While I’m writing this, I’m sitting here on a Friday night very tired. It’s been a long and busy week, and all the staff have worked their puwets off. We expect a lot from them. I’m pedantic and pretty intolerant of anything “average”, and expect the best from everyone all the time. And most of the time yes, they do rise to the occasion and we get the job done. As Registered Migration Agents, Down Under Visa are hard working and totally dedicated to bringing visa grants to their clients, and the staff reflect the Down Under Visa way.
Is it easy being Registered Migration Agents (RMA)?
It was definitely easier for us years ago when we first started as practicing Registered Migration Agents, because we had less to do. Less clients and less applications, whereas we’re quite an enterprise these days. Yet it’s still a family business, and we haven’t lost touch with the reasons why we do what we do. The clients and the outcomes still matter as much today as they ever did.
The emotions can make it challenging sometimes, when we have couples who miss each other and are scared and they worry that it will all go wrong and they will end up refused. And we’re dealing with couples from different countries and different cultures which can cause hassles in itself. A lot of RMA’s don’t want to deal with partner visas, because they find the emotions a bit much to deal with. Challenging, yes, but we deal with it because we know what the outcome means to our clients. We (Jeff and Mila) have been through the partner visa process ourselves when Mila was an OFW in Hong Kong many years ago. Yes, we went through a Prospective Marriage Visa application ourselves, so we know all about it.
Back when we went through our application, it only took 2 months before it was granted. So we got off easy. Yet we still know what it was like to go through the time of being apart. The saying goodbye at airports and finding yourselves all alone again with no definite date of when you’ll see each other again. The phonecalls, only to hang up and feel all alone once again. Yes, we know all this. So we know what drives you when you get emotional, and we do care about the outcome. I’m an Australian and Mila is Filipina, which means we can see the perspective of both partners.
So yeah, as I’ve said before “Don’t shoot the messenger”, however yes we do get you. We do understand. And most importantly, we do genuinely care about the outcome. Best thing I ever did was to marry one of the Philippines finest women, and as Aussie blokes look out for each other, I wish the same for my mates out there. And I believe that a strong and stable society is built on solid marriages and families. Best thing for Australia is to have more Aussie men married to good Filipina women. And being married to an Australian man is a great outcome for a Filipina lady too. We’re a good lot!
Down Under Visa take care of their clients
What made me think of this as a topic on a Friday evening was that we had just finished lodging a visa application just after 8:30pm (which at the moment is 11:30pm Eastern Standard Time). Is this our normal time for lodging applications? Do we run an evening shift in our office? No. No, we don’t. Definitely not! Office closes at 5:00pm normally.
So why were we there? Because we had a client who would have been unlawful 30 minutes later. That’s the trendy new migration-speak for being illegally in Australia. Being an unlawful non-citizen! Well, it nearly happened. No fault of ours. Client was dragging the chain, and had the forms to check and sign on the Wednesday. 5:00pm on Friday passed, and no word from the client. If we didn’t care about the outcome, we would have packed up and gone home. Yet we kept the staff back because conscience got the better of us. Client finally responded, and we had the applicant electronically lodged in the nick of time. The Acknowledgment came through, and a Bridging Visa A was automatically issued (which happens when a valid visa application is lodged in Australia, and the existing visa is running out). Client is now lawfully in Australia, waiting for the outcome of the visa application.
So, no, it’s not just a job to us. We’re not a corporate monolith who just rake in the cash and don’t care about the real people out there. We never forget the truly awesome responsibility we take on when we accept you as clients, and we know only too well that we hold your future in our hands. And our success rate shows how much you and your visa grants mean to us. This is and will remain the Down Under Visa way. If we haven’t helped you to get a visa for your sweetheart from Philippines to Australia yet, we look forward to doing so very soon.
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Thanks for todays blog, I certainly have felt the emotions you described far too often over the past 4 years and your blog tonight has once again refuelled my tank of hope, that we, my fiancee and I, could be together again in 2017.
Thanks