Can I get a 1 year tourist visa for my Filipina lady?

You want a tourist visa for your Filipina girl to Australia? A 1 year tourist visa? If you look on the Department of Immigration website, you will see that tourist visas are “available for 3, 6 or 12 months”.

Looks easy! You love each other, right? 12 months sounds like the go. “I’ll have a 12 month tourist visa, please!”, and wrap it up too!

And we at Down Under Visa cannot for a second blame anybody for thinking otherwise! It looks simple. Three options. Why not get the bigger and brighter one?

The problem is that there are so many factors that go into a decision whether the Department will grant a visa or refuse it. I suppose the first shocker is considering that they might not grant it in the first place, especially when it looks like you can just select what you want. The fact is, they will NOT grant a 1 year tourist visa! Will not happen!

Visas are GRANTS and not “rights”!

No one is entitled to a visa. The fact that you are an Aussie Citizen (or Permanent Resident) does not give you an inherent right to bring your girlfriend, fiancée or even wife into Australia. She may make an application, and the officers or delegates of the Department will make a decision on whether she meets the criteria laid out in the Migration Regulations, an Act of the Commonwealth Parliament.

The “Regs” give them a legal duty to only grant a visa is the applicant clearly meets those criteria, and to refuse if they’re not convinced that they do.

“Genuinely intends to stay temporarily in Australia for the purpose for which the visa is granted”

An applicant for an Australian tourist visa may visit Australia for the purposes of visiting friends/family, patting koalas, admiring the Harbour Bridge, and then going back again.

If you plan to use the visa to live together, then they will refuse it in a heartbeat. Why? Because you’re planning on using it as a partner visa. That’s not “genuinely intending” to stay for the “purpose for which the visa was granted”. That’s playing the system, and they don’t like that. It’s their job to make sure you don’t do that.

I’ve had people come to us with refusals after they’ve actually said in their application that they are applying for a 12 month tourist visa because a partner visa takes too long to process! Does a partner visa take too long to process? Probably! However that doesn’t come into it. If you want to live together, you apply for a partner visa. If you want a short holiday, you apply for a tourist visa!

Why do they offer tourist visas of 12 months length?

Because they offer these visas to all countries and for all situations! If somebody is wealthy enough to take a 1 year holiday and intends to visit friends and pat koalas, then they’ll get probably a 12 month tourist visa.

However, no one believes that your Filipina girlfriend is going to take a 12 month holiday to visit you and pat koalas and then go home again. It’s very obvious that you have an ulterior motive. And they also need to believe she has strong motives to return at the end of the stay. Visitors from countries like the Philippines have less incentive to return than does somebody from a more developed nation with assets and good prospects back at home. The longer your Filipina lady stays (especially when living in a loving relationship with you), the less she is going to want to return. When you think of it, it’s fairly obvious, isn’t it?

So, please try to understand why we don’t want to apply for a 12 month tourist visa for your Filipina lady! We’re not lazy or mean, nor are we incompetent. We want to see you get together, and we don’t want to see you wasting your time or money. We have a great success rate for couples in the Philippines.

if you'd like our help, please visit our website and complete our free visa assessment form.