Professional help increases chances of visa approval

CEBU, Philippines – Filipinos who would want to acquire visa or travel permit to other countries, especially countries with strict visa requirements such as the United States, must get the help of professional visa processing companies to have a higher chance of approval.

Janet Ortiz Altamarino, chief executive officer of Ultimate Visa Services, said most countries are now strict in granting visas and it would be difficult for a person getting one if he or she does it alone.

She said professional visa-processing companies, as they are expert in visa processing, are already familiar with the processes, documentation and the “do’s and don’ts” of visa processing.

Altamarino told The Freeman in an interview that based on the company’s experience when the country’s economy is down, more Filipinos want to leave the country, either for employment or for leisure purposes, while the country is in crisis.

“The more that the country is in crisis, the more that there are more people wanting to go out (of the country,)” she said.

With regard to Ultimate Visa, Altamarino said that most of its clients in its three years of operation apply for the fiancée and spousal visa. The rest are into student, tourist, and immigrant visa application.

Ultimate Visa is not into processing working visas, as doing so would require an agency to be accredited by the Philippine Oversea Employment Agency.

“Visas for employment is (quite complicated). We might go into this in the future. But not now. Not yet,” she said.

Altamarino said that as the US freeze its hiring for US nurses due to its own crisis, Filipino professional nurses are getting student visas for them to train in other countries and get nurses international standard qualification to prepare them to work as a nurse abroad. Most of them go to Australia for international training, as the country offers international standard training that is recognized by all countries in the West at relatively affordable rates.

She said that only less than one percent of the applications of student visa processed by Ultimate Visa have been rejected, so far, but none of its fiancée and spousal visa applications have been denied. This is so, because Ultimate Visa interviews their clients beforehand to evaluate for free their chances of getting approved.

The company also presents its clients with back-up plan or alternative as to what visa they should apply to get a higher chance of approval.

Ultimate Visa will celebrate its third anniversary next month. In line with this, the company is expanding its operations by beefing up its workforce to “efficiently process documents.”

“As much as possible, we don’t want our clients to wait. We want to give them fast yet reliable services,” Altamarino said.

Ultimate Visa plans to branch-out to other areas in the country early next year and outside the country in the latter part of 2011. (THE FREEMAN)