Employers · Working holiday makers
Keeping a working holiday maker beyond six months: condition 8547, the exemptions, the permission request, and the sponsorship after
Working holiday makers are the most common temporary workers in hospitality, agriculture, construction and care, and the employer who finds a good one hits the six-month wall just as the worker becomes useful. The wall is condition 8547, which limits work with any one employer to six months, and it has two doors: a list of exemptions, for work in particular industries, regions and patterns, which need no permission at all; and a permission the Department grants in two situations only, when the worker has applied for a visa that allows full-time work or when the employer says in writing that the work is critical. The permission is asked for two weeks before the six months end, not after. This guide sets out the condition, the exemptions as they stand, the permission request and its timing, why an ABN arrangement does not escape the condition, what a breach costs each side, and the 482 sponsorship that is the lasting answer for a worker the business wants to keep.
By Keshab Chapagain, registered migration agent (MARN 1576536) since 2015 · WIDEN, Sydney · Reviewed October 2026
Keshab Chapagain · MARN 1576536 · Registered since 2015 - Condition 8547
- Six months with any one employer, on the 417 and 462
- Exemptions
- Different locations; northern Australia industries; plant and animal cultivation; disaster recovery; the current list
- Permission
- A full-time-work visa applied for, or work critical to the business
- Timing
- Request at least two weeks before the six months end
- Late request
- Work stops until the decision
- Lasting answer
- A 482 nomination
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What condition 8547 says
Condition 8547 is attached to the Working Holiday visa (417) and the Work and Holiday visa (462), and it provides that the holder must not be employed by any one employer for more than six months without the permission of the Minister, subject to the exemptions the Department publishes. The condition was suspended during the pandemic labour shortage and reinstated in July 2023, and the exemptions were expanded at the same time, so that advice from the suspension period is wrong. The six months is per employer, not per visa: a holder may work six months for one employer and six for another in the same year, and a holder on a second or third working holiday visa starts a fresh six months with each employer under the new visa. The 417 guide sets out the visa.
Counting the six months
The six months is counted from the first day of work for the employer to the last, as calendar time, whether the work was full-time, part-time or casual, and whether or not there were breaks; a casual worker who did two shifts a week for seven months has exceeded it. The employer is the legal entity that employs the holder, so a group with several companies is several employers, and a worker transferred from one entity to another has started a new six months, provided the entities are genuinely distinct and the work is genuinely for the second; the Department reads a transfer within a group that is in substance the same employment for what it is. A labour hire worker’s employer is the labour hire company, and placements with different clients do not reset the count. The count is the holder’s to keep as well as the employer’s, and tax data shows it to the Department.
The exemptions that need no permission
- Different locations. Work for the same employer in different locations, where the work in any one location does not exceed six months, up to twelve months in total; the locations must be genuinely different workplaces.
- Northern Australia. Work in specified industries, which have included aged and disability care, agriculture, construction, mining, tourism and hospitality, anywhere in northern Australia as the Department defines it, for up to twelve months.
- Plant and animal cultivation anywhere in Australia, for up to twelve months.
- Natural disaster recovery work in declared areas.
- The temporary concessions the Department has made for particular sectors at particular times, which are added and withdrawn by notice.
The list is the Department’s, published on its working holiday maker pages, and it is read on the day rather than remembered; an employer who relies on an exemption keeps a copy of the page as it stood, and the evidence that the work fell within it. Work within an exemption needs no application and no letter.
The permission request
Outside the exemptions, the Department will consider permission to work beyond six months with one employer in two situations only. The first is that the holder has applied for a visa that permits full-time work, most commonly a 482 for which the employer has lodged a nomination, so that the extension bridges the gap until the new visa is decided. The second is that the employer indicates the holder’s work is critical to its business, in a letter of support that states the position, why the holder’s continued work is critical, what has been done to find other workers, and the period sought. The request is made on the Department’s condition 8547 permission request form, one form for each holder, with the employer’s letter attached where the ground is critical work. Permission is given in writing, is for the period and the employer stated, and is kept with the payroll records; a verbal assurance from anyone is not permission.
The two-week rule
The Department asks that the request be submitted at least two weeks before the six months end, so that a decision can be made before the condition bites, and the holder may continue working while a request lodged in time is considered. A request lodged after the six months have passed does not permit work in the meantime: the holder must stop working for the employer on the day the six months end and may resume only if and when permission is granted. An employer who discovers the date too late has a worker it cannot roster and a decision that may take weeks, which is the position the two-week rule exists to prevent. The date is diarised from the first day of work.
