How to check your 88 days before the ballot
A step by step check of your specified work, so a counting mistake does not cost you a place in the second year visa ballot.
Why check now
On 17 September 2026 the Government announced that second year Working Holiday visas will move to a ballot, and that 88 days of regional work will still be needed to enter it. No start date has been published yet.
When the rules arrive, you want to know your exact count and have the evidence ready. With your payslips in front of you, these checks take less than an hour.
Step 1: list every period of work
Write down each job: employer name and ABN, start and end dates, contract type (full time, part time or casual) and the address where you actually worked.
Only work done while you held your first Working Holiday visa counts towards the second.
Step 2: check each workplace postcode
What matters is the postcode of the place where you worked, not the address of the employer or of the labour hire agency that paid you.
Check each postcode against the Department of Home Affairs list for that industry. Northern and remote Australia has extra options, such as tourism and hospitality, that do not count elsewhere.
Step 3: check the industry
Plant and animal cultivation, fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, mining and construction count in eligible regional areas. Recovery work after a declared natural disaster counts in the declared areas.
If you are not sure a job qualifies, read the Department page on specified work before you count it.
Step 4: count the days the way the Department does
On a full time contract you count calendar days of employment, weekends included.
On a casual or part time contract you count hours. Every block of hours equal to one full time week (35 hours in most covered industries) is worth 7 days, and every 7 hours left over add one more day.
Do it pay period by pay period, not on your grand total: that is where most miscounts happen.
Step 5: check your evidence
For every period keep payslips showing your name, the employer name and ABN, the dates and the hours. Bank statements with the matching pay help.
Days paid cash in hand cannot be proven and do not count.
Step 6: leave a margin
With a ballot, one missing day could keep you out of the draw. If your count is close to 88, a few extra days of eligible work are cheap insurance.
Check your 88 days for free
Enter your work periods and the calculator counts your days with these rules and checks your postcodes. No account needed.
Check your 88 days for freeFAQ
When does the second year visa ballot start?
No date has been published. As of 19 October 2026 the Department of Home Affairs has not released any registration details, so treat any specific date you read online with caution.
Can I check my 88 days for free?
Yes. The mywhv.app calculator applies the counting method described here and checks your postcodes. It is free and needs no account.
Do part time and casual days count?
Yes, converted from hours: every block of hours equal to one full time week counts as 7 days.
What if one of my workplaces is not in an eligible postcode?
Those days do not count. Take them off your total and plan the missing days before you apply.