Working holiday visa

bethjreid has indicated that this thread is about Overseas Territories (New Zealand)

You need evidence of A$5,000 plus either an open ticket out of Australia or money enough to buy one.

"Evidence may include a certified copy of a bank statement" in that if you have a bank statement and it has your overdraft limit of at least that amount, that should work. Have a chat with your bank manager and sound very optimistic.

If you open up an Australian bank account (you need your IBAN number which will probably be in your cheque book and contain your country, local bank code, account number), you can arrange for a set amount of money to be sent from your own bank account to your Australian bank account each month, quickly and at a reasonable rate.

Firm your temp agency details up and even write to them. It will help your application if you tell the officer that next day you will be reporting to the office and looking for work.

Cyberia: bethjreid is asking about New Zealand, not about Australia. The WHVs between the two have a lot in common, but it still kinda helps if you're talking about the correct one. As for "It will help your application if you tell the officer ..." - huh??? Are you aware of the process for applying for a WHV? There's no "telling an officer" anything, and if there was, then application with a temp agency would be completely irrelevant. Or if you meant the immigration officer upon arriving: They just say "Welcome to New Zealand".

bethjreid: Unfortunately the NZ immigration website is currently inaccessible, so I can't look up the exact details of how they phrase it, but basically you need to have such funds "available", as experience teaches that most backpackers need at least that much. So if you are fine with the money being an overdraft, then they should be, too. Financial requirements to WHVs are there mostly as a protection for you, to prevent you from having to return home much earlier than you would want to, due to having run out of money. Most backpacker jobs are good for stretching your money, but don't really allow you to save up much.
That said, when I arrived in New Zealand on a WHV back in 2003, no one asked to see the bank statement I'd brought along, nor have I ever heard about anyone since actually being asked to show proof of funds. (Admittedly we get much fewer people on here going to New Zealand on a WHV than we get people going to Australia, so it's a relatively small sample size, but still it makes sense that just like in Australia, backpackers are considered "low risk", and no one bothers checking.)

Thank you so much for your responses!

I'm so excited about doing this and very relieved that i dont have to find that amount of money from thin air! I'm newly graduated from Uni so the bank would LOVE me to have a huge overdraft to try and tempt me into using it!

Do you have any more advice for me? I've never done anything like this before and neither have any of my friends so its all a bit trial and error atm!

Beth x

Do you have any idea where you are planning to base yourself in NZ? It is such a great country, I loved my time there.

I'm sure you'll have an amazing time Beth. I went over on a working holiday visa and ending up living there for 5 years! The best website for jobs is ; also check out for casual and seasonal jobs and other travel-related stuff. is the best website for flats and houseshares.

Let me know if you need any more info and tips!


Working holiday visa

Working holiday visa

Working holiday visa

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