Working Holiday visa 417 funds: enough to live on, with the fare out on top
Australia · Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417)
Funds required
AUD 5,000
Money to support yourself during your first stay, which the Department says is usually about this much, plus enough for the fare out of Australia or a ticket you already hold
Government fee
AUD 840–1,000
Official fee, main applicant, initial application
Official source · Government fee checked 7 Oct 2026 · Last rule change in force: Government fee, 1 Jul 2026 (4 months ago) · Figures read from the official rules on file at the time this page was served.
Before you rely on this
General information only
This page sets out the published rules. It does not read your documents or check your figures: advice on your own application should come from a registered migration agent or a lawyer.
To check that an adviser is registered, use the register of migration agents.
No law fixes an amount: the regulations ask for enough money to support yourself on a working holiday and to pay the fare to wherever you go next, and the figure above is the Department of Home Affairs' guide to the first part only. A balance that only just reaches it leaves the fare uncovered, unless you have already bought the ticket.
Someone who saves exactly the figure above and books nothing has met half of the test. The decision-maker must be satisfied that you have enough both to live on and for your onward fare, and the Department's page puts the fare on top of the usual amount for your first stay. The Department's page also accepts a ticket you already hold for that second half.
The figure is a guide rather than a line drawn by law: the regulations say "sufficient money", and the Department's page puts "usually" in front of its figure.
Limits that decide the application
- The birthday cut-off. The upper age is 30 for some passports and 35 for others. The Department's deadline is midnight, Australian Eastern time, on the day before your 31st or 36th birthday, wherever you apply from.
- Where you are. For a first visa you must be outside Australia both when you apply and when it is decided.
- The wait. The Department expects the average application to take around three months and asks applicants not to book flights or commit to work before the grant.
- The entry window. You must enter within 12 months of the grant, and your 12 months of stay start on the day you arrive.
- Children. Dependent children cannot join you at any point during the visa, not even for a day.
The charge, and what a firm adds
The visa application charge goes to the Department when you lodge. Since 1 July 2026 it depends on your history: the lower end of the government fee shown above applies if you have never been in Australia on this visa, and the higher end applies to everyone else, which includes second and third visas. Health checks, police certificates and biometrics can add costs of their own.
A firm charges separately for its own work. The Department says only a registered migration agent, a lawyer or an exempt person may give immigration help, and asks applicants to check who can help before paying anyone. Where a firm sells a package, ask for each part's price on its own: the visa help, and anything sold with it.
Points to clear up before paying:
- Is the firm's price shown apart from the Department's charge?
- Which rate applies to you, the first-visa rate or the higher one?
- Is the person helping you a registered migration agent or a lawyer?
- What does the firm return if the visa is refused?
- Will you show the fare out as savings above the figure, or as a ticket already bought?
The box above gives general information only: in Australia, advice on your own application should come from a registered migration agent or a lawyer, and the register it links to shows whether an agent is registered.
General information, not legal advice.
