What Australian visa services are available in Philippines when you want to bring your Filipina girl to Australia on a tourist visa or even a partner visa? How can you make this process not only successful but as smooth and stress-free as possible? What services and options are available to help a couple in an Australian Filipino relationship?  

Which Australian visa services?

When you wish to apply for an Australian visa for your lady in the Philippines, you have a few choices. And it remains your free choice what you wish to do, of course. The only definite’s are that you must apply for a visa, and that the decision to say YES or NO rests with the Department of Home Affairs (Immigration) and/or their representatives in the Australian Embassy in Manila.

You see, visas to Australia are not “rights”. There is no automatic entitlement to a visa. No inherent right exists that an Australian may invite somebody to Australia. Marrying someone doesn’t give them the right to live in Australia either. You are free to marry anyone you like, as long as it’s not otherwise prohibited by law (marrying close relatives, underage marriage, already-married, etc), however you don’t get to decide if your bride has the right to enter and live in Australia.

So whatever you do, you need to understand and accept that if your application is not a good application then you won’t get a visa. No non-citizen enters Australia without a visa, and a visa will only be granted if the visa applicant meets the stringent criteria set out in the Migration Regulations which is set in Commonwealth law.

So what can you do to ensure you get a visa for your Filipina wife granted? You can either prepare, lodge and manage the visa application yourself, or you can get a professional to help you.    

Australian visa services available

Local travel agents in Philippines

There are countless travel agencies in the Philippines in every town. They will sell you plane tickets and bus tickets and they will book hotels and resorts for you, and if you ask them they will tell you they know all about visa applications to Australia and to basically anywhere you like. They may even have an identification number with the Aussie Embassy which has nothing to do with a Migration Agents Registration Number.

This is a cheap option, no question about it. And honestly? I’d rather see clients try to do the application themselves than to take their futures so lightly as to trust them with an opportunist who bluffs their way through. Sorry, no politer way of wording it. We mop up the end-results of these characters regularly. Some clients end up with 3 year bans for false statements and bogus documents because they trusted the wrong person.  

Registered Migration Agents

The migration advice profession is regulated in Australia by the office of MARA (Migration Agents Registration Authority) which is run by the Home Affairs people. It’s illegal in Australia for anyone other than a Registered Migration Agent (RMA) to give migration advice, because of the damage that can be done to peoples’ lives by poor handling of something that matters so much. Lives, families and futures are in the balance. No, outside of Australia these laws can’t be enforced unfortunately, but the Department and the Embassy still recommend only getting advice from an RMA.

Migration Agents need to be qualified in Australian migration law through post-graduate university study and must maintain a professional library to keep updated with any changes to the law. RMA’s must also be of good character and legal standing and must attend Continued Professional Development studies every year. We need to also operate within a Code of Conduct. Breaches of this Code can lead to sanctions or even de-registration. And yes, there are RMA’s operating in the Philippines, and some like Down Under Visa have permanent offices and are here all year round, AND importantly specialize in visas for Australian Filipina couples. That means tourist visas for couples, partner visas (fiancée and spouse visas) and child visas and citizenship applications for children of Australian Citizens.

So you know you are dealing with someone qualified and registered in Australia, but right here in Manila. So you are not only in safe hands, but also in Aussie hands! Hope we can help you soon.      

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!