Australia has temporarily stopped accepting new Work and Holiday visa applications from citizens of 24 countries as the government slows processing under its Working Holiday Maker program. The suspension applies to the subclass 462 Work and Holiday visa, a temporary visa that allows young people from eligible countries to travel and work in Australia. The program is also used to help address short-term labor shortages.

Australia has temporarily stopped accepting new Work and Holiday visa applications from citizens of 24 countries as the government slows processing under its Working Holiday Maker program.

The suspension applies to the subclass 462 Work and Holiday visa, a temporary visa that allows young people from eligible countries to travel and work in Australia. The program is also used to help address short-term labor shortages.

According to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs, applications have been paused for:

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Working Holiday Maker visas were being processed more slowly than before but did not provide further details about the change.

The government has also not given a specific reason for pausing applications from the 24 countries. The Home Affairs website says applications may be temporarily suspended when a country’s annual visa allocation is close to being filled, to spread applications across the program year, or to support the government’s broader migration settings.

The move affects most countries participating in the capped subclass 462 program, which currently covers 29 countries.

Applications remain open for San Marino and Türkiye, which each have an annual allocation of 100 places. China, India, and Vietnam are also continuing under a ballot-based application system.

Immigration lawyer Chris Johnston described the scale of the suspension as unusual, noting that individual countries have faced pauses in the past but that stopping applications from almost the entire group is different.

The changes were not formally announced and instead appeared on the Department of Home Affairs website.

Experts have suggested the decision could be linked to Australia’s efforts to reduce net overseas migration, although the government has not confirmed this. The Labor government is targeting annual net migration of 225,000 people.

The Department of Home Affairs said reforms to the Working Holiday Maker program would help control demand and provide a fairer system for allocating visas.

Applicants who have not yet submitted applications from the affected countries will have to wait until applications reopen. Those who have already applied may also face longer processing times.

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