How long can I work for on a working holiday visa?

I have a working holiday visa, on which I was told I could work for up to 52 part/full weeks during my 2 wk stay. My flattie now tells me that I'm actually allowed to work for 365 days which would be a lot better deal... does anyone know if this is true? I don't want to get blacklisted!!!

Hey Goodie

Unfortunately that's not true. If, for example, you held a normal job that required you to work five days a week that is considered a full week by the Home Office. You can't add weekends to the end to make up "365 days of work". Same goes for paid holidays (ie annual leave)- that's considered work also.

I hope this helps.

TNT Ed

To further clarify this - They actually count the NUMBER OF PAYSLIPS you put in.  So if you only work one day and put in a payslip for that week that is counted as one week out of your 52.  I think if you read the visa again it says 'work limited to 52 weeks' not 365 days.

Cheers, Jen

So what if you get your payslips monthly? If you only work one week out of the month does that still count as the whole month?

I don't think it's quite that bad. I think you'll find they take a common sense approach to this, but your common sense might differ from the home office's common sense.

If the situation is as you described above you'd be fine to reasonably argue you'd only worked one week in that period.

I also have a Working Holiday Visa. I commenced a contract position on 29 October 2008. If I work through until 29 October 2009, I assume this will be fine in accordance with the guidelines???