age limits: Both visas are only available to people between 18 and 30 years of age. Depending on which country you come from, the 417 visa limit can extend up to 35.

For more information on the visas themselves, check the department of immigrations pages on the 417 visa and the 462 visa.

Health insurance rules for working holiday visas

To hold a working holiday visa, you need to satisfy condition 8501, which says "you must have and maintain adequate health insurance for the whole of your stay in Australia". There are two ways that you can sort this out:

1. Be from a country with a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement. See below for details on that.
2. Take out Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) from an authorised Australian provider.

Compare OVHC here to find a policy that will satisfy the visa condition. OVHC will cover you for health and medical costs while you're in Australia. There are very basic policies or very comprehensive ones to suit every budget and requirement.

Reciprocal Health Care Agreements

If your home country has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Australia, you'll have access to some services under Australia's pblic health care system, Medicare. This will generally only cover emergency medical treatment, but won't pay for ambulance, dental, funeral, optical, or any treatment that isn't immediately necessary.

More of the 417 visa countries have agreements with Australia, but it's not a perfect match. Similarly, there's at least one agreement on the list of 462 visas (at the time of writing, with Slovenia). My point is, check the list of RHCA countries to be 100% sure.

Frequently asked questions

• Should I get travel insurance or health insurance for a working holiday?

  Travel insurance and OVHC have slightly different coverage options. Travel insurance covers you for flight cancellation, as well as coverage for travel-related emergencies and some repatriation costs, so it's a very good idea to have, especially on your first trip to Australia. However, Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) offers more comprehensive cover for non-travel related medical expenses, and will definitely satisfy your 8501 visa condition.

• What work and study limitations are there on working holiday visas?

  Under the Working Holiday Maker program, there's usually a 6 month work limitation. This means you can't work for the same employer for more than 6 months, though there are exceptions. For instance, you can work for the same employer for more than 6 months without asking permission in the following situations: you work in different locations that doesn't exceed 6 months; you work in plant and animal cultivation or; you work in specific industries in Northern Australia. Also, you cannot study for more than 4 months on these visa.

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Tim Bennett as part of our fact-checking process.

Written by

Gary Ross Hunter

Editor, Insurance

Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio

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