Withdrawing your visa application. Why?
When you lodge an Australian visa application, the very last thing you’re thinking about is withdrawing the application and wasting all that time and money. DIBP statistics show that a significant number of applications are voluntarily withdrawn by the applicants. Why would this happen? And how can you learn from this?
Why withdraw a visa application?
It appears like the last thing in the world you would ever want to do. Why on earth would you ever do such a thing, and why are so many visa applicants doing just that?
The only reason you would withdraw a visa application is that you want it to stop and not proceed any further. You are asking the Case Officers at the DIBP or Australian Embassy in Manila to not do anything more on the application. You want it to stop, in short. And quite obviously you would have strong reasons for this. I’ll list some of the reasons. Take note, and try to think of how and why you would want to prevent this happening to you when you so obviously want your Filipina sweetheart there with you in Australia ASAP.
Relationship breakups
Sadly this does happen, yes. And whilst it’s pretty awful when it happens, in most cases in the long term it’s a positive thing. I’ve had failed relationships before. I’m sure that most of us have. What it means is that you’ve got a chance to start again, and hopefully get it right next time. I don’t know about you, but I don’t miss any of my ex’s, and I know I’m better off. Ever hear that Willie Nelson song “To all the girls I’ve loved before”? I like Willie, but I cannot relate to that song in any way. Not glad they came along. Just glad they kept going!
Remember if your relationship breaks up (or breaks down? Up? Down?), be sure to withdraw your sponsorship of the application immediately (which will lead to the application itself being withdrawn), because if they happen to grant the visa after you break up, you will be stuck with an unwanted visa grant and the inability to sponsor anyone else for a partner visa for the next five years! Yes, imagine how you would feel? The point of you withdrawing is to stop them processing it anymore. No more processing means avoiding the repercussions.
False statements, omissions, and bogus documents
We’ve harped on endlessly on this topic and Regulation 4020, yet it still happens. People make false statements. They leave out essential information, thus making a false statement by omission. They put in documents with wrong information, making those documents bogus.
Example: Client the other day told me how they’d lodged their own tourist visa application, however she had stated on that application that she was single when she was actually married, and when it asked if she had kids who were not traveling with her, she left that part blank. She made multiple false statements!
Bogus documents include what might appear to be accidental errors. We would estimate that 1:10 NSO documents (ie. birth certificates, CENOMAR’s, marriage certificates, etc) from Philippines we receive have significant errors on them. These may be misspellings, careless typographical errors (typos), or deliberate attempts to deceive or to cover things up.
When you make statements that are false or when you submit dodgy documents, a response will come back from the Department. It’s called a Natural Justice letter, and it’s just that. They will give you the opportunity to explain yourself, basically. It’s in case they somehow got it all wrong, or in case you have a really good reason for what happened.
Be warned! Most excuses don’t hold water, and they don’t consider ignorance of the mistake as an acceptable reason for making it. What happens is that most people realise that they have no choice but to withdraw the application to avoid being slapped with a refusal and a three-year ban on making any further Australian visa applications. Withdraw it, and the problem disappears…..for now. Better to do that than suffer much worse consequences. Agreed? Be aware that if you want to try and apply again, you need to correct the issue so that you don’t do it again.
We at Down Under Visa deal with a LOT of this all the time. We catch out document mistakes. We stop people from leaving out important information when they think it isn’t essential, and we push them harder to get the right information when they don’t understand the seriousness of the issue. And it pays off! The world averages (from DIPB statistics) say that partner visa applications and prospective marriage visa applications have between 1:4 and 1:5 chances of failure, whereas our success rate is higher than 99%. That sounds significant to me!
Further Reading
Making an Australian visa application easier
Why the Australian visa application charge disparity?
Who are Down Under Visa? Who is Jeff Harvie?
Jeff Harvie and the Down Under Visa team have been doing this for a lot of years! Down Under Visa have brought thousands of couples to Australia from South East Asia over the years. Mostly from the Philippines, but we help increasing numbers of couples where the visa applicant is from China, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia. And what this means is we see a lot of success....and we also see failures when people go it alone after talking to their mate, or their relative, or that minimal-care-no-responsibility Facebook group run by Steve and Maribeth based on their own visa application! One application, and they feel qualified to advise others! It's not even LEGAL to do that!
Want to bring your sweetheart to Australia from The Philippines, China, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia? Get a FREE VISA ASSESSMENT today! It will take you five minutes.
