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Best Posts in Thread: Experiences with embassies in the Philippines.

  1. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

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    Why is he writing Duterte about German immigration laws and practices? He can do nothing about German immigration law and he has no say over their Embassy (other than if it is allowed to even be there).

    There is also a reason why potential Filipino immigrants are so heavily scrutinized. They are coming from a pretty lawless country and have a high propensity towards violence at the slightest transgression. Most also do not have the financial ability to support themselves while traveling to any European country (and many have absolutely no idea how much it actually costs in the West). The chances of a Filipino needing to be taken care of by the taxpayer of the country they are visiting is very high in the likelihood that they overstay their visa or apply for political asylum.

    There is also good reason for embassies to be skeptical of documents from the Philippine government. It is very cheap to have any document changed to something more favorable for immigration purposes. Corruption is massive in the Philippines and you only have to ask around a bit to find someone who knows someone who can change anything on your paperwork.

    This letter is much more likely to make Philippine visas for German/Western expats much harder to obtain or maintain than it is to change anything about German immigration law since the only thing Duterte can do is change up Philippine immigration law. This guy is playing with fire by writing Duterte about such things. Not a very well thought out plan.
     
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    Rye83, Jun 18, 2018
    #2
  2. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

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    Yeah, you've said that. Doesn't make it so.

    If I had a similar issue and I said all the criteria has been met I would provide a list of all the criteria that has been met for the visa on the forum....because I know that sometimes things get overlooked. You refuse to even entertain the idea that the application was anything short of perfect, and that stubbornness leads me to believe even more that all the criteria wasn't met.

    You weren't looking for advice, you were looking for people to agree with you.
     
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    Rye83, Jun 25, 2018
    #40
  3. merlinfish

    merlinfish DI Junior Member

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    I thought the original question by Justice911; seeking comment on experience with foreign embassies (consulates) for Filipino family, was an entirely valid, and interesting one. I would be very interested to see answers posted here on personal experiences; Good and Bad.

    Most of the responses seem to be directed at the contents of the letter from Herbert Alexander Ramin, (or the translation of), and the wisdom of requesting the Philippine president to interfere with immigration policy matters of foreign powers.

    Some of the comments also do not seem to acknowledge that in some cases peoples lives can be severely impacted by seemingly arbitrary and unreasonable decisions.

    My own past experience from dealings with British embassy in Manila, and representative in Cebu, has been very very disappointing. My wife and I have been very happily married for many years, but in the past I was so upset that I was certain that British Embassy officials/ employees in Manila had to be corrupt! This anger has now subsided, but I'm left with a lack of trust for the consulate to make a fair and reasonable decision, and I understand the sentiment of discriminatory unfairness and frustration expressed in the letter from Herbert Alexander Ramin.

    I would like to comment on another facet of the 'visa industry'; The agencies. It seems that many Filipinos believe that paying the exorbitant fees asked by the visa agencies (in addition to the ever increasing visa charges by the embassies) is the only way they will have a good chance of being successful for a visa, no matter how genuinely deserving they are. I personally believe that foreign consulates should strongly discourage, even disallow (as per most Philippine government offices - "No Fixers") Filipino visa applicants from using agencies (it costs money most people can ill afford, or at least would otherwise be able to spend during their foreign visit). I would have expected that focusing on 'self service' would help weed out those non deserving applicants, whose applications are 'sanitised' by unscrupulous agencies. This would require that the foreign consulates provide much clearer information on their visa application forms and websites. For the UK it seems so incredibly difficult to understand which type of visa to apply for and have the best chance of being successful, in different circumstances.
     
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    merlinfish, Jun 19, 2018
    #14
  4. fritz

    fritz DI Member Veteran Navy

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    OK, I am a German and I - and a lot of my friends here - had never problems with the DBM!
     
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    fritz, Jun 25, 2018
    #32
  5. djfinn6230

    djfinn6230 DI Senior Member

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    I was pleasantly surprised when going to the US Embassy in Manila. They treat US citizens very well and with efficiency and respect. You can tell we have a President who puts his people first.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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    djfinn6230, Jun 24, 2018
    #30
  6. RR_biker

    RR_biker DI Senior Member Veteran Marines

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    Thanks to a b*tch called Merkel, who allowed 1.5 millions to enter Germany there are quite more Muslims sucking on the German social welfare tit. Feel pity with all those Germans...........Hopefully her political career will come to an end within the next two weeks and common sense will come back with respect to allow fortune seekers to enter Western European countries.
    Italy and Malta already showed how to deal with but unfortunately Spain is still a fan of Merkel's ideas!
     
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    RR_biker, Jun 20, 2018
    #21
  7. Justice911

    Justice911 DI Member Restricted Account Showcase Reviewer

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    Hi Wrye, you continue to work with your reasonable brain and you do not want to accept, that the German Embassy has the order from the Ministry of Foreign Affair in Berlin, Germany, to push down applications for Visit-Visas and for Family-Reunion-Visas so much / strict as possible and so the German Embassy follows this order like a slave and goes unscrupulous (mentally) over dead bodies (= German saying).
    This is not only against the Filippinos, it is also against the German Inviting-ones.

    Wrye it seems, that you keep more to the perpetrators, than to the victims of this injustice. The German law says, if you marry, you have the legally right to bring your wife to Germany. And the German law says, if you recognize a Child as yours, the child and the mother can come to Germany. That's it, so clear, no if, no but....,
    but the German Embassy, does not care, you must take a German Lawyer (they do not accept Philippine Lawyers) and open a case at the Administrative Court in Berlin, this takes much time, up to 2 years, and costs much money. The man, who wrote the letter to Duterte, does not need help any more, he found ways with the help of other embassies to bring Child and Mother finally to Germany. The man, who has to work until 65 years as an employee can only visit his wife 3 times the year and this is much !!! (You agree ?) because employees do not have so much official holidays and if he takes more, he will loose his job. Dont you see how crazy the decisions of the DBM (= German Embassy Manila) are. He wants his wife beside him, in order to see and embrace her every day and the German Embassy says: "You only visit her 3 times the year, so it is a fake marriage". He is 55 years old and she is 35 years old.
    I neither need help any more, I found ways to get the family reunion visa with the help of a German lawyer, it did cost me much money and nerves and made my hair grey (= German Saying), mostly we live in Sweden.
    And the bitter irony of all this is, that the German Government let up to 2 Million Moslems in their country since 2015 often without Passport or any identity papers, often with several different identities, often under them Ex-Criminals in their home country (raping, killing, stealing) but the few Christian Catholic Filipinas should NOT be aloud to visit Germany.

    The former bodyguard of Bin Laden lives free in Germany and receives a lot of social assistance, a lot of money from the German state.

    But my main purpose to open this thread was, to hear from the other foreigners here how strict or generous the other embassies are in those immigration- or just visiting-topics.
     
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    Last edited: Jun 20, 2018
    Justice911, Jun 20, 2018
    #19