Chapter 18 - Entry for non-work permit employment

18.4 - Working Holiday makers (Rules Paragraphs 95-103)

Purpose of the scheme
The purpose of the Working Holidaymakers (WHM) Scheme is to allow young Commonwealth citizens to come to the United Kingdom for an extended holiday (up to two years). Their holiday may be funded by taking work provided this is incidental to the holiday.

Prior entry clearance is mandatory.

Requirements for entry clearance
Entry clearance as a Working Holidaymaker may be granted if you are satisfied that the applicant:

• is a national or citizen of a country listed in Appendix 3 of the Immigration Rules, or a British Overseas Citizen, British Overseas Territories Citizen, or British Nationals (Overseas);
• is aged between 17 and 30 inclusive or was so aged at the date his application for leave to enter was made;
• is unmarried or is married/civil partner to a person who qualifies as a WHM and the parties to the marriage/civil partnership intend to take a working holiday together; and
• has the means to pay for his/her return or onward journey; and
• is able and intends to maintain and accommodate himself/herself without recourse to public funds; and
• is intending only to take employment incidental to the holiday. Such work must not involve engaging in business, or to provide services as a professional sportsperson and in any event not to work for more than 12 months during his stay; and
• does not have dependent children which are 5 years of age or over or who will reach 5 years of age before the applicant completes his working holiday; and
• intends to leave the UK at the end of the working holiday; and
• has not spent time in the United Kingdom on a previous working holidaymaker entry clearance.

The two-year period runs continuously from the effective date of the entry clearance. Leave may not be aggregated if a WHM leaves and re-enters the United Kingdom.

A prospective working holidaymaker must be genuinely seeking entry clearance for the purpose of a holiday not exceeding 24 months in duration. The WHM must intend to leave the United Kingdom at the end of his working holiday i.e. on completion of leave endorsed on the entry clearance for the purpose of the working holiday.

Family Commitments
A working holidaymaker should normally be single, widowed, or divorced/dissolved civil partnership. Where an applicant is not single it is particularly important to consider what family commitments he has.

A prospective working holidaymaker who is married/has entered into a civil partnership can only qualify for entry clearance if he and his spouse/civil partner intend coming on a working holiday together and both qualify in their own right under requirements (i), (ii) and (iv)-(x) of Paragraph 95.

Where, however, the spouse/civil partner is an EEA national who is coming to the United Kingdom, or is a non-EEA national who otherwise qualifies for entry under the Rules, the applicant should be advised to apply to accompany the spouse/civil partner as a dependant, if the Rules provide for this.

A working holidaymaker must not have any dependent children who will be 5 years of age or over during any part of his working holiday.

Funds/Support
A working holidaymaker must have sufficient funds to pay the cost of the outward fare to the United Kingdom. The requirement to have the means to pay for the return or onward journey should be flexibly applied where there is reasonable expectation that the necessary funds will be earned before the expiry of the two-year period.

Any working holidaymaker must also be able to satisfy the Entry Clearance Officer that he has the means to support himself for at least the first 2 months after arrival or for at least one month if he has a job arranged in advance.

NB: the working holidaymaker Rules require that a working holidaymaker must be able and intend to maintain and accommodate him and any dependants without recourse to public funds.

Employment
Working holidaymakers are expected to intend to take work in the United Kingdom as an incidental part of their working holiday. Those wishing to enter in the category should treat the work that they do as a purely incidental part of their holiday (which should be their primary reason for being here) rather than being the reason for which they have sought entry to the United Kingdom. Accordingly, working holidaymakers must not intend to spend more than 12 months of their stay in employment, and must intend to spend the rest of their stay holidaying.

Entrants in the category may take most employment of their choice, including voluntary work. However, they may not engage in business or provide services as a professional sportsperson, and they may only engage in work for a maximum period of 12 months in total throughout their stay. They may choose when to work and when to take their holiday breaks as they wish, but those who exceed the maximum 12 month period of work permitted will be in breach of their conditions.

Particular restrictions are placed on the admission of sportspersons as Working Holidaymakers. Those who participate in sport as amateurs abroad and who wish to continue this activity for recreational purposes in the UK may do so. However, persons established as professionals or semi-professionals in sport who intend to continue such activities in the UK temporarily for payment or say they will do so for no pay, should be refused entry as WHMs and required to obtain work permits.

Switching
Working Holidaymakers are still eligible to switch into work permit employment after 12 months stay as a working holidaymaker. Paragraph 131D (iii) of the Immigration Rules now restricts such switching to occupations on the list of designated shortage occupations maintained by Work Permits (UK). Switching into other work permit employment in the business and commercial category is no longer permitted. Working Holidaymakers may still switch into Innovators.