Documents You Must Have Notarised for an Australian Working Holiday Visa

For the visa application itself, usually nothing.

A working holiday application is lodged online and supported by uploaded documents. The Department of Home Affairs does not generally ask a working holiday applicant for notarised documents. Where it wants a certified copy, a certified copy by an authorised person is normally enough, and a notary is rarely the only option.

Where notaries do come into a working holiday, it is usually at the edges: a qualification issued at home, documents your home country wants back from Australia, and paperwork for the next country you move on to. Those are covered below, in the order people meet them.

Two visas, two different document lists

Australia runs two working holiday programmes, and the documents differ.

• Working Holiday visa (subclass 417). For passport holders of one group of countries. The first application is comparatively light on documents.
• Work and Holiday visa (subclass 462). For passport holders of a different group of countries. It commonly asks for more: evidence of functional English, evidence of tertiary education or a period of completed university study, and, for some passports, a letter of support from the applicant's own government.

Which one applies depends on your passport, not on where you live. Eligibility, age limits and caps differ by country and change, so check the current Home Affairs page for your nationality before collecting anything.

Education and English evidence for the 462

This is the part of a working holiday application most likely to raise the question of certification, because it involves documents issued overseas.

A degree certificate or transcript from a university in your home country is a foreign document. If it has to be certified or authenticated at all, that happens in the country that issued it. An Australian notary cannot vouch for a foreign university's document, and adding an Australian notarial certificate to it does not make it more acceptable to Home Affairs.

In most cases Home Affairs asks for a scan or a certified copy, not an authenticated original. Before paying anyone, read what the application actually asks for.

If your education documents are not in English, they need an English translation. Done in Australia, that should be by a NAATI-credentialled translator. Done overseas, the translation should carry the translator's full name, address and credentials.

Government support letters

Some 462 applicants need a letter of support issued by their own government. That letter comes from the home-country authority, in the form that authority issues it. It is not something to have notarised in Australia, and nobody here can issue or substitute it.

Second and third year visas

A further working holiday visa usually depends on having completed a period of specified work in specified areas or industries. The evidence Home Affairs looks for is ordinary employment evidence: payslips, bank records showing wages paid, employer details, tax records.

None of that needs a notary. A notarised statement from an employer does not turn unpaid or undocumented work into eligible work, and an employer declaration that cannot be matched to pay records is weak evidence however it is witnessed. Keep payslips as you go. Reconstructing them months later is much harder than any notarial step.

Where a notary genuinely helps

The notarial work that arises during a working holiday usually faces outward, towards another country.

Your next country wants an Australian police check. Many people move on from Australia to a working holiday, study or work visa elsewhere, and the next country often asks for a police certificate from every country you have lived in for some period. Some want it notarised, apostilled or legalised. A police check is an Australian public document, and DFAT may be able to authenticate some checks directly without a notary. Confirm with DFAT before booking a notary. Order the check close to the date you need it, because many countries only accept recent checks.

You married or had a child in Australia. An Australian marriage or birth certificate needed back home is an Australian public document going overseas. If your country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, check its status against the HCCH status table on the day. If it is, the usual route is an apostille from DFAT. If it is not, the route is DFAT authentication and then legalisation at your country's embassy or consulate. Registry certificates may go to DFAT directly, so check before paying a notary.

Your home country wants something signed while you are here. A power of attorney so a parent can deal with your bank or property, a declaration for a home-country authority, or a consent document. Those are Australian notarial acts, followed by an apostille or legalisation as the destination requires. A Justice of the Peace cannot do this: a JP's certification is not accepted overseas and cannot be apostilled.

An Australian reference or employment letter for a foreign employer. Usually a plain copy is enough. If the recipient wants it certified, ask what kind of certification they mean before anything is signed.

Sequence, for an Australian document going home or onward

1. Ask the receiving authority exactly what it needs, including recency limits and whether it wants an apostille
2. Obtain the original: a registry certificate, a printed police check
3. Ask DFAT whether it can authenticate that document directly
4. If not, have it notarised
5. DFAT apostille, or DFAT authentication plus embassy legalisation
6. Translate if the destination requires it, in the order it specifies

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to notarise my passport copy for the visa? Generally no. The application asks for your passport details and uploaded documents. If Home Affairs asks for a certified copy, an authorised person can usually provide it.

My degree is in another language. Should I get it notarised here? Get it translated, by a NAATI-credentialled translator if it is done in Australia. Notarising it here adds nothing that Home Affairs is asking for, and if the degree needs authentication, that happens where it was issued.

My employer offered to sign a statutory declaration about my regional work. Does that replace payslips? It is not a substitute for pay records. Home Affairs looks at whether the work was genuinely done and paid. Keep the payslips.

I am leaving for Canada next. What should I do before I go? Find out now which police certificate the next country wants and in what form. Applying for an Australian check and having it authenticated is easier while you are still in Australia.