Why an ABN does not escape it
The commonest device is to end the employment at six months and engage the holder as a contractor on an ABN for the same work, and it does not work. The condition is about being employed by an employer in substance, and the Department reads a contractor who does the same job for the same business under the same direction as an employee still; the arrangement is also sham contracting under the Fair Work Act, with its own penalties for the employer. A genuine change, where the holder starts a business and the former employer becomes one client among several, is different, and is examined on the facts. The condition applies to employment; the exemptions and the permission are the routes through it, and relabelling is not one. The contractor guide explains why the same relabelling fails for a 482.
What a breach costs
For the holder, work beyond six months without permission or exemption is a breach of a visa condition, which the Department can act on by cancellation and which is a question answered on every later application, including a 482 the same employer might later sponsor; a holder applying for a second or third working holiday visa declares compliance with the conditions of the first. For the employer, allowing a person to work in breach of their visa conditions is a contravention of the employer sanctions provisions of the Migration Act, with infringement notices and civil penalties for each worker, and criminal liability where the employer knew or was reckless, together with the possibility of being barred from sponsoring; the Department finds breaches through the tax data that shows the employer and the period. The sum involved for a small employer is often larger than the cost of the sponsorship it was avoiding. The VEVO guide covers the employer’s checking obligation.
The sponsorship that follows
An employer who wants a working holiday maker beyond the visa sponsors them: the business becomes a standard business sponsor, nominates the position on a 482 in an occupation on the list at the market salary with labour market testing, and the holder applies for the 482 while still in Australia on the working holiday visa or a bridging visa. The permission under 8547 on the first ground, a full-time-work visa applied for, is what lets the holder keep working for the employer while the 482 is processed, and the sequence is planned so that the nomination is lodged before the six months end and the permission request goes in with it. A working holiday maker in a skilled occupation with six months of Australian experience with the business is, for the nomination, a known quantity, and many sponsorships begin this way. The sponsorship guide sets out the three applications, and the visa-ending guide the worker’s side.
The employer’s checklist
- Check the visa and its conditions in VEVO on the first day, and record the start date.
- Diarise the six-month date, and the two-weeks-before date.
- Decide early: let the worker go at six months, rely on an exemption that genuinely applies, or keep them, which means a sponsorship.
- If keeping them, lodge the sponsorship and the nomination before the six months, and the 8547 request with the employer letter at least two weeks before.
- Do not roster the worker past the six months without the written permission in hand or an exemption on the page.
- Keep the permission, the exemption evidence and the roster with the payroll records.
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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Condition 8547 in Schedule 8 to the Migration Regulations 1994, the Department’s published exemptions and permission arrangements for working holiday makers, and the employer sanctions provisions in Subdivision C of Division 12 of Part 2 of the Migration Act 1958, as at the date above; the exemptions are the Department’s and change by notice, and its current page governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each request; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.
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We want to keep our working holiday maker past six months. Can we?
Only with the Department's permission, unless an exemption applies. Condition 8547 on the 417 and 462 limits work with any one employer to six months, and the Department grants permission beyond it in two situations: the holder has applied for a visa that allows full-time work, a 482 nomination for instance, or the employer states in writing that the work is critical to its business. The request is made on the Department's permission form, with the employer's letter, at least two weeks before the six months end.
Which work needs no permission?
The Department's list of exemptions, which has included work in different locations for the same employer where no single location exceeds six months; work in specified industries in northern Australia; plant and animal cultivation anywhere; natural disaster recovery work; and, at various times, aged care, disability care, agriculture, tourism and hospitality and other sectors under temporary concessions. The list changes, and the current one on the Department's site is the one that applies; an employer relies on an exemption only after reading it.
What if the request goes in after the six months?
The holder must stop working for the employer the day the six months end and wait for the decision; a request lodged late does not permit work in the meantime, and work in the gap is a breach. The two-week rule exists so that a decision arrives before the six months do. An employer who notices on the last day has a worker who cannot be rostered until the Department responds.
Can we engage them as a contractor instead?
No. The condition is about work for an employer in substance, and a holder who stops being an employee and starts invoicing the same business for the same work is still working for that employer; the Department reads the arrangement for what it is, and the employer who set it up has a sham contracting problem under the Fair Work Act as well. The exemptions and the permission are the only routes.
What happens if the six months is exceeded without permission?
The holder has breached a condition, which is a cancellation ground and a mark on the record for every later application; the employer has employed a person in breach of their visa conditions, which is an offence under the employer sanctions provisions with civil penalties and, where the employer knew, criminal ones. Both are found through tax data, which shows the employer and the period. A business that wants the worker long-term sponsors them.
What does the consultation cost?
A$330 inc. GST for 30 minutes by video with Keshab Chapagain (MARN 1576536), credited in full if you engage WIDEN. For an employer with a working holiday maker approaching six months the session confirms whether an exemption applies, prepares the permission request if not, and sets out the 482 sponsorship that keeps the worker beyond the visa.
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