COVID-19 affecting your Australian Filipina relationship?

Never give up!

NOTE: Marian and her son arrived in Australia on a tourist visa 5 April 2020 from Manila

Message for today is just that – NEVER GIVE UP!

I’ve said this in all my posts about COVID-19 (Coronavirus). We write our own destiny! If you decide it’s all hopeless? Yes, you’re right. It is NOW hopeless. But if you decide “Stuff it! We’ll get through all this, and be stronger for it.” then you WILL be! The ball is in your court, and Down Under Visa are here to help.

The reality of COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

This is an annoying wretched bug, which unfortunately spreads really well. It’s harshest on older people, even though both Prince Charles and Tom Hanks are better after experiencing mild symptoms. Note that Tom is 67 and Charlie is 71. Peter Dutton the Immigration Minister is also well again.

Meanwhile 103,000 people die in the Philippines every year from smoking-related illness (15,500 a year in Australia!), and 1,500,000 die every year from Tuberculosis in the world and no one bats an eyelid. 

This thing will pass! The spread in Philippines has slowed. The (acting) Australian Immigration Minister stated on Saturday that the COVID-19 increase in cases had gone from 25% per day to closer to 5%. Massive decrease since Australia started taking things seriously like Philippines did in the middle of March. 

Do you all realise that once it reaches 0%, the virus will be dead in the water in two weeks? Most….repeat, MOST people get over it in about 6 days. Once it’s gone, everyone (Government included) will be very keen to get things back to normal.

Can family members travel to Australia now?

Partner Visas

Yes, you can. You can travel any time at all! You don’t need to ask permission. You’ve already proved that you’re a legitimate partner with your Australian partner visa application.

Australian Citizens

If you or your kids are Australian citizens by birth or citizens by descent, your Australian passports are all you need to enter Australia. You may enter anytime you like.

Temporary Visas

By “temporary visas”, I mean specifically Australian tourist visas in our cases. We don’t deal with student visas or work visas, so we’re not a source of knowledge there. Tourist Visas are “temporary visas”, and yes there are certain restrictions on them right now. 

Spouses (both by marriage and de facto), dependent children and legal guardians are exempt from the travel ban.

If you have a girlfriend or a fiancee, then sorry. Right now they can’t enter Australia. You will need to wait for the travel ban to be lifted. No, they did not say “It will be 6 months”. And intelligence should tell us all that they will only maintain it as long as is necessary then it will come crashing down and life will go back to normal.

NOTE: It is necessary for those eligible family members to apply for a clearance to travel. Just because you stick your hand up and say “Oh, yes….we’re a de facto couple” doesn’t mean they will automatically let you in. You will need to apply for permission. Or if you’re using Down Under Visa, we can do that for you as part of the tourist visa application.

COVID-19 Travel Bans – A Success Story

See that glowingly happy Australian Filipina couple (and little chap) in the photo above? 

Down Under Visa clients Marian and her son arrived in Australia on Sunday 5 April after a marathon flight from Manila that took 43 hours. I imagine now in isolation in Australia now, but at least they got there. And this is a de facto couple too, so that needed to be proved.

Here’s Chris’ email excerpt to me, which he gave Down Under Visa permission to share:

I am so pleased to say that Marian and Driex will be flying out of Manila tomorrow night on an EPIC 43 hour journey to come home to PERTH. They will leave Friday night and arrive in Perth on Sunday night. There flight takes them half way across the world towards the UAE before flying another half way around the world to return to Perth. On arrival in Perth they will be exhausted but HOME. It is then off to the CROWN Perth Hotel for a relaxing 14 day isolation stay compliments of the Australian government…They will be out of isolation on the 18th or 19th April just in time for Marians 26th Birthday that we can look
forward to celebrating together as a family reunited.

We basically had to do a mini partner visa application in order to show sufficient evidences and proof of our defacto relationship and Dreix’s dependancy on us both in order for the Australian Government to grant both her and Dreix’s right of travel to return home to Perth. It also took then a lot further convincing on the filipino side of things after the Australian approval was given. But by far the hardest task has been securing the flight home.

Now, I know the flight cost them over $9,000.00 for the two of them. But families should be together, so they made it happen despite Chris suffering the same loss of income that so many others are dealing with right now. But they made it happen. Whilst we realise that many of you are in the same boat, if you can help them make up the shortfall there’s a Go Fund Me link here gf.me/u/xudibr if you are able. 

And for the rest of you?

Never give up! Stick to the path. Men, you are the rock on which your Filipina lady will be leaning. Be strong for her. This will soon be over, and at the end of it you will have a renewed appreciation for what you have. And we’ll be here every day to help you as per usual.

Jeff Harvie is a Registered Migration Agent from Australia, but resident in Philippines since 2010 with his Filipina wife Mila and large extended family. Experienced with the Philippines culture, cross-cultural relationships and bureaucracy as well as Australian visas and Australian Migration Law, he writes with authority and fortunately with enough informality and humour that the average Aussie gets it! Read MORE