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WORKING HOLIDAY HAKERS
CONFIDENTIAL
An earlier submission on "Amendments to the Immigration Rules: Specific Areas" drew attention to the Rules enabling Commonwealth (but not foreign) citizens to come here as working holiday makers. This note sets out for consideration points relating to possible changes in those Rules. The separate submission which has already been made about the Rules relating to Commonwealth citizens with a grandparent born in the UK could usefully be considered at the same time as this one.
The earlier Rules
2. Young people from the old Dominions have since before World War II traditionally visited the UK as part of an extended tour abroad, counting on obtaining some employment to help meet the cost of the visit which often took in other parts of
Europe. When control on immigration from the Commonwealth was introduced in 2962
care was taken to avoid obstacles being placed in the way of the continuation of
this long-standing practice. Thus from the outset the Instructions to Inmigration Officers made provision for the admission without vouchers (the forerunners of work permits for Commonwealth citizens) of "persons whose employment will be incidental
to a holiday". This phrase was repeated virtually unchanged in all the subsequent
Instructions until those which are now in force. The previous Instructions
specified no length of stay for working holiday makers and guidance at the tino
said that it was preferable to define the maximum loosely as two to three years,
adding that in particular cases there was no objection to granting extensions up to
three years provided that the applicants clearly qualified.
Characteristics of a working holiday maker
3. As for qualifications, the characteristic working holiday maker was described 25:
(a) young (i.e. in his late teens or carly twenties);
(b) having no family to provide for;
(c) intending to work only part-time, or to work full-time
for only part of the holiday;
(a) intending to return home after at most two or three years abroad.
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CONFIDENTIAL