Do fast tourist visa applications happen in early 2022?

I’ll get to that shortly.

The Philippines border is now open to tourists (fully vaccinated, and with health insurance coverage for COVID). Australian’s border is also now open (to fully vaccinated visa-holders). 

Finally!

After two years of hell!!

Great news, no question. Those poor long-suffering Australian Filipina couples who’ve been in limbo, forced apart. And at the same time going through the miseries of COVID. Lockdowns. Businesses failing and people losing their jobs. Fear of getting sick and joining the statistics. Now the virus is on its knees, and life is returning to normal rapidly!

Even the tinfoil-hat-wearing WA Government is opening their border 3rd of March 2022!

We at Down Under Visa? We came back from our holiday break at the start of January, and hit the ground running! Not sure we’ve ever been so busy! And no more sweating over the dreaded Travel Ban Exemptions which often made us feel like failures as Registered Migration Agents. No more! Finished! All of it!

What has borders opening meant to Down Under Visa?

A side-effect of these enthusiastic love-struck Aussie men getting on the first flights they can get is a bit….no….a LOT of over-confidence in how the Australian Embassy and the Department of Home Affairs works!

What are they asking me?

“Jeff, I’m coming over to meet Mary Jane in early March. I’ll be here for two weeks, and I want to bring her back with me when I leave!”

This would be my reaction (if I were a cat)

Sorry, but it’s not going to happen!

At the moment? Tourist visa grants out of Manila are taking 1 – 2 months on average. Sometimes quicker? Sometimes slower!

Can we ask them to grant a visa in time for a flight in a couple of weeks? Not a chance! They simply don’t work like that. That would be like asking them to push your application ahead of everyone else’s, because YOU are the only Aussie man who misses his Filipina lady! And you know that isn’t true!

Tourist Visa Application Backlog

MOST of the tourist visa applications lodged since the lockdown in March 2020 are still there sitting in the biggest ol’ dusty pile the world has ever seen! Yes, we had a string of them in (I think!) late 2020 refused, but I would say 95%+ are still there. And as far as we would understand, they will need to start processing these.

I HOPE they won’t do what they did when they started granting offshore partner visas and prospective marriage visas again, and that is to ask for further documentation due to much detail on the tourist visa applications being out of date! 

What I’m saying is that I don’t think that tourist visa application processing will become faster for a while! Borders are open, and they will process applications fairly. Well-prepared applications will get good results. 

Flying back together?

Yeah, I know! I get it!

TWO reasons:

1. Of course it’s as romantic as it comes to be sitting together on a plane, holding hands, counting down the hours until the plane lands. I’m a romantic ol’ bloke too. I get it!

2. And the chivalry in you comes into play. Knight in shining armour….like most Australian blokes….it makes you feel protective. This is more so if she hasn’t flown before. You worry about her being scared.

On the first one?

I know it’s nice. Who WOULDN’T want to be together? And who wants to fly back alone when you think there’s a chance you won’t need to? I can still remember the lonely flights home by myself many years ago. Not fun, but hey? You survive! And fact is there just no choice, unless you can stay here for months on end patiently waiting.

On the second?

Much as we want to flex our chests and slay dragons for our fair damsel, it’s really not necessary. Filipina ladies may be small and have sweet voices, but they are NOT delicate little flowers! These are the girls who willingly upend their lives and fly off to dreadful countries in the Middle East to work and send money home! And they do this flying alone! They’re tougher than you think!

My wife? When she was 24 years old. Had never been on anything more than a bus! Flys to Taiwan. Discovers cold weather for the first time. Has to learn to speak Mandarin. Stays there for several years living and working with a Taiwanese family. She coped! 

Your wife or wife-to-be? She will take at most an 8 hour flight, and will have YOU waiting at the airport for her. She will do fine!

Something to consider? Philippine Airlines and Qantas do (or did! I’m out of date) fly directly to Australia. Try to avoid cheaper flights with stopovers in strange places. Don’t add extra stress. She checks in at Manila Airport, and gets out where hubby is waiting! 

So please enjoy your time together. But please be realistic in what you ask for. Whatever happens, it HAS to be better than the last two years, right?

Want a tourist visa and then start a partner visa inside Australia?

Yes, we’re getting plenty of people asking this too. Equally unrealistic. Please click the link HERE and it will all be made clear.

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! Down Under Visa specialises in visas for Australians in relationships with ladies and gents from Philippines, Thailand, China and Vietnam. Read MORE