It’s nearly that time of year already, and the office and staff of Down Under Visa will be taking a well-earned break. We don’t get a lot of time-off, as most people know. We don’t get Australian public holidays here, and no one in Australia knows what the Philippines public holidays are…..so we tend to keep working.

But we will be closed just before Christmas for two weeks and two days.

First day of holidays:       Saturday 21 December 2013

Last day of holidays:       Sunday 5 January 2014

Last day of visa applications being lodged:            Wednesday 18 December 

And please note that this does NOT mean we can receive the last of you requirements the day before, and lodge the next day. It’s not that simple. Applications need to be complete and ready to lodge, otherwise they will need to wait until January.

For those of you intending to lodge tourist visa applications

Make sure you respond to requests for information and documents promptly. We can and will work as fast as we can to get your applications lodged, but we cannot lodge incomplete applications.

• Check your emails
• Read instructions carefully
• Respond quickly

And remember that there is always a Christmas rush. Everyone wants visas granted by Christmas, which means there’s invariably a glut of applications hitting the Embassy in November and December. And Embassy staff also want to take holidays, so they are often short-staffed.

And remember too that we have no ability whatsoever to speed up applications, and we can’t chase them up or get any updates. Once the application is in the hands of the Embassy, it’s a matter of waiting. We will invariably have a number of overly emotional clients begging us to make magic happen. The less begging we get, the easier it will be on all of us.