You want to travel in a country who is far away from you. You want to travel during a long period. But you don’t have the money to do it. Almost 60 countries have signed agreements of Working Holiday Visa (WHV) to permit at the population to combine Work and trip. 

What is exactly the WHV? 

The WHV is a visa who permit to citizen, for exemple french, of 18 at 30 years old to travel and work during a year in a country. France has 15 partnerships : Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Argentina, Hong Kong, Russia, Uruguay, Mexico, Taiwan and since April 2018 Brazil. The travel is financing by the little job that you exerce during the year. WHVs leave with an open work visa, which means they can look for work once there and change it as many times as they want. So they don’t have to look for it before they leave.

What are the access conditions?

You need to be 18 ar 30 years old. You don’t need to have a certain level of study. You must not have already had a WHP in the country selected, except in Australia. You must not be accompanied by dependent children.You must provide proof of departure financial resources to live in the country but also to pay for the return flight if it has not already been paid. You have to make an individual request of visa that you did at the diplomatic representation in your country of the requested country. Some countries require WHV nationals to obtain a medical certificate or even a clean criminal record.

How many places ? 

Depending on the country requested, places may be limited or not at all. For partner countries to France, some not of quota places like Australia and New Zealand. For others, these are limited while the destination is very popular like Canada where 6,750 places were offered in 2019. For the countries in South America, places are around 500 – 700. 

How much does it cost?

The price of the visa depends of the departure country. In fact, in Hong-Kong you just have to pay 22€ while in Australia 315€. The life in the country is also to be taken into account. Not to mention, you also have to pay for the plane ticket.

The WHV seems to be an alternative way to travel and finance your stay, but the cost of everything is still very high.

Marine Veillé.