Visa refusals from do-it-yourself attempts

Australian visa applications in Manila are not easy, and visa refusals are common! They are not MEANT to be easy, because if they were really easy then the Philippines would be empty at about this time next week! Would the last person to leave the Philippines please turn out the lights?

The fact is if they made it really easy, there would be a flood of people from the Philippines and other less-affluent countries going to Australia in order to make their fortunes. That’s a fact! Non-genuine applicants try to get tourist visas every single day, and most get stopped because they can’t show that they have a genuine reason to visit and an intention to leave at the end of the visit.

It is our job at Down Under Visa to show that visa applicants have that genuine reason, and this requires information from you to us, as well as extensive documentation. We need to leave them in no doubt about what your situation is, and experience has taught us how to do this.

We hear from disappointed visa applicants all the time, who made their own visa application either online or via a paper application and had the visa refused by the Australian Embassy in Manila. Some are dodgy, yes. We see the on-genuine visa applicants, and we send them packing. However I could say that most visa refusals are simply because the applicants did not state their case clearly enough. The Case Officers were unconvinced, and therefore had no choice but to refuse.

Why do visa refusals happen?

As I stated above, mostly due to a lack of convincing proof of a genuine intention to visit Australia temporarily for a genuine reason that makes sense. Sometimes these visa applications contain wrong information. Sometimes they contain a lack of information. And sometimes they are downright confusing.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection website is not a lot of help. Never has been, and the new www.border.gov.au site is no better. They give the impression it’s as simple as applying for a dog license. Tick the boxes, pay your money and you get a visa. I thought about this yesterday and realised that if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now, I would probably get the same impression of the process being almost a formality. Well, it’s not simple! Not if the end result matters to you.

And the Australian Visa Application Center (VFS) is not much help either. They are there to take the long queues away from the Australian Embassy. They are go-betweens and nothing more, and not particularly great ones at that. Fortunately they are not allowed to give advice to applicants, because they only receive applications and pass them on.

If the end results matter to you, then please get professional help from a Registered Migration Agent who specialises in visas for Australian Filipina couples lodged in Manila. We know how to prepare and manage successful Australian tourist visa applications.

NOTE: This is an updated re-posting of a BLOG article from 2015