Visa refusal mentality

Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa, Tacirua

It is heart-breaking for Fijians who applied for an Australian visitor’s visa and be rejected by the visa processing officers from the Australian Embassy based in Shanghai, China.

We can all assume that because of the visitors’ visa backlog in the Australian Immigration in Suva; they have requested the help of its Australian Embassy in Shanghai, China, to clear the backlog.

Good for them, but Fijians are feeling the pinch, with many of the applications being rejected and be told that they cannot appeal the decisions made.

As a visa agent, a rough estimate of all the visa applications lodged and rejected by the embassy in China would be 90 per cent refusal, and only 10 per cent being granted!

This refusal mentality is shown again in one of the latest visitor’s visa application refusals, I have received.

A client’s previous visitor’s visa was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and all the details were filled in her latest visa application.

The Australian Immigration has allowed all visitors’ visas affected by the COVID-19 pandemic be allowed to apply for a new application, without paying any lodgement fees. The system notifies the applicant that no lodgement fee is to be paid!

Imagine getting a refusal letter from a Chinese case officer saying that you have lodged an invalid application because you did not pay a lodgement fee?

This is what happens when the mind is focused on visa refusals!

My advice to all Fijians affected by this visa refusal mentality is to relodge when the Chinese are done with their clean-up campaign. Hopefully by end of this month or the beginning of December 2022.