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I’m going to tell you something about several incidents that happened with Down Under Visa clients lately.

These are actual incidents that happened in the last week. We protect client confidentiality very closely, however I will explain these incidents without including the names or any identifying information that would cause a breach of confidentiality. I think it’s far too important NOT to tell these stories so as to protect other clients from possibly making these mistakes. 

Firstly, we have a client with a problem with a child’s birth certificate. Some false information had been included when the birth was originally registered, which our sharp-eyed office staff had identified.

Note that we have one staff member who does nothing but check documents, and another who double-checks the previous checks. This is how seriously we take what we do, because it’s our job to see that your visa application is granted!

We sent the client to the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) to start the process of correcting the mistake. The LCR told her it would take 3 – 4 months to do this.

But then a staff member at the LCR offered to *”fix” it in 3 – 4 days in return for a payment under the table! This is what is known as a “fixer”. The client told me about this, and asked if this is what she should do? Of course I said definitely not! I then warned her of what would happen when the real birth certificate was delivered to the Australian Embassy in Manila. Instant refusal, and either a 3 year ban for false documents or maybe a 10 year ban for false identity documents!

*Read THIS

I’m very glad she told me, and I’m very glad that she listened. In the next incident I’ll tell you of one that went a bit further.

In Incident #2, we had another client with wrong information on a birth certificate. Our office instructed her to get it corrected. A corrected document showed up. Fortunately our staff noticed that it wasn’t done properly. Yes, we’re very good at what we do. We raised this with the client during the week and she said something about how it was still being processed.

Then this morning she read a post that Mila had put up in Tagalog as part of our new “Filipinas Page” about fake documents, and she understood. We had an emailed “confession” from her this morning. She will now get the documents corrected properly, which means her application is back on track. If we had missed this error and we had submitted the application to the Embassy, it would have been too late.

In Incident #3, I had a client not understand why we wanted his lady to send us her documents as soon as possible so that we could check them. He assured us that her documents were fine, and I’m sure he believed they were. And maybe they ARE fine! We don’t know, because we haven’t seen them. We want to check them ASAP so that if there are any problems like the ones above, we can advise what to do to correct them properly and officially and without too much delay, so as to prevent any reasons why the Embassy could refuse the application.

Refusal rates for partner visa applications in Manila have always been significant. But since the introduction of PIC 4020 (Regulations dealing with false documents and statements, as well as identity fraud) I would expect this to go higher! It’s our commitment at Down Under Visa not to let this affect our great success rate. Any less would be letting our clients down, which we don’t do.

So please understand, and please cooperate with us when we sometimes need to tell you bad news about your documents and when we tell you to go through the correct channels to get these documents corrected. We do this because we are always on your side!

Some of our latest visa grants from April 2014
Jeff will be in Angeles City 17th and 18th of May 2014

8 Comments

  1. Kelly

    Hello every one

    My wife was incident 2 on Jeffs blog.

    My wife and I are probably like a lot of you and this is our first time dealings with government organisations in the Philippines. I suspect like myself a lot of the filippina’s fiancées or husbands are at work in Australia while our partners are busy at home collecting the appropriate paper work for her visa.

    There are bound to be mistakes in some of these as Jeff has pointed out which my Wife also had.

    After many months of collecting these papers my wife and her mum go along to fix a incorrect initial on a birth cert. She gets told unknown to her by a corrupt fixer at a government organisation that yes you give us some money and we can fix this for you and fast also.

    Don’t be fooled or fuel there corrupted ways. Don’t do it!!!!

    So here we men are back in Australia and we know nothing or very little of the process’s our partners are having to go thru. Our partners are not always razor sharp at talking or writing English also so what can happen is basically we have no idea what’s going on. When my Beutiful wife finally figured out what was happens she was very upset.
    Us men have to also be calm and patient and fully support our partners.

    So thankfully through Mila’s blog written in Tagalog my wife fully understood what could’ve happen if these papers had made it to Australian immigration . Banned for 3 to 10 years.

    Do not jeopardise all of your hard work and lives and love for each other.

    Ladies, listen to your husbands, husbands listen to your wife and then together to succeed in your visa application listen to Jeff, Mila and Jeremy and it will all work out in due time.

    Thanks again to Jeff and his down under visa team for there help to my wife and I.

    Thank you

    Reply
  2. Kelly Karlos

    Nowadays you can make a duplicate document like a original certificate and help it to get job. For more information visit http://www.diplomaone.com/

    Reply
  3. eric lim

    hi good day to you..just wana ask if what punishment or penalty would be given if someone submitted a fake certificate of employment and a forge signature?!!god bless

    Reply
    • downundervisa

      Under Regulation 4020, they would most likely face refusal of the application and a three year ban from applying for any other visa. They may also face criminal charges.

      Reply
      • eric lim

        hi good day to you..just a curiousity in my mind..by submitting fake certificate of employment and a forge signature of thr proprietor i have some questions if you wont mind..1)what well happend to the one invited her to visit australia 2)can she extent her tourist visa 3)will the embassy inform her that she submitted a false documents 4)is she ban for a life time getting tourist visa…thank you and more power god bless

        Reply
      • eric lim

        thank you for your reply..god bless and more power

        Reply
  4. Aisa

    Hello can i ask questions like i planning to apply my sister a tourist visa but some of our documents are not the same like my mothers name My mothers name is same but speeling is incomplete also my middle name is wrong . If we fixed its a lot of money to fix so what i have is what i used ever since i got my birth certificate i used fir my work passport ect. So what can i do if we apply tourist visa but hers and mine documents not meet? The name of my father are same so no problem. Only my mother.

    Reply
    • Jeff Harvie

      This isn’t something I would discuss on an open BLOG. If you would like help, suggest you use the visa assessment form on the website.

      Reply

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