Down Under Visa are THE specialists in Australian partner visas and tourist visas especially for Australian Filipina couples, and we’re based here in Manila for your convenience. And one thing you’ll never get from Jeff Harvie or Down Under Visa is the “pretty picture” to get you to sign up! No sweet words and no B.S. from me! No empty promises. I’ve always been Mr Blunt, and at the ripe old age of 50+ I don’t see any reason to change. We run a successful business, but we run an ethical business. We don’t make promises we can’t keep.

I just had a quick look at the Visa Assessment Forms that have come in over the last week. Plenty there. Maybe half for partner visas (onshore and offshore) and prospective marriage visas combined, and half for tourist visas. Plenty of rejects too. I would say around 1/3 got a message saying “Sorry, can’t help.” And just today I had one where I said “Yes, we can help. But I need you to know I’d rate the likelihood of success at around 50:50.” Of course no one likes hearing this, but it’s the truth and I don’t want anyone saying I gave them false hopes or any semblance of a promise or a guarantee!

Guarantee of a visa grant for an Australian visa?

No such thing! Anyone who promises you ANY outcome to a visa application is not telling the truth. That applies to:

• Promises that a visa application will be granted
• Promises of a set processing time

Cannot be done, because the decision is made by those deemed as “delegates of the Minister” , ie. the Minister of Immigration. That means the Case Officers at the Australian Embassy in Manila, or in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) offices in Australia. They make the decisions on whether a visa application is granted or if it’s a visa refusal. Jeff Harvie puts together the best possible visa application that will present your case in the best possible light, but Jeff Harvie doesn’t make the decisions. And neither does anybody at all who is not a “delegate of the minister”.

Visa processing time?

We put average visa processing times on our visa assessments, and we answer the “How long will the visa take?” questions with “Average processing time is……”, or “It should take approximately XX months on average”.

And when clients say to me “I want to use a Registered Migration Agent, because you can get me the visa faster”, I’m very quick to correct them. No, not faster. If all things go well, there should hopefully not be a whole lot of extra delays due to errors and requests for missing information. And most of the time our visa applications go through the system fairly smoothly, happy to say. This is especially the case when clients are prompt and follow instructions. But no, there is no fast-track visa processing. Doesn’t exist. And again, anyone who promises a speedy outcome is not being honest with you. And if you give us the choice between preparing and lodging an ACCURATE visa application or a FAST visa application, quality wins over speed every single time.

Typical BS to watch out for

Please watch out for the fast-track-visa promises, and watch out for anything that sounds like a promise of the easy road to a visa.

Nothing is fast in “Visa World”! Nothing is easy! It takes a long time. It’s stressful. It’s hard work. Visions of a comfy ride all the way to a speedy visa grant? My goodness, definitely not! You have hard work ahead of you! We promise to stand by you and help you and guide you through, and we do everything we can to ensure a smooth and easy to understand flow of information through to you. We will answer your many questions, and we will get you back on the right track if you stray off it because of bad advice or just natural confusion with something that’s new and complicated. But easy and fun? Not likely! Easier? Yes!

So promises of “Get your girl to Australia in XX days on a partner visa” or XX months will only see you disappointed. Easy rides? They don’t exist either. Easier ride if you trust the experts you just paid for? Easier ride if you follow our advice and don’t try to short-change the Department or Embassy? Easier ride if you accept that visas are grants and not rights, and that you can’t “buy a visa”? Definitely!