Does hospitality work count towards your 88 days? The roles, the map and the paperwork

Yes, hospitality counts towards your 88 days. It has since 22 June 2021. The catch is where: you can pick fruit in Byron Bay and count every day of it, and you cannot count a single shift behind the bar across the road.

The short version: tourism and hospitality work counts as specified work for a second or third Working Holiday (subclass 417) or Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa if you did it on or after 22 June 2021 in Northern Australia, Remote and Very Remote Australia, or postcodes 4406, 4416, 4498 and 7215. You need 88 calendar days for a second visa and 179 for a third, and every day has to be paid in line with Australian law and the relevant award. UK passport holders who lodge on or after 1 July 2024 skip the work requirement entirely. This is general information, not migration advice.

The rule, and the trap inside it

Before 2021, a second year meant fruit, and that was pretty much that. Home Affairs added tourism and hospitality to the specified work list for work carried out from 22 June 2021, counting for applications lodged from 5 March 2022. The rule is identical for the 417 and the 462, which is worth knowing because those two visas differ on nearly every other industry.

Here is where people come unstuck. Farm work counts anywhere in regional Australia, and that is an enormous map: all of South Australia, all of Tasmania, all of the Northern Territory, most of regional New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Hospitality gets its own, far smaller map, and the word "regional" has nothing to do with it.

Pick fruit in Byron Bay and every day counts. Pull beers in the pub across the road and not one of them does.

Which hospitality jobs count

Home Affairs splits eligible tourism and hospitality into three service types: accommodation, food and beverage, and services provided directly to tourists. Between them they cover hotels, motels, backpacker hostels, caravan parks, commercial housekeeping, cafes, restaurants, takeaway, catering, pubs, taverns, bars and hospitality clubs, plus tour guides, adventure instructors, tourist transport, gallery and museum staff, travel agencies, and event and entertainment venue workers. Get the industry and the postcode right and the job title rarely becomes the problem.

One nuance almost nobody reports. The department says it is temporarily applying flexibility to the requirement, giving greater weight to the industry than to the exact job. Work supporting the ongoing operations of a specified industry in an eligible postcode, and it names administrative and cleaning support services, may be accepted. That is discretionary and temporary, so treat a back-of-house support role as a maybe, not a plan.

The map, with real towns on it

Postcodes listed in a range are inclusive, so "4868 to 4888" means every code in between. The full tables sit on the Home Affairs specified work page. Check yours before you take the job, not after three months of shifts.

Rottnest and Fremantle are the whole rule in one ferry ride. Same state, same kind of venue, same pint, and only one of them gets you a second year.

88 days is not 88 shifts

The number everyone quotes is a calendar count, but the test sitting underneath it is a workload count. Five rules decide whether your three months actually lands.

• You need the full-time equivalent. Home Affairs wants the same number of normal days or shifts a full-time worker in your role and industry would do across 88 calendar days. Three shifts a week for three months does not get there.
• You cannot compress it. Working doubles will not shorten the clock. The requirement cannot be completed in a total period shorter than three calendar months.
• A double is still one day. Two shifts on one calendar day, even at two different venues, counts as a single day of specified work.
• Paid days off count, unpaid ones do not. Paid public holidays and paid sick days count. A day you were rostered, sent home and not paid for does not.
• It does not have to be one venue or one stretch. You can split the days across employers and across your visa, as long as the total adds up.

What 88 days behind a bar actually pays

This is the part the visa agents skip. Eighty-eight calendar days is about 12.6 weeks, so a full-time-equivalent load is roughly 63 rostered shifts. Here are those same 63 shifts as a casual Level 2 food and beverage attendant under the Hospitality Award, against Level 1 casual picking work under the Horticulture Award, both at rates from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.

That is roughly $2,450 more in your pocket for the same 63 shifts, and almost all of it comes from weekends: the Horticulture Award pay guide has no Saturday or Sunday penalty column for casuals, so a Sunday pays the same as a Tuesday. The bar column is conservative too, because it ignores the $2.95 an hour evening loading a weeknight shift picks up between 7pm and midnight. Super is paid on top at 12% either way, and the picking figure assumes hourly rates rather than a piece rate agreement. Check every payslip line by line, because underpayment is common in both industries.

The paperwork that gets it approved

1. Payslips covering every period you claim. This is the backbone of the application, and the proof has to cover all the periods you worked, not a sample.
2. Australian bank statements across the same dates, so the money landing matches the payslips.
3. Payment summaries, group certificates or a tax return for the income year.
4. An employer reference naming the venue, your role, the dates and the postcode. Postcode is the one people leave off.
5. A signed agreement for any deductions, if the venue took rent, transport or meals out of your pay.

Two things that sink applications. All specified work must be paid in accordance with Australian legislation and awards, so cash in hand, unpaid trials and "a bed instead of wages" count for nothing, no matter how many days you did. And Home Affairs says it may contact your employers to check your claims. False or misleading information can get the visa refused under Public Interest Criterion 4020 and block most visas for three years, which is a steep price for a signature someone offered you in a hostel car park.

Getting the shifts, and the payslips that prove them

Three months of hospitality up north is a small-town job market: a handful of venues, a seasonal calendar, and a lot of people turning up in April with exactly the same plan. Then you come back down to a city with your days banked and start the hunt again from zero contacts.

Shiftly is free workforce management for venues with an on-demand staffing network built in, so the roster fills itself instead of a manager ringing around at 4pm. For you that means nearby venues push their open shifts straight to the network, you see what a shift pays before you accept it, and you get paid fast. It also leaves a clean record of what you worked and what you were paid, which is the exact paper trail a second-visa application runs on. Find shifts on Shiftly.

Frequently asked questions

Does bar work in Sydney or Melbourne count towards my 88 days?

No. Tourism and hospitality only counts in Northern Australia, Remote and Very Remote Australia, or postcodes 4406, 4416, 4498 and 7215. No part of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide sits in those areas, so a year of full-time bar work in the city counts for exactly zero days. It is still good work and good money, it just is not specified work.

Do I need Form 1263 signed by my employer?

Not according to the department's current evidence list, which asks for payslips, Australian bank statements, group certificates, payment summaries, tax returns, employer references, a piece rate agreement if you were on piece rates, and a signed agreement covering any lawful deductions. Form 1263 is the old employment verification form still pinned to hostel noticeboards. A signed copy of it will never rescue an application with no payslips behind it.

Can I do all 179 days for a third visa at one venue?

Be careful with that plan. Visa condition 8547 caps you at six months' work with any one employer, and 179 calendar days runs right up against it, so a slow start or a gap in the middle can tip you over. The exemptions Home Affairs currently lists are working in different locations for the same employer, plant and animal cultivation anywhere in Australia, and certain industries in northern Australia. If you need longer, request permission before the six months lapses, and you can keep working while you wait for the outcome.

I have a British passport. Do I still need to do 88 days?

No. UK passport holders who lodge on or after 1 July 2024 do not have to meet the specified work requirement for a second or third Working Holiday (subclass 417) visa at all. You still need to meet every other criterion, including the age rules and the visa charge, but the 88 days are gone.