If you think I’ll be showing you the way to simple visa applications (partner visas and tourist visas), you may be initially disappointed. But if you read on, you will see that I’m merely being honest with you. Australian visa applications are assessed in line with Australian migration law, and therefore not simple at all. Less of a walk in the park, and closer to the Ministry of Silly Walks (to the Monty Python fans out there). If you want a positive result, I suggest strongly that you get some help.

Are Australian visa applications simple?

You know when you need to go to court, everyone advises you to get a lawyer. The police tell you. The judge will tell you. The expression is “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” But what does the DIBP (Department of Immigration and Border Protection) website tell you? You don’t need to use a Registered Migration Agent, but you can if you like!

Yes, indeed. The DIPB website makes it look like an online shopping cart. Go through and pick your visa, and decide how long the lady will stay in Australia for. Prepare an application, slap it together and hope for the best.

Visas are grants. Visas are not rights. If you want to bring your wife, fiancée, partner or girlfriend from Philippines to Australia you need to ensure you have a properly prepared visa application lodged that will convince the DIBP that your Filipina lady has a very good reason to be in Australia. The outcome for most people means a great deal, so you need to treat this very seriously. Get some professional help!

The truth about Australian partner visa grants

Take note of the figures below. These are world figures for partner visas, ie. not just for Philippines to Australia, courtesy of an article on the SBS website about partner visa costs.

World Partner/PMV Statistics (DIBP)

Lots of refusals, and lots of applications withdrawn. Withdrawals happen when applicants have made serious mistakes, such as false statements, omissions and bogus documents that will lead to refusals and three year bans, and choose to withdraw rather than let that happen. This has increased as they’ve got tougher on what might be mistaken for innocent mistakes.

So it means you have between 1:4 and 1:5 chances of not getting your visa granted. I couldn’t tell you how many of the above applications were handled by Registered Migration Agents. It doesn’t take much guesswork to realise that going it alone means your risk is going to be considerably higher.

The truth about Australian tourist visa grants

I don’t have figures with me for the rest of the world. I’ve had similar figures from Manila before, and refusal rates were even higher. I would well imagine withdrawal rates would be much the same.

The biggest issue with tourist visas is that everyone assumes outright that they will be really easy. A mere formality. I regularly get inexperienced people saying to me “Why does it cost so much to submit a simple application?” I say that if it were in fact just submitting a simple application, then I would agree with them. Some assume it’s just so simple they can in fact come into our office and we’ll submit it while they wait.

If you submit a simple application, you will get a simple response……..normally a refusal. A tourist visa application is more than just filling out a form and sending it in. The application form and it’s preparation would be about 10% of the application only. The supporting evidence and documentation, aka your “requirements”, this is the meat of the application! This is the stuff that is necessary to show them who you both are, and to convince them why the applicant is a safe risk to let into Australia.

So nothing is ever simple. Get some professional help before you join the statistics.

Further Reading

An easy and fast visa application to Australia

The myth of the easy Australian tourist visa application

How to ensure an Australian visa refusal!