If you’ve met that special lady in the Philippines and you’re now engaged (or married), then good for you! Congratulations! Do you now need an Australian Partner Visa application?

Maybe you’ve decided you’re already solidly committed enough not to apply for a tourist visas and to apply for a Partner Visa or Prospective Marriage Visa to bring her to Australia? If you’re not sure yet? Wait until you are, and certainly consider a tourist visa. Plan another trip. Wait a few months until you’re certain. But if you know she’s the one for you, then for your own benefit get on with it. Life is too short. Don’t waste any of it due to cold feet.

And I hope you’ve also decided to get a Registered Migration Agent to manage your application for you!

Why do you need a Registered Migration Agent?

Because it’s too hard on your own. Regardless of how smart you feel, or what the amateur advice forums (where the blind-lead-the-blind on a daily basis) tell you, this is new to you and it’s far from crystal clear. We’ve had lawyers as clients in the past, because they knew they needed a specialist. All  visas for lawyer clients granted too, happy to say, along with hundreds of others visa applications every year.

What to do? Do you need to read up on Department of Home Affairs websites, take dreadful advice from a No-Care-No-Responsibility forum, and fill out forms and hope you’re right? No, not at all.

Go HERE and read about fiancée and spouse visas on the Down Under Visa website.

Go HERE and fill in an assessment form.

Then wait for us to assess your case, and we’ll let you know if we can help you. We’ll also tell you about our professional fees and government visa application charge costs.

If you’re happy? Let us know, and we can start preparing your application straight away.

An Australian visa application

Now, be aware that preparing a sound application takes time. You can’t wander into our office, sign forms, and expect us to lodge an application immediately. We do get requests like that, but we simply won’t do it. We are ethically bound to only take on cases we believe will be successful, and we will always act in your best interests. Lodging poorly-prepared applications is definitely NOT in your interests. You Australian men will know the story of the old bull and the young bull? We’re definitely the old bull (minus the bull____)!

If you become our client, you just have to follow our advice and our instructions. Leave the planning to us, and leave any worrying to us. We have a remarkable success rate, and we never let a client down.

And please avoid the “agents” who are not registered. In Australia it’s illegal to give migration advice unless you’re a Registered Migration Agent like Jeff Harvie from Down Under Visa. In the Philippines they get away with it, because Australian Law doesn’t stretch beyond the borders (more’s the pity!), therefore you’ll find a plethora of opportunists happy to take your money. There are supposed “visa specialists” all over the country who will apply for any visa for any country for you. And every travel agent will put on the visa-expert hat if you ask them. Many of them claim to have friends in the Australian Embassy in Manila who will rush it all through for you guaranteed, which is not only nonsense but quite offensive.

Are the dodgy agents and travel agents cheaper? You bet they are! Aussie Dollars go far in the Philippines. Much more than the commission they make on selling bus tickets, that’s for sure. No wonder they’re enthusiastic. But what price do you put on your future happiness? Once you realise the visa application has been refused, or realise they never even lodged it, you’ll spend more on the extra trip here to console your crying Filipina girl than you would ever pay to us for doing the job properly. Think about it!

Our assessment form again is HERE.

NOTE: This is an updated reposting of a BLOG post from 2013