Six Months with One Employer on a 417 or 462: Exemptions and Permission under 8547
You do not necessarily have to leave a job after six months on a 417 or 462, but an unexpired visa alone does not settle the question. Condition 8547 has current exemptions and a permission process. Start with the actual job and current conditions. Count elapsed months from when work started, rather than adding attendance days or hours.
Identify the work relationship before calculating time
Keep the current visa notice, actual start date, business you work for, duties and locations together. The condition can cover full-time, part-time, casual, shift and voluntary work. Workplace-based training also counts as work. A short weekly roster therefore does not automatically turn six calendar months into a year of permissible employment.
Home Affairs looks at the business or organisation for which you directly work. Changing a labour agency, affiliate or subcontracting arrangement cannot be used to remain in the same position, location and employment beyond the limit. A different payroll name or ABN does not by itself establish a fresh period. Explain what actually changed, rather than relying on the date printed on a new contract.
Check whether a current exemption matches the facts
The published arrangements include work for the same employer at different locations where work at any one location does not exceed six months. They also cover specified cultivation and disaster-recovery work and critical sectors. The sector categories include agriculture and food processing, health, aged and disability care, childcare, tourism and hospitality. Check the actual activities against the official descriptions, not just a company's trading name.
The relevant exemptions for fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, construction and mining are geographically limited to the listed Northern Australia areas. Both the activity and actual work address matter. Do not apply that construction provision automatically to a southern city. A location change must also reflect the real arrangement rather than a paper address.
Self-employment is not an automatic escape from the condition. The official page separately addresses the end user of the services and whether that business is the only client. Check the complete rule for the real relationship. Do not create a nominal extra client or assume holding an ABN settles immigration permission.
If there is no exemption, assess permission before the limit
Home Affairs lists limited grounds, including a pending application for a visa allowing ongoing full-time work, or work critical to the employer supported by an employer letter. An EOI or a future intention to sponsor is not a lodged visa application. A support letter should explain real facts and cannot guarantee permission.
Timing matters. The page allows work pending a written decision under its stated arrangements where the permission request was submitted before the six months ended. If the request is made after that period, the person must stop working for that employer and wait for the decision before continuing. Do not reduce this to a general claim that submitting any form permits work. The current visa and other conditions still apply.
Read bridging conditions separately
A new WHM grant or commencement of a relevant bridging visa carrying 8547 has its own restart arrangements. Merely lodging another application does not reset the clock. For someone already on an effective bridging visa with 8547, the page sets out a separate new-BVA process to consider removal of the condition based on a compelling need to work. The ordinary WHM permission form is not a universal bridging solution.
Before agreeing to further shifts, assemble the visa, work dates, employer and location evidence, any exemption basis, actual permission request and written decision. Keep these distinct from specified-work requirements for a second or third WHM visa: permission to continue a job does not automatically make it eligible specified work. Where the facts remain unclear, obtain an assessment before extending the roster rather than retrospectively changing dates or job descriptions.
Official sources and verification date
18 October 2026
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