“‘tis the season to be…..uuummm…..emotional and sometimes slightly impractical and unrealistic…….fa la la la laaaaaa……..”

Christmas 2015 will soon be upon us. 2 months and 20 days away is Christmas day, and it’s the one time of year where people who love each other wish to be together more than any other time. For Australian Filipina couples, especially when the Filipina lady is here in the Philippines and not there in Australia, this can be a hard time of year.

I take this time to remind you all that if you get an idea of getting a visa for your wife, fiancée or girlfriend from the Philippines to come to visit you there in Australia over the holiday period, then you are not alone! Many thousands of others are going to be thinking the same thing, and that means an impending visa application bottleneck at the Australian Embassy in Manila if this is not managed well.

Hence my BLOG post today!

No, definitely not trying to talk you out of the idea. Down Under Visa are here to help. Only telling you that a well-managed Australian visa application is more often a successful visa application that will ease the stress all round and reduce the chances of missing out. And that means not waiting until the last minute and expecting miracles!

A number of years ago I can remember a particularly painful Christmas time when I didn’t take the time to warn people about the need to get themselves organized, and had a lot of late-lodged tourist visa applications. As a result of this, there were lots of very late visa grants and many that didn’t come through in time. And as is far too common, many people ignoring our advice and the Australian Embassy’s advice, and had booked flights in anticipation. Do not pre-book flights! Truly awful all round! Ever since then, we do our annual get-in-early requests around this time.

The Manila Embassy actually manage a remarkable job, and every year we see visa grants coming through even on Christmas Eve. No slacking off at all! It’s very obvious they do their best, and they are aware that this means a lot to people, especially to couples. But of course they are going to be deluged by more than the usual number of visa applications, and these all take time to process.

So if you do wish to get a tourist visa for your darling from the Philippines, then please contact us right now so we can make a start. And understand that we don’t lodge lightweight visa applications that are doomed to failure. Even if this is your second or third application, we still need to do it right. Don’t think that the fact that you “gave all that before” means that we can lodge it with minimal paperwork. Each application is treated as a new one by us because it’s treated as a new one by the Embassy, and some things especially relationship evidence gets out of date before you know it. They don’t go through the archives to drag out dusty old applications for comparison. I mean….would you?? If we ask you for documents and evidence, it’s because we need it and because we don’t want your application refused.

Looking forward to helping you both, and hopefully it will be a great Christmas for all!