Tourist visa refusals are common, especially when applicants apply by themselves without the help of a Registered Migration Agent! And the end results are usually devastating to the Australian sponsor and Filipina applicant. Tourist visas are often at early stages of the journey for an Aussie-Filipina couple. Generally he will have been to the Philippines and met her. Next step is often to get a tourist visa “to see if she likes Australia” and to meet the family and friends.

A necessary step? For some couples it is. It helps them to deepen and enhance their relationship in a less holiday-like atmosphere. For others they are ready for a partner visa, and indeed if you are then this is always the better option.

The application looks simple enough, and many assume an online application will be like filling in anything else online. Easy and quick. Click the boxes, put in your credit card details, and the visa will arrive by email.

No, not so. Sorry. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), and their Manila representatives at the Australian Embassy, are not providing “a service”, nor are they selling a product. Their job is to guard the borders of Australia, and they do it pretty thoroughly I must say. And whether online or on paper, a visa application is still a visa application. It’s still governed by Law whether the applicant gets into Australia or not. Not convincing enough, and the visa is refused.

Why do tourist visa applications get refused?

Is it because they are mean, or because they made an awful mistake? No. They are just doing the job they were given, and because visas are granted only when the applicant meets the relevant criteria set out in the Migration Regulations (Cth) 1994. And one of the tough issues with the Regulations for tourist visas is now utterly subjective they are. I would HATE the job of trying to decide if a client met them or not!

Take note of some of them:

1. The applicant genuinely intends to stay temporarily in Australia for the purpose for which the visa is granted
2. whether the applicant intends to comply with the conditions
3. any other relevant matter

How would you like to work those out?

Genuinely intends to stay for the purpose of the visa grant? How do you measure that one accurately? How do you work out if someone is “genuine” or not? Ask 10 people, and you would get 10 different answers.

Intends to comply with the conditions? You can only possibly answer that one by guesswork and by experience. Again, one person might think “Yes, I believe her” yet another will not.

“Any other relevant matter”? Good grief!

We at Down Under Visa sometimes get clients annoyed with us because we ask for a lot of documentation and a lot of evidence, because they assume this is a simple, walk-in-the-park exercise. “Just” a tourist visa! Well, please think again. What we are doing is making the decision easier for the Case Officers who have to come up with answers to those questions above. They have to get a clear enough picture of you and your situation to make a favourable decision, therefore we make sure they have enough so that they can do this.

Most of the time refusals are NOT made because they’ve decided the applicant is a “bad guy”. It’s simply because they were unable to confidently say that you met the criteria set out in the Regulations. No hard feelings. They don’t hate you, nor have they “blacklisted” you or written you off as some sort of undesirable person. End of the world? In most cases, no. Definitely not. 

And fortunately Down Under Visa know enough about tourist visa requirements and have had plenty of experience, and importantly when you ARE a “genuine” applicant we know how to present your case well enough to get you the positive result that you want. And we can usually do this even if you had a refusal before. Please complete our online free visa assessment form on the website.