Migration Agents – A caring profession

Being an RMA (Registered Migration Agent) is sometimes not the easiest of professions to be in. I know that this is particularly the case with partner visa applications, and I know this because I have many colleagues in the profession who would prefer to deal with work visas and other visa types.

Why? Because of the emotions involved.

We at Down Under Visa specialise in Australian partner visas, and we specialise in getting these visas for Australian Filipina couples, ie. we lodge Australian visa applications in the Philippines. That’s our area. We deal with couples who are apart and want to be together. We deal with couples who worry for months and months whether something will go wrong and they will get their visa application refused and be stuck apart for a very long time, and we are the interface between them and the ones who make the decision in the Australian Embassy in Manila.

Does it get hard for us? Yes, it does. We put up with a fair bit, because we do care and we do know what it feels like to be apart and to go through a process that’s essentially out of your hands when it comes to the final decision. You are entrusting the management of your application to us, and the final decision to the Embassy case officer. Your future happiness is a big thing to put into the hands of others, and that makes stress levels rise. We do understand that.

Does Down Under Visa have empathy with clients?

I just remembered something. Years ago I had kidney stones, and I was in the emergency section of the local hospital in Australia. Very painful experience which anybody who’s been through it can attest. All dignity was out the window, and I was literally screaming like a stuck pig. In the background between screams I could hear nurses chattering away happily between themselves. One could assume they were oblivious. No, not at all. Aussie nurses are the salt of the earth. Immensely caring people. Yet they need to approach what they do with a certain resilience, or they couldn’t cope with their days if they took it all upon themselves like those who experience the actual pain. I suspect on occasion our clients might assume we are oblivious and uncaring because we approach what we do with calmness.

Rest assured, this is not even slightly the case. None of us lack care and empathy. This applies to myself, Jeremy and Mila. It also applies, happy to say, to our admin staff. If they don’t care, they don’t have a job anymore. We never forget and we are never oblivious. But we won’t worry like you do largely because we see applications going through to being granted every week, and we don’t allow poor applications to be lodged in the first place. And also we need to control our emotions or we could never face every working day with a clear head and with a positive attitude. Not easy when we often bear the brunt of clients stress. We see otherwise reasonable people “lose it” all the time, and we need to toughen up and let it slide off us or we would be of no use to anybody.

I just received the most HONEST email from a client just the other day, and with his kind permission I post an excerpt here for all to see:

It was a long drawn out process what with me whinging and Julie needing to be spoon-fed through the whole process. But this did not phase you; and you and your team saw it through to the end and a visitor visa was granted.

Julie arrived Sydney 16 June 2015 and returned to Manila 08 September 2015. We have been together for 5 years but a remarkable thing happened on this visit; we became friends, in fact pretty good friends, maybe even best friends.

So I thank you for the great job you did under trying circumstances.

They are now getting us to help them with a partner visa application.

Many a client has a good reflect at the end and realises the value our clear heads brought to the visa application process, and realised also how badly it could have gone had we not been in charge. This one really made my day, and the fact that the visit had brought them so much closer together? This is the stuff that drives us on and makes all the hard work and long days worthwhile. We really love what we do, because we play our part in bringing couples together and making new families.