Australia: Working Holiday Visa to Require Lottery for 2nd and 3rd Years
The Australian Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, announced on 17 September 2026 that the second and third Working Holiday Maker visas would now be allocated via a lottery system. The second visa will be capped at 45,000 places, and the third at 5,000. Regional work remains mandatory for eligibility, and no implementation date has yet been published.
Key Announcements
The measure is outlined in the Minister’s press release, part of broader reforms aimed at reducing net migration. The lottery system will apply to the second and third years of the program, where regional work requirements are enforced.
Figures were provided by Tony Burke during his National Press Club speech. The second-year lottery will be limited to 45,000 places, with 57,000 applicants qualifying last year. For the third year, the cap is significantly tighter: 5,000 places, compared to 31,000 applicants last year.
The first visa remains unaffected by the lottery system.
Regional Work Still Required, But No Longer Guaranteed
Eligibility criteria for additional visas remain unchanged. For a second visa, applicants must have worked 88 days in regional Australia during their first visa. For a third visa, six months of work is required during the second visa. “This will not change,” the minister stressed.
What has changed is the outcome of meeting these requirements. Previously, completing the specified work and other criteria allowed applicants to apply for the next visa. Now, they will only gain entry into the lottery. “Not everyone will pass,” Tony Burke summarised.
The impact is particularly stark for the third visa. With just 5,000 places available and a similar number of qualified applicants as last year, fewer than one in six candidates would be successful. Six months of regional work during the second visa will no longer guarantee an extra year in Australia.
This change applies to both visas under the program: the Working Holiday (subclass 417) and the Work and Holiday (subclass 462). The 462 visa already uses a lottery system, but only for the first visa of certain nationalities (China, India, and Vietnam, with Indonesia to be added soon). As we reported in early September, national caps for the 462 visa previously only applied to the first visa. The second and third years were previously exempt.
British Passport Holders Exempt
Holders of a British passport are exempt from this system. Since 1 July 2024, under the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement, they can obtain up to three Working Holiday visas without specified work requirements. As the lottery system is tied to regional work requirements, British passport holders are not affected.
The minister noted the rapid growth of this cohort, with nearly 80,000 British nationals in Australia, up from around 17,000 at the agreement’s signing. He confirmed that British applications will continue to be processed slowly while the government negotiates with London.
Processing Times Reduced to 3 Months
The announcement includes a more favourable change for applicants. By reducing the number of second and third visas, the government states it can return to normal processing times for Working Holiday Maker applications. The press release mentions processing times “stabilised at three months.”
The program’s news page, updated by the Department of Home Affairs on 23 September 2026, already shows an average processing time of around three months for most applications.
The department also reminds applicants of a key rule: they must be in the correct location when the visa is granted. An application submitted in Australia must be in the country at the time of approval, while an application submitted from abroad must be outside Australia.
What Remains Unpublished
As of 23 September 2026, the Department of Home Affairs has not detailed how the lottery system will operate on its program pages. Several questions remain open:
the date from which second and third visas will be subject to the lottery;
the fate of applications already submitted or regional work already completed before this date;
the registration process, timeline, and any associated fees for the lottery.
For travellers currently completing their 88 days or six months of regional work, the department’s pages still describe the existing system, with no mention of the lottery.
