HomeHow we verify
Verification and editorial policy

How we verify

Wrong visa information causes real harm. Someone books a flight, gives notice on a job, or misses an age cut-off because of a number on a page. So we hold every visa fact to one rule: confirmed on the official government source, or not published. This page explains exactly how that works, who signs off, how often we re-check, and what happens when we get something wrong.

Jump to: Official sources only · The accuracy gate · A person signs off · Government facts vs estimates · The re-check schedule · How we correct mistakes · FAQ

Official sources only

A visa fact is only true on this site if it appears on the immigration authority’s own page. Visa agencies, comparison sites and blogs can point us to the right page, but they are never what we record as the source. We record the government URL, and that is the link you can click to check it yourself.

DestinationOfficial sourcePrograms we verify against it
AustraliaDepartment of Home Affairs (immi.homeaffairs.gov.au)Working Holiday subclass 417, Work and Holiday subclass 462
New ZealandImmigration New Zealand (immigration.govt.nz)Working Holiday Scheme (each nationality has its own scheme page)
United KingdomGOV.UK (gov.uk)Youth Mobility Scheme
CanadaImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (canada.ca)International Experience Canada, Working Holiday category

We verify each nationality-to-destination route on its own. The same destination has different rules depending on the passport you hold, so a fact confirmed for one nationality is not assumed to hold for another. It is checked again.

The accuracy gate

Before any visa fact goes live, it has to pass four checks. All four, every time.

The accuracy gate

A visa fact is only published when:

  1. It has been checked against the official government source.
  2. The source we recorded is the official government page, not a third party.
  3. The value matches that source exactly.
  4. A person confirmed it, with the date recorded.

If any one of these fails, the fact is held as “needs review” and does not publish. One wrong published fact is worse than a missing one.

When we cannot confirm a figure on an official page, we do not guess and we do not fill it from memory. We do one of two things: hold the specific claim until a person can confirm it, or keep the statement general and true without the unverified number. A correct general statement always beats a precise number we cannot stand behind.

A person signs off, every time

Nothing on this site publishes itself. This is the rule that does not bend.

We use automation to watch for change, not to make it. A scheduled job re-reads each fact’s official source on its due date and compares it to what we have stored. If something looks different, it creates a draft and flags it for a person. It never edits the live page and it never publishes.

A person then opens the official source, confirms what actually changed, and decides: approve the update and publish, or reject it and keep the current value. Visa facts never auto-correct and never auto-publish. The human gate is permanent, by design. Automation can tell us where to look. It cannot decide what is true.

Government facts and estimates are kept separate

Not everything has a single official source. Visa rules do. Living costs often do not: rents, everyday prices, typical wages, the finer details of a bank’s new-arrival account. For those we use the most reputable current source we can find and we label it clearly.

Every fact on the site carries one of two confidence levels, and we show which:

  • Government. Confirmed on the official government source. This is every visa rule: age limits, fees, stay length, caps, conditions.
  • Indicative. A reasonable, sourced estimate from a reputable third party (for example government cost guidance, a major bank’s own page, or established rental data). Useful for planning, but not a government guarantee.

You will always be able to tell which one you are reading. We never dress an estimate up as a government fact.

The re-check schedule

A fact that was right last year can be wrong today. Fees rise, minimum wages are reviewed, caps open and close, rules change. So every fact carries two dates: the date it was last confirmed, and the date it is due to be checked again.

We set the re-check date to when a fact is actually likely to move, not to a generic interval. A few examples of how that plays out:

  • Application fees and levies: re-checked around the destination’s known annual fee review.
  • Minimum wages: re-checked at the published review date (for example Australia’s July review and New Zealand’s April review).
  • Caps, quotas and intake dates: re-checked as each annual intake approaches, because these change every year and some fill within weeks.
  • Reciprocal health agreements and eligibility rules: re-checked at least annually, and immediately if a change is reported.

When a re-check finds a change, it goes through the same human gate as a new fact. It is confirmed against the official source by a person before the page changes.

How we correct mistakes

We will get things wrong sometimes. Rules change without notice, sources contradict themselves, and verification is human. When that happens, our job is to fix it quickly and openly.

Our correction process
  1. You flag it, or a re-check flags it. Tell us at hello@workingholidayessentials.com if a fact looks wrong. We treat reader reports as a priority signal.
  2. We check the official source. Every correction is confirmed against the government page, the same gate as any other fact.
  3. We fix it and re-date it. The value is updated and the “last verified” date is reset, so you can see it has been checked again.
  4. If a fact is in doubt, we hold it. Where a source is unclear or contradicts itself, we mark the fact for review and keep the page honest about the uncertainty rather than publishing a guess.

Finding errors is part of how this site stays accurate, not something we hide from. If a number here does not match what you see on the official source, the official source wins, and we want to know.

FAQ

Where do your visa facts come from?

Only the official immigration authority for each destination: Home Affairs for Australia, Immigration New Zealand, GOV.UK, and IRCC for Canada. Every visa fact links to the government page it came from.

Do you publish anything automatically?

No. Automation watches official sources for change and flags it, but a person confirms and approves every visa fact before it publishes or updates. Visa facts never auto-correct.

How current is the information?

Every fact shows the date it was last confirmed and is on a re-check schedule tied to when it is likely to change. If a fact is overdue or in doubt, we hold it rather than show it.

What if a figure cannot be confirmed on an official page?

We do not publish it as fact. We either hold the specific number until a person can confirm it, or keep the statement general and true without it.

How do I report something that looks wrong?

Use the contact address on this page (hello@workingholidayessentials.com). We check every report against the official source and, if it is wrong, fix it and reset the verified date.