I think it’s pretty obvious from our website that Down Under Visa specialise in Australian Partner Visas. We manage spouse visa and fiancée visa applications on a daily basis, and we do an excellent job with them. We live and breathe partner visas! And we do that because we can relate personally (having been through the process ourselves), and because we believe in marriage. Marrying my Filipina lady was the best decision I ever made, and I like helping others do the same with their own Filipina sweethearts.
Student visas and work visas? To be honest? Whilst I know this is important and often life-changing to the applicants, it doesn’t pluck my heart strings in the same way! I’m assuming this makes sense. We like bringing Australian-Filipina couples together!
With partner visa fees taking a large leap, no doubt there will be prospective visa applicants thinking of other ways to get into Australia without paying the big bucks for the new visa application charges. And sorry to say but there will be some migration agents who will make questionable suggestions too. Us? I’ve always believed that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and we’ve only ever advised clients to stick to the straight path, ie.
- If you want to be a student? Get a student visa.
- If you want to work? Get a work visa.
- If you want to stay with your beloved? Partner visa!
Genuine applications
The Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) is obsessed with applicants being “genuine”. It means that you absolutely genuinely intend the visa for that purpose, and are not “playing the system” to get a different outcome. The word “genuine” shows up in the Migration Regulations all the time, and the Case Officers are expected to watch out for signs of non-genuine applications, and will refuse the visa application if they suspect this.
And are they good at this? Oh, yes! We see mostly honest applicants. People generally don’t mess us about. The Australian Embassy in Manila would have seen more dodgy applications than most of us have had hot dinners, and most of the time they will find a weakness in your case where one exists.
Issues with making non-genuine applications
Student Visas
To get a student visa, they need to be utterly convinced that you really have a genuine (there’s that word again!) reason for wanting to do this particular course in Australia. You’ve scoured the offerings at colleges and universities both in the Philippines and in Australia, and you’ve found nothing that will further your career more than the hairdressing course offered by Swindleme College at Ashfield in Sydney.
Seriously? What would you think if you were the Case Officer? Why would Maribel from Mandaluyong want to travel all that way and spend overseas student fees and pay Aussie rent to do something she could do in Manila for a fraction?
And don’t say it’s because they run the course in English which will help her in her career in the salons of New York one day. Colleges in the Philippines teach in English! This is one of the reasons there are a flood of Korean students here. Cheap tuition fees, cheap living, and English thrown in!
And the fact that Marilou has boyfriend Dave just down the road from the college, this might also play its part in why they won’t believe you.
Work Visas
Most of these simply don’t get off the ground, I have to say. Not sure whether to say “sorry to say” or not, because I think there would only be more refusals and money wasted if more people applied.
You cannot offer your fiancée a job in your business as a secretary. You can’t get your mate to offer her a job in his hardware store either, nor can she work as a kitchen hand in the staff canteen at the mine.
They have a list of skilled professions and trades that are highly in demand, and there are no low-skilled or “general” type jobs there. These are high-level jobs, and they are jobs that pay over 50K a year. They require an employer to enter into a sponsorship agreement with the Government as well as to offer a long-term contract to the employee. And yes, they do go and check if that skilled worker is sweeping the floor or cleaning the toilets too. They go pretty hard on those who try to play the system on these.
And apart from that, they require tested English skills too. GOOD English!
Partner Visas
If you are in a genuine and committed relationship to your fiancé or fiancée, spouse or de facto partner? Chances are we can get you a partner visa or a prospective marriage visa. We are really good at putting partner visa applications together, and refusals are very unlikely if you are “genuine”. That word again!
See what I’m getting at? You want to be with your wife/husband/fiancé/fiancée and you don’t have to scheme, plot, manipulate or lie in order to make it happen! Pay the fees. Bite the bullet. And just be yourselves, and you’ll soon be on your way!
NB. This is an updated re-posting of a BLOG article from 2015
Are Australian Visa Applications from the Philippines Easy?
Down Under Visa – Australian Filipina couple John & Eva
Holy Week 2024 – Down Under Visa public holidays
How to avoid Australian Tourist Visa refusals
Free Visa Assessment
Hi Jeff,
With the fees going to the 7k level in July, do you see Downunder as being a beneficiary as more people will seek professional service to ensure a grant, or do you see down turn, as perhaps, at 7k, love isn’t that Grand?
Btw, your next 3 monthly stats are due Monday, I am eagerly awaiting to see If the last price increase has had any effect. Less applications faster processing.
Cheers Rod
I see providing great service over the years is the only thing that’s ever been beneficial to our business, Rod. There are some who will put off the process because they don’t have enough money. And some will decide that they can save money by doing it themselves. I hope that more will see that it’s a lot of money to risk if it goes wrong by them doing it themselves, and will insist on a professional. However as I’ve been watching fees go from just over $1,000 to this over the years, I think that if a couple love each other they’ll do whatever it takes to be together and their priority will always be to do whatever it takes to be together.
Not sure if I’ll have stats out Monday. Priority is getting applications out. I intend getting stats for partner visas going through Manila over the last few years. My suspicion is that fee increases will have no effect whatsoever. I mean, who gives up on their wife because of cost? Anyone who puts a price value on the woman they love, they’re not really in love at all.
Governments do this for revenue, that’s obvious, but could there be a side issue, that too many marriages fall apart once the spouse gets here, and so government is just ensuring only Genuine Genuine couples go to this extreme. I met my lovely in 2011, and we have been married 3 1/2 years, but due to the number of children, we thought it wise to live apart, been to the lovely warmth of Bulacan 9 times, and considering it will be 7 degrees here tonight, I wish I was going there, not her coming here.
Got the visa app done last Dec, and so glad I got the process going. 2 dependants will be the next task.
Did you post any results from your survey on the costs of supporting a Philippine Spouse from earlier this month.
Yes Rod, he did on May 17th: https://www.downundervisa.com/2015/05/17/cost-of-your-australian-filipina-relationship/ The core bit being: Facts and Figures
Meeting the lady of your dreams and building a relationship means you will need to travel, and you will need to spend money. In many cases sponsors choose to send money to support the lady in a more comfortable lifestyle, and in other cases they don’t. But in all cases the sponsor will visit, and that means obviously an overseas trip. And most will visit 3 or more times before she gets her partner visa and comes to Australia. Overseas trips cost money. So do phone calls and internet connections.
The average amount spent over the length of a relationship, which is normally a couple of years, is AUD$29,086.47.
Surprised? I was. But then I’m personally out of touch, as my courting days are long behind me, and all my hotel bills were less than P1,000.00 a night at the time. Costs go up.
And there as a broad range too. Lowest anyone spent was $4,500.00, and I don’t even want to say what the top cost was. There were plenty between $10,000.00 and $20,000. And I’m sure no one had a gun to their heads!
With the changes the new PM has made today, will this make it a little easier for a work visa? especially as farmers are seeking workers from overseas. ScoMo has announced today that new work visas will be a max age of 35 and option is 12 months work stay
Those were Working Holiday Visas, ie backpacker visas. We don’t deal with those, so I can’t advise you sorry.