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In 2023, I spent six months in Melbourne as an exchange student for my biotechnology degree and completely fell in love with the city.
As my departure date approached, I started looking for ways to extend my stay, which led me to apply for a Work and Holiday Visa.
I started researching online about the visa for Malaysian. I found nothing. Literally.
Most of the information online is published during pre-covid and the procedure has changed so much ever since. Most of them became extremely irrelevant.
After facing numerous challenges, I successfully obtained my visa approval after three months of constant chaos.
This post is dedicated to serve as a guide for fellow Malaysians interested in applying for the Work and Holiday Visa (Subclass 462).
Besides, I might be useful for other candidates who hold a passport issued from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, etc.
Here in Part 1, I will mainly talk about how to prepare all the required documents, and also how to apply on the Government of Australia website for your working holiday.
In Part 2, I will talk about the pre-departure checklist, how to find a job, how to maximize your earnings and the mistakes that I made so you can avoid them.
Eligibility
To apply for a working holiday visa in Australia you must be:
- have a passport from an eligible country (Malaysia)
- be 18 to 30 years old (inclusive)
- apply from outside Australia
- not be accompanied by dependent children or family members
- not have previously entered Australia on a subclass 462 or 417 visa. If you previously entered Australia on a subclass 462 visa, you have to apply for a second Work and Holiday visa.
- Meet education requirement: have a tertiary qualification from a university, college or training centre, or have completed 2 years of undergraduate university study.
- These are acceptable tertiary qualifications: degrees, graduate diplomas, graduate certificates
- These are not acceptable tertiary qualifications: advanced diploma, diploma, Certificate I to IV level qualifications, Senior Secondary Certificate of Education
- Have this english level of English: visit Website
- Have at least 5000AUD in your bank account (parents’/guardians’ account accepted)
These are all of the requirements to apply for this visa, we’ll talk more about this in later this article.
Time estimation: How long does it take to get Work and Holiday Visa 462 approved?
It truly depends on how fast you can provide all of the required documents.
I would say as a Malaysian, you would need at least 3-6 months to get the whole procedure from start to finish done.
For me, it took 3 months. Getting the good conduct certification from the Malaysian took me 1 month while getting an English proficiency exam took another month. Also since I am taking a gap semester from university, I need a proof of academic transcript from my university, which also took another month.
STEP 1: Prepare your documents
Preparing all the documents required for the application is crucial. As the Government of Australia has a waiting time of only 14 days to request incomplete documents, you will not want to stress out chasing deadlines.
How to get Good Conduct Certification from the Malaysian Government? (Malaysian only)
Good Conduct Certification is a certificate similar to a police check. It is to proof that you have no criminal records in the books of the government of Malaysia.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO GET THIS CERTIFICATE BEFORE APPLYING FOR THE VISA.
It takes at least 1-3 months for the entire process, so please get this certificate before you pay for the Australia working holiday application fee, if you do not have this document ready during application, it might result in visa denial due to long waiting time.
The application for GCC is straightforward. You have to go to the Malaysian Consular Website. Upload your passport photos and all of the required documents, and It takes around 1 month of processing time.
From time to time, you have to log in to the portal to for status checking because sometimes they may request additional proof or documents in the portal.
Proof of Functional English
If you have a degree from a university overseas where all the instruction is in English, you need to get a Language of Intructions letter from your university.
The Australian government require applicants to have undergone at least 2 years of undergraduate study in an English-speaking country or Completed a degree in Malaysia where all the instruction is conducted in English.
If you are still a student from Malaysia like me, and you wish to take a gap year from your studies, then you have to show them a proof of english examination. In this case, I applied for PTE Academics examination where I get to receive the results in 2 working days. A separate article will be written on how to prepare for PTE academics in a short amount of time.
Proof of educational level
For this, you need to provide a photocopy of your degree certificate. If you’re still a student like me, make sure you have completed at least 2 years of undergraduate studies back in Malaysia, and get your university to write a Status letter proving the duration you studied at their university. You also have to provide an academic transcript to proof that you studied the required amount of time.
