8547 Condition: 6 month expiry on Working Holiday Visas (417 / 462)

The 8547 condition applies to most 417/462 visas. vSure manages the "6 month per Employer [location] rule" by having 2 different visa expiry dates:

1. VEVO Expiry Date (date that VEVO says the visa expires)
2. Visa Expiry Date (Date that work rights expire)

By default, vSure calculates the Visa Expiry Date by adding 6 months from the most recent of:

• Employee Start Date 
• Employee Recommencement Date
• Visa Start Date

Exemption from 6 month condition

The Home Affairs website specifies the following:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417/6-month-work-limitation

From 1 January 2024, you can work for the same employer in Australia for more than 6 months without asking permission if you work in any of the following:

• different locations for the same employer, as long as work in any one location does not exceed 6 months
• plant and animal cultivation anywhere in Australia
• natural disaster recovery work anywhere in Australia
• critical sectors, including agriculture, food processing, health, aged and disability care and childcare, tourism and hospitality, anywhere in Australia
• certain industries, including, fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, construction and mining, in Northern Australia only (see Work in certain industries in Northern Australia only​ below).

This applies until the Government makes further decisions.

Applying your exemption to the 6 month condition

You can set your vSure account to indicate that you are in one of the specified sectors that are exempt from the 8547 condition and over-ride the 6 month limitation across your dataset. 

My Account | Edit

Simply change the Working Holiday 6-month Limit Exempt from No to Yes.

Save. 

Applying the exemption

The Visa Expiry Date in vSure is calculated when the visa is checked. Doing the above setting change will NOT change the Visa Expiry date alone. You have 2 choices:

1. Wait until the next automated batch check of your temporary visa holders (date specified in the top left of your dashboard); OR
2. Force a recalculation

To force a recalculation, simply:

1. Go to your Current Employee / Contractors tab 
2. Filter for the word "holiday" - which will bring up all 417 and 462s
3. Select All by ticking the top of the first column
4. Hit the Check All button to recalculate the Visa Expiry Date and apply the exemption

Staff Moving Locations

As specified above, an employee on a 417 or 462 visa:

can work for the same employer in Australia for more than 6 months without asking permission if you work in... different locations for the same employer, as long as work in any one location does not exceed 6 months

You can manage the movement of staff between locations by leveraging the Recommencement Date field in the employee/contractor's file in vSure. For example:

• Employee starts on January 1 at one location;
• Moving to a different location on May 15;
• Start Date = Jan 1
• Recommencement Date = May 15
• vSure will use May 15 to calculate the 6 month rule

NOTE: 6 month rule applies per visa

Note, the 6 month rule ultimately applies per visa and most 417/462s are 12 month visas. The limitation is NOT 6 months per employer location. It is in fact, 6 months per visa per employer location. 

Meaning, if an employee gets a 2nd or 3rd 417/462, the rule resets to the Visa Start Date, not just their Employee Start Date or Recommencement Date.

For example:

• Employee's 417 starts on January 1
• It expires December 31
• They start working at one employer location on March 1
• They must not work beyond August 31 at that employer location
• They could start at a 2nd employer location on September 1
• If they subsequently get another 417/462 for the following year with a start date of December 15
• They can in fact work at the 2nd location until May 15, because the new visa reset the 6 month rule

So re-emphasising the point:

vSure calculates the Visa Expiry Date by adding 6 months from the most recent of:

• Employee Start Date 
• Employee Recommencement Date
• Visa Start Date