Hello to all Down Under Visa clients, old and new. Hope everyone is well, and hope Down Under Visa are serving you well.

A few bits of news…….

Philippines presidential candidates 2022

Philippines Election

Philippines election today! 

And that means a PUBLIC HOLIDAY for the Down Under Visa office for MONDAY AND TUESDAY.

There is no absentee voting here. Where you register, that’s where you vote. So people travel all over the countryside to get to their place of voting to cast their ballot. 

Voting is for:

• President (and Vice President and Senators and probably others)
• Province Governor
• Local Mayor

So a busy time. Lots of traffic on the road. 

I can’t vote here as I’m not a Citizen, but I can hope that those who DO vote have long memories, especially back to the early 1980’s. And I hope there is no cheating and that the new office-bearers will have a true mandate from the people!

I’ll be here working away as I always do, but I have no staff to do things for me or to ask about uploaded documents. (And please read below about asking me about uploaded documents!) Please just understand my limitations.

Clients only – The To-Do List and the Migration Hub

A reminder again that when you upload documents and relationship evidence to the Migration Hub that it takes time to check this properly. We know Agents who are not as fastidious as we are, and will just upload whatever you send. NOT US! We have always known that the documents and relationship evidence are primarily what will make or break an application, and we will never compromise quality just to make life easier on everyone (including ourselves!)

And note that we do not check documents on weekends or Philippines public holidays.

So please:

• Don’t leave all the documents until the last minute before uploading and then panic when they still show as incomplete!
• Check the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT EMAIL to ensure that you uploaded correctly
• ONLY upload again if you did not get an acknowledgement, ie please never upload again to try to make us work faster! (It has the opposite effect)
• Then please patiently let us do our jobs

And note that if you did all the above and it’s more than 4 WORKING DAYS since you successfully uploaded, there is a technical support page which you can use. You will find it on the main menu page of the Migration Hub. You can also use that if you forget your password or have difficulties logging in.

And by next week we will have some new changes on the Hub which will show you what files you have uploaded, which will take nearly all of these concerns away.

But you will still need to be patient while we do our jobs!

The post-election lockdown rumour

The chattering masses have been hard at work! 

It goes like this:

1. They are hiding the true numbers of COVID cases from us!
2. As soon as the election is over they will lock everything down!

Absolute load of bovine excrement! Nonsense! Lies! 

Please read the links below to get an official view on the status of COVID in the Philippines at the moment, and ask yourself what could possibly be gained by lockdowns?

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1173384

https://mb.com.ph/2022/04/30/doh-denies-reports-of-artificial-increase-in-covid-19-cases-days-before-election/

And an unofficial view from li’l ol’ me?

• The hospitals are quiet!
• The doctors are quiet!

And please read this: https://www.downundervisa.com/2022/04/covid-19-butt-kicked-in-philippines-better-health-vaccinated/

If the population is being decimated, why would this be the case? And why would an outgoing Government want to keep a terrible situation secret? The Duterte Government will be gone soon. Nothing to gain by them hiding things!

So choose carefully who you wish to listen to, OK?

Traveling to the Philippines – Those couples getting together

There have been plenty of you traveling to the Philippines and finally catching up with your sweethearts often after a long time apart. Flights seem back to normal again, and fares reasonable. We’ve seen and heard from many of our clients this year since the borders opened again, and there have been engagements and marriages in abundance. 

I hope no one is putting it off due to Facebook Fake News like the above! If you miss each other, for goodness sakes get on a plane and get together like you know you need to do! 

Warnings

• Do NOT go to the Philippines with plans on getting a tourist visa and bringing her back on the same flight! It will NOT happen!
• Tourist visas take preparation, ie at least a few weeks. And processing time is 1 – 2 months for new applications lately. Booking flights and expecting the Embassy to work around your plans? It never happened before, and it will never happen now.
• If this is your intention, make sure you let me know many months ahead, or your plans will most certainly fail.

Anything else?

Well, the Harvie’s are all well. Kids are noisy. School vacation coming up soon, and we hope to fill the house with even more kids from the Province. 

Life in the Philippines is really very normal these days. Masks are still the norm out in public, and I actually hope it becomes the thing to do in the future. Crowds of people all sharing the same air and viruses, whether it’s COVID or the flu or the common cold, it’s pretty disgusting. Why not wear a mask in crowds? Makes perfect sense to me.

So take care, everyone. We look forward to continuing to help you all to make your dreams come true.

Jeff Harvie is a Registered Migration Agent from Australia, but resident in Philippines since 2010 with his Filipina wife Mila and large extended family. Experienced with the Philippines culture, cross-cultural relationships and bureaucracy as well as Australian visas and Australian Migration Law, he writes with authority and fortunately with enough informality and humour that the average Aussie gets it! Down Under Visa specialises in visas for Australians in relationships with ladies and gents from Philippines. Read MORE