Australia limits how many Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visas it grants from each participating country each program year. When a country reaches its limit, applications pause or close until the Department releases more places or the new program year starts in early July. The trap: the government's official cap status page can be up to 48 hours out of date, so people refresh a stale page and miss the reopening.
Four statuses: OPEN (accepting applications now), PAUSED (limit reached for now, can reopen this program year), CLOSED (limit reached for the year, reopens in early July, 2 July for 2026-27), BALLOT (you need a pre-application invitation first, for China, India and Vietnam).
The program year runs 1 July to 30 June. Closed caps reset at the start of the next one.
The official "status of country caps" page can lag reality by up to 48 hours. A cap can reopen while the page still shows it closed.
Tern checks the live government lodgement system (ImmiAccount) every 2 hours, and even more often around the early-July reopening. So the status in the table below is real-time, not the lagging page.
The first 462 visa application charge is AUD $840, paid only when you submit. Watching the cap costs nothing.
If you hold a Brazilian, Indonesian, or other capped-country passport and you have been refreshing the government's cap status page hoping the light turns green, you already know the feeling. You are waiting on a number you cannot see, on a page that never seems to change, with no idea whether you are early, late, or too late. That anxiety is real, and it is not your fault. The system is genuinely hard to read from the outside.
Here is the good news. The 462 cap system follows rules. Once you understand what the statuses mean, when caps reset, and why the official page lags, the waiting gets a lot less mysterious. This guide walks through all of it, and shows you the live status of every 462 country right now.
What is the Work and Holiday (462) country cap?
The 462 country cap is the maximum number of Work and Holiday visas Australia will grant from a single country in one program year. Each participating country has its own annual limit. When grants from your country reach that limit, new applications stop being accepted until places open up again.
This is where the 462 (Work and Holiday) visa differs from the 417 (Working Holiday) visa. The 417 countries, such as the UK, Germany and Japan, are generally uncapped. The 462 countries are capped. So if you are applying under 462, the cap is a real gate you have to get through, and timing matters.
Not every capped country fills its quota. Smaller programs often stay open the whole year. The countries people worry about are the high-demand ones, where places run out before the program year ends. For those, watching the cap is part of the job.
Each 462 country has its own annual grant limit, and the program year runs from 1 July to 30 June. When a country hits its limit, applications close until the Department releases more places or the new program year begins in early July.
What do OPEN, PAUSED, CLOSED and BALLOT mean?
There are four cap statuses, and the difference between them decides what you can do today.
OPEN. The country is accepting applications right now. If you are eligible and ready, you can submit.
PAUSED. The limit has been reached for now, but the cap can reopen within the same program year. This happens when the Department releases more places. It hands them out in tranches through the year, to spread lodgements out rather than let a cap fill in one rush. A paused cap is a "not right now," not a "not this year."
CLOSED. The limit for the whole program year has been reached. A closed cap does not reopen until the start of the new program year in early July (2 July for 2026-27). If your country closes in, say, April, your next real chance is July.
BALLOT. For China, India and Vietnam, a first 462 visa is not first-come-first-served at all. You have to register for a pre-application ballot and be invited before you can apply. If your country is on ballot, watching the cap is not the path in. The ballot is. We cover exactly how that works in the 462 ballot guide.
The practical takeaway is simple. PAUSED means keep watching, because it can flip back to OPEN any day. CLOSED means the door is shut until the new program year. BALLOT means you are in a different process entirely.
Live 462 country cap status
Below is the current cap status for every 462 country. Tern checks the live government lodgement system every 2 hours, so this reflects reality, not the official page's delayed label.
Because statuses change without notice, treat this as a snapshot. A country that reads PAUSED this morning can be OPEN by the afternoon. That is exactly why the timing problem below matters so much.
Does the official cap status page update in real time?
No. The Department of Home Affairs runs an official status of country caps page, and it says plainly that the information can be up to 48 hours out of date. That single line is the reason so many people get caught out.
Think about what a 48-hour lag means in practice. Your country's cap can reopen on a Monday, but the official page can keep showing it closed until Wednesday. If you are only watching that page, you spend two days believing the door is shut while it is actually open. In a high-demand country where places refill fast, two days can be the difference between getting in and waiting for the next program year.
That is exactly the gap our free cap-alert tool closes. Instead of reading the delayed public page, it logs into the live government lodgement system (ImmiAccount) every 2 hours and checks the real cap status directly at the source. Around the annual reopening in early July, it checks even more often, when timing matters most. It is automated monitoring, running around the clock, checking the same system the Department uses to accept applications. When a cap flips to OPEN, we know within a couple of hours, not up to 48 hours later.
Tern Tip
If your country is capped but not a ballot country (Brazil, Indonesia, and most other 462 countries), you do not have to sit and refresh anything. Tern can prepare your full 462 application now, while your cap is paused or closed, and hold it ready. The moment your country's cap reopens, we submit it automatically. Your application is reviewed before submission, and you are not racing a stale webpage or an alarm clock to lodge in time.
How do you know the moment your cap reopens?
The most reliable way is to be told, rather than to keep checking. Refreshing a page that can be two days behind is stressful and, worse, unreliable. A closed cap reopening is a specific moment, and you want to catch it early, not late.
Tern runs a free 462 cap-alert tool. Tell us your country, and we will email you the moment its cap opens. No charge, no application required. It is the least stressful way to stop watching the page and get on with your life until there is actually something to act on.
Set the alert up and then forget about it. You can find it at Tern's free 462 cap-alert tool. If you would rather have your whole application prepared and held ready to submit on reopening, that is the paid path above. Either way, the goal is the same: you stop staring at a page you cannot trust.
When do closed 462 caps reopen?
Closed 462 caps reopen at the start of the new program year in early July. The program year itself still runs 1 July to 30 June, but the reopening is not always the 1st. For 2026-27, Home Affairs opened applications on 2 July (Australian Eastern Standard Time) and set 1 July aside for departmental systems maintenance. Every country's annual limit resets, so a country that closed months earlier becomes available again. The exact date can move year to year, so plan around early July and check the current date rather than assuming it is always the 1st.
Two things do not follow that early-July pattern. Home Affairs has flagged that Indonesia and Mongolia open later in the year, with timing still to be confirmed. And the ballot countries (China, India and Vietnam) do not reopen through the cap page at all; a first visa there runs through the pre-application ballot instead.
A paused cap is different. It can reopen at any point during the same program year, whenever the Department releases the next tranche of places. There is no fixed schedule for that, which is exactly why monitoring the live status matters more for paused caps than for closed ones. With a closed cap, you at least know early July is coming. With a paused cap, you do not know if it is tomorrow or next month.
If you are close to the age limit, this timing is not just an inconvenience. The 462 age cut-off is 30 inclusive, both when you first try and when you actually apply. If a closed cap means waiting until early July, check that you will still be under the limit then, not just when you first tried. Our ultimate guide to the Working Holiday visa walks through the age rules that catch people out.
Frequently asked questions
Where to go next
If your country is capped and not on ballot, you have two calm options instead of refreshing a page that can be two days behind. Set up a free alert so you are told the moment your cap opens, or have your application prepared and held so it lodges automatically on reopening.
Free 462 cap-alert tool: we email you when your country opens.
462 ballot guide: for China, India and Vietnam applicants.
Ultimate guide to the Working Holiday visa: eligibility, age rules, and the 417 vs 462 difference.
Primary source worth bookmarking:
Department of Home Affairs: status of country caps (remember: can be up to 48 hours behind).
