What visa types do Down Under Visa manage?

The Down Under Visa website has a definite couple-look about it. No pictures of smart executive types with immaculate hair and flash suits tapping on laptops. We love helping Australian Filipina couples to be together in Australia and to stop living lonely lives. This means something very real to us, and we love doing our bit to make it happen.

Do we get excited seeing someone move to Australia to take up a great job? Or do we get excited to see a student placed in a course in Australia and get a visa to do it? It doesn’t rock my world, no. Business is business, but I find Australian partner visas far more meaningful. And it’s also very much our area, being an Australian Filipina couple ourselves.

It’s been over 6 months since the new partner visa fees came in. Existing clients have got over the shock, and the newer clients are now getting to experience it when they first get their assessment. Bit of a shock, when no doubt they were expecting a few hundred. It’s a major expense, no question about that. But it’s here to stay, and even a change of Government isn’t going to lead to changes. There is no political mileage in reducing visa charges. If you want your wife, husband, fiancée or partner from Philippines to come to Australia and to live with you permanently, you need to bite the bullet and find that money.

An issue that concerns me is those couples who try really hard to find other ways of getting the applicant to Australia. Of course we understand that not everyone has that sort of money lying around, but 50+ years of life has taught me that when something matters to you enough, you always find a way. What a find unfortunate is when I see a couple trying to find other ways, somehow thinking that there is a back door to Australia that no one else thought of.

Well, there isn’t a back door. And whatever you come up with, someone else has definitely thought of it already AND the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) has most definitely thought of it already. I never hear of anything truly original.

Tourist Visas

Tourist visas are perfectly fine if you are truly not ready to commit. They give Australian Filipina couples a chance to enhance their relationship in a home environment over 3 months or more, without the “Holiday Mode” to cloud the judgement. Great if either of you is still married too.

However any thought that “We’re married, so they can’t possibly toss her out!” is very wrong! Plenty of movies have been based on that idea, but DIBP is not Hollywood. No one stays inside Australia permanently without a permanent visa. And you can’t just keep on extending a tourist visa so you can keep on living together. Tourist visas are for visiting, and that’s it.

Student Visas and Work Visas

These are even more difficult, and a poor substitute for partner visas. And they are normally just temporary visas anyway.

Student visas are for genuine students, ie. those who have made a career-decision to travel to Australia to do a particular course in Australia which is exactly what they need. Doing a hairdressing course or a child-care course or a makeup artist course in Australia at great expense, all whilst you have a long-term boyfriend living just down the road? Doesn’t look genuine to me, and definitely doesn’t look that way to the Case Officer.

And work visas? Fact is, most of our applicants don’t fit the criteria. Work visas are for those with a high level of skills in a profession or trade that is in demand in Australia. It’s for motor mechanics, and for civil engineers, etc. It’s not for office workers or shop workers. And these visas require sponsorship by an employer who is willing to employ you at a fairly generous salary over a long period of time. And even if you DO fit the bill, you will actually find it easier to get a partner visa anyway. And after that you can work anywhere you like without any restrictions.

If you’ve made a commitment to each other, then partner visas are the way to go. Partner visa if you are married or marrying soon, or prospective marriage visa if you are marrying later. Do the assessment form and we will advise you what suits you best. And rest assured we will steer you right. We would make more money if we encouraged applicants to apply for “silly visas” with no hope of success, but we have our standards. Messing clients about clashes with our standards. We will always advise you to choose the visa that matches your circumstances, and would rather you waited a few months to get the necessary money or that you paid a modest downpayment and took a bit longer. Much better end-results that way.