Other countries with working holiday visas for Malaysians: I could have gone to Canada. I already was in touch with a family interested to take me on as an au pair. Tapi Canada jauhlah, ticket mahal and sejuk pulak tu!
Some helpful details if you're planning to go on a working holiday to New Zealand (NZ) and Australia (Oz) (in this paragraph, correct at time of print ie 17 Oct 2010, 1.30 am, Malaysian time). Both countries offer working holiday (WH) visas to Malaysians. Australia offers 100 annually while New Zealand offers 1,150 (I know, damn kedekut Australians). New Zealand starts accepting applications on January 1. But, unusually, Australia starts on July 1. It's Oct 17, and a quick check online reveals that all NZ's WH visas are sold out. So now we know that in 2010, over 1,000 Malaysians had decided that they want to travel to NZ on a working holiday. I am not so unusual after all.
Australia's requirements to be eligible for a WH visa are so so much more than New Zealand's. By this I mean their requirement that applicants should have had some tertiary education, hold documentary evidence of their English proficiency, and a letter of support from their government. Oh, and a chest x-ray to prove you haven't got tuberculosis (TB). For New Zealand, the most I had to worry about was having enough money.
I was stupid enough not to have all my documents ready for Australia's July 1 opening deadline. I went to the High Commission on July 6, just 4 working days after doors-open. To be told, sorry, we have now 106 applications in queue. Thinking it was not bloody likely 7 applicants would be rejected, I hugged my documents and went home. Really, I was in shock. The plan was to get WH visas for Oz and NZ and do them back-to-back (would help to save on flight costs) - spend 1 year in Oz, then hop from there to NZ to stay for 6 months. Then take my time coming home, by hitch-hiking on yachts. Eventually I decided I should do NZ first, come home to Malaysia next year and try again to apply for Australia's WH visa.
It was an amazingly breezy process to obtain the New Zealand WH visa. I don't remember the exact date I applied, but it was in July, after my rejection at the Australian High Commission. You just fill in your application online, pay online, and within a week they reply you (online) that your application has been accepted, please print this Electronic Work Visa and keep it with your passport at all times. Brilliant. I loved the Kiwis already.
With regards to (wrt) the mention (above) on having to obtain an x-ray for the Aussie WH visa. You need not have one done already when you send in your application. You send in all your other necessary documents first. If you meet all their requirements, only then are you asked to go for a chest x-ray, at a clinic of their choice. The x-ray, therefore, is the de facto final hurdle to an Aussie WH visa.
Re the mention (above) on having to produce documentary evidence of your government's support. It was pretty easy to get a Letter of Good Conduct (LOGC) from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Give them the necessary documents at the counter, and they can hand you your LOGC within the hour. Only 2 things I found difficult about this process. First (and this wasn't really a biggie), was finding a Commissioner for Oaths. Second, was finding that goddamn Wisma Putra!!! The signs in Putrajaya were most UNhelpful. To help you all out, here is a map to Wisma Putra.
I mentioned age limit for WH visas in my previous post. Typically age limits for WH visas worldwide are 30. But if you are 30, you've still a chance. How? By ensuring that you send in your winning application before your 31st birthday.
Useful links:
