Hi all
TNT reader Amy Davis has sent us this helpful letter on the WHV rules:
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Given the ongoing disucssion about visas, I thought it might be worthwhile sharing this, now that i have finally gotten an answer from the Home Office!
There has been a lot of discussion in the Antipodean community about what the new Working Holidaymaker rules actually are - you know the one where you can be in the country for two years but can only work for 12 months? Well, after reading the TNT discussion boards and trying all sorts of avenues, I have actually received an answer from the Home Office! - the email response took more than five months (I emailed them in May), but at least I now know what that elusive "12 months" means.
The official response I received from the Home Office is as follows:
"As you know working holidaymakers may only engage in work for a maximum 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 it is the personal responsibility of each working holidaymaker to ensure that they comply with their conditions of stay, and any working holidaymaker who exceeds the maximum 12 month period of work permitted will be in breach of their conditions.
Where the working holidaymaker is an employee:
However long or short the period of employment with a particular employer, the maximum 12 months period of permitted work is calculated on the basis of the total period spent in employment (including weekends and leave of absence, e.g. sick leave, annual leave and public holidays that occur during a period of employment), not on the basis of the actual number of days worked. This guidance applies whether the employment concerned is full-time or part-time.
Where the working holidaymaker is self-employed:
Where a working holidaymaker is self-employed, not an employee, and is paid by companies for whom he provides services only for the actual work he performs, he may calculate his period of permitted work in terms of the days actually worked, up to a maximum of 365 days worked. If he has also spent some time as an employee, the total period spent as an employee (calculated as set out in the paragraph above) should be subtracted from 12 month period in which work is permitted, when calculating, in days, the period of the 12 months that remains available to be spent in self-employment.
I hope this is helpful to others out there desperately trying to find out the rules, as I have been for months!
Amy Davis, via email
http://www.tntmagazine.com/discuss/view ... da4e08f8a5
