There’s no Commonwealth privilege here! What I’m talking about is working holiday visas, which allow young people (some countries have a maximum age of 30, others 35) to work in another country without needing special skills or a job in advance. It’s basically expected that such people do entry-level work, not skilled work. It would be more difficult to get a skilled work visa if you’re not on the Skilled Occupation List.

It’s true that citizens of the United States have fewer working holiday options than other Western citizens, but this is only because the US government won’t allow citizens of other countries to apply for working holidays in your country. However, five countries do still have working holiday visas for US citizens: Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore, and South Korea.

One of my closest friends while I was in Australia was a US citizen who was also there on a working holiday visa. US citizens need to apply for the Work and Holiday Visa (subclass 462), while most other Westerners apply for the Working Holiday Visa (subclass 417). The only difference is that the 417 allows people do to 3 months of work in a regional area to extend the visa from 12 months to 24 months, but the 462 is limited to 12 months.

There’s a similar situation in New Zealand where working holiday visas for US citizens are limited to 12 months, whereas citizens of some other Western countries can stay as long as 23 months. And while I can’t speak for New Zealand, there are ample opportunities for sponsorship in Australia if you really want to stay there long-term (you’ll just need to find an employer willing to do it and agree to stay with them for a couple years).