International Payment Method (How to save on application fees)
The Australian government charges application fees in Australian Dollar (AUD).
If you want to save more than 20% on the application fee, this method is applicable for everyone even if you’re a Singaporean, Indonesian or Vietnamese applicant.
For the application fee, you can pay with CIMB, Maybank or other local bank accounts however they charge astronomical currency conversion and transfer fees, which you might end up paying more than 20% more.
For the payment, I used WISE, which is the industry leader in multicurrency exchange apps. Upon signing up, they shipped a visa card to my home address and I can use it just like any other card for online or in-shop purchases.
They offer industry real-time exchange rates with minimum fee, which is synchronising with Google Finance. To apply for the visa, the international transfer fee from my MYR bank account to AUD is 4.02AUD. Which is very cheap compared to other banks.
However, if you sign up through my exclusive link you pay zero transfer fees and up to RM2500 in rewards!
Wise is also useful when you make in-store purchases on the first week of your arrival in Australia before opening a bank account, where you can take advantage of their currency exchange.
You can sign up via my exclusive link and save on the application fee instantly by clicking on this link.
Proof of funds
The Australian government require all applicants of working holiday visas to have at least 5000AUD (around 15k MYR ) sitting in their bank account. If you do not have it, you can show a guardian’s bank statement, and your own bank stateemnt as a proof, and write a statement letter to declare that the parent/guardian will support your journey during the working holiday period.
While I was still waiting for tax refunds at that time, I require additional proof of funds. An example of the statement letter that I used as below can be downloaded here hope it helps.
STEP 2: Applying for the visa
Now, when all of the required documents are ready, you’re all set to apply for your working holiday visa at the immi website. You have to first create an account on the website, and select the visa type (Work and Holiday Visa 462), and upload all of the required documents. The website portal could only allow you to upload 60 files so it is essential to keep all of the similar documents and proof in one pdf file.
Do note that the documents that are discussed here are the most crucial documents for applying for the visa, however, there are still some other required documents but it is much easier to obtain such as a photocopy of a passport, driver’s licence, etc.
STEP 3: Pay for the application fee
The application fee for Work and Holiday Visa 462 costs 635AUD in 2024.
There are several payment methods such as credit card, UnionPay, and Paypal.
You can choose to pay with your CIMB, Maybank or other Malaysian bank debit card, but I find the conversion fee is astronomical.
To pay for the application fee, I highly recommend to check out WISE, which is discussed earlier, it saves me more than 20% of the extra fees.
STEP 4: After Application Submitted
After the application submitted you might require to do a biometric collection at a selected location that is closest to you. It doesn’t matter if you have already did a biometric collection for a previous Australian visa, when lodging a new visa they need your biometric a gain. For me, I went to Wisma MCA for my biometrics, which cost RM117 in total.
For Malaysian, once you got the email to do the collection, you have to book an appointment with VFS Global here.
Upon arrival to the collection centre, please bring along your passport and biometric request letter issued by the Australian government.
STEP 5: Health check
For this visa, I did not undergo a health check as I previously entered Australia using Student Visa which I have already gotten through health check-up within a 12 month period.
If you haven’t have any health check before, you have to visit the hospital that they wrote in the letter.
STEP 6: Waiting for visa outcome
Once everything is submitted, the application will be processed within 30 days. Based on the estimated processing time by the Australian Government, 50% of the VISA 462 will be processed within 30 days. Now you can sit back and relax and wait for the application outcomes. Once it is approved, you will receive a notification in your email, and the visa will be valid for 1 year upon your arrival in Australia.
All set for your next adventure: Final Words
Getting a work and holiday can be complex and straight forwards at the same time. I hope this article can serve as a guide to help you through your journey.
In part 2, I will discuss all of the pre-departure procedures, including but not limited to packing check list, bank accounts, transport, and accommodation arrangement and how to get a job.
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