Australian Department of Home Affairs
Australian department responsible for immigration and border policy.
The Australian Department of Home Affairs will run ballots for second- and third-year working holiday visas, which minister Tony Burke announced on 17 September with caps of 45,000 and 5,000 places and no start dates.
Last refreshed: 3 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
When will Home Affairs publish start dates for the visa ballots?
Timeline for Australian Department of Home Affairs
Canberra puts backpacker visas to ballot
Nomads & CommunitiesBackground
The Australian Department of Home Affairs is the federal department responsible for immigration and border policy, including the working holiday and visitor Visa programmes.
On 17 September 2026 its minister, Tony Burke, told the National Press Club in Canberra that the department will hand out second- and third-year working holiday places through a draw. The second-year draw holds 45,000 places for a pool that numbered 57,000 qualifiers last year; the third-year draw holds 5,000, for 31,000. On last year's numbers about four in five second-year qualifiers would win a place, and fewer than one in six third-year qualifiers would. The regional work requirement stays as the qualification for entering the draw, and no start dates are published.
New visitor visas will also carry a no-further-stay condition, which bars most onshore applications for other visas, protection claims aside. Burke said it will not affect anyone already in the country. He framed both changes around net overseas migration, to which he said backpackers added 48,000 last year.
Which Australian department handles immigration policy?
How many year-three working holiday places will there be?
Does the regional work requirement still apply?
