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Visa for Wives and Dependents Applying in The Philippines to Settle in Malta

Discussion in 'Europe Wide Visa Discussions' started by Markham, Feb 25, 2016.

  1. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    Last summer I mentioned that my wife, children and I had decided to leave the Philippines, not for the UK but that we were considering Poland. For various reasons, including the rise of neo-fascism (with racist attacks), we decided to look elsewhere and have chosen Malta.

    Malta has an Honorary Consul in Manila but all Visa enquiries and applications are handled by VFS Global at its Manila offices in the Ecoplaza Building, Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City - you can not apply at VFS Global in Cebu.

    The Maltese interpret the 'rules' slightly differently to many/most other Schenghen states in that they distinguish between (1) non-EU family members travelling to Malta to join their EU family member residing in Malta and (2) family members travelling to Malta accompanying or joining their EU family member to take up residence in Malta. It is vitally-important that you select the second of these if your spouse intends to seek employment in Malta. In both cases, a standard Schenghen Visa Application form is used but the two classes have slightly different documentary requirements.

    In addition to Passports, a completed Schenghen Application Form and two 2-inch Passport-type photos (against a white background only), each applicant will require to produce:
    • For spousal applicants, the original and one photocopy of the Marriage Certificate. If the marriage took place in the Philippines, you must obtain a fresh certificate from the NSO and have it authenticated ("red-ribboned") by the Department of Foreign Affairs. (Our marriage took place in Hong Kong and VFS gave us back our original certificate and annotated the copy "original produced and seen at VFS Global").
    • Birth certificates are required by all applicants. For those born in the Philippines, you will need copies of the hospital-issued Certificate of Live Birth and the Birth Certification issued by the local Registrar of the city/municipality where the birth was originally registered as well as a freshly-obtained certificate from the NSO and submit them to the DFA for 'red-ribboning'. Only the NSO certificate will be authenticated, the other two are required as supporting evidence.
    • For minor children, you (as the EU citizen) must provide a notarized Affidavit of Support and Consent and this too must be legalized by Department of Foreign Affairs.
    • For minor children, you (as the EU citizen) must also provide proof of legal guardianship - hopefully you will be named on the child's Birth Certificate as the father which will satisfy this requirement. Otherwise you will need a DFA authenticated Court Order.
    • For any child travelling alone or without its parents, you will have to provide a "red-ribboned" DSWD Clearance.
    • For any child travelling with an adult that is not a parent, that adult must provide a "red-ribboned" Guardian Authorisation.
    • Each applicant needs to produce a letter of invitation by the EU citizen even if that person will be accompanying the applicant to Malta.
    • A copy of the EU Citizen's Passport's bio data page. It is also recommended to provide a photocopy of any Visa that grants the EU citizen the right to reside in the Philippines (eg 13a) and a copy of his (long form British) Birth Certificate.
    Once you have all the documents, simply turn-up at VFS Global's office between 12 noon and 4pm - there's no need to make an appointment beforehand. After registering, you go to the section that deals principally with Spanish Visas where you'll find a "Malta" sign above one of the desks. VFS' website incorrectly states that a Visa fee of P3,140 is payable (in addition to VFS's fees and charges): no such Visa fee is payable and you will not be charged.

    Unless you have a burning desire to return to Manila to collect your Passport once the Visa has been issued (or not), it is worth paying the 340 Pesos for a courier to deliver it to you at home. We also subscribed to VFS' SMS/Email notification and in fact received our first at 9pm the same day which said our applications were en-route to Beijing. We now know that the applications have been received by the Maltese Embassy and it remains to be seen whether they will be expedited - as they are supposed to be - or whether the Embassy's standard minimum 15 day processing time will be applied.
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 25, 2016
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  2. KeithAngel
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    KeithAngel 2063 Lifetime Member

    • Like Like x 1
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  3. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    Thank you, Keith!
  4. KeithAngel
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    KeithAngel 2063 Lifetime Member

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1551446075182011/

    may be of some use also not for visa/Residence card like the other but for info exchange on property buses food etc more social

    The first one is good for info on requirements once your there as well handy to know before arrival We got DFA authenticated Police clearance in the Fils and its just become usefull in the UK
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  5. Methersgate
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    Methersgate Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    My parents almost retired to Malta, forty-odd years ago. They were career expatriates who had met and spent most of their married life in the Middle East, and I have sometimes wondered if they would have been happier there than they were in England, where they really tried to fit in, but found it a struggle.
  6. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    We've just received a message from VFS to say that our Passports should be delivered tomorrow by their courier (2Go Express). As the applications were made on the 23rd, that works out at just over a calendar week for them to get to Beijing, be processed and returned to VFS in Manila. Considerably shorter than the 15 working day minimum quoted by VFS. Well done Malta!
  7. Micawber
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    Micawber Renowned Lifetime Member

    Just found this thread Mark.
    Interesting that you have chosen Malta as an alternative to Philippines.
    It's been a very long time since I was last in Malta, but based solely on my time there all those years ago I feel there's quite a lot of commonality between the two countries.

    I hope everything works out perfectly for you all.

    May I ask the reason for leaving Davao ?
  8. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    Thank you, Peter. Our main reason for leaving is simply that Mae needs and wants to get back to work and earn money; opportunities here are limiting, to say the least. We have absolutely no desire to settle in the UK but because we're both language-challenged, our choices were narrowed to Ireland and Malta and the latter won with its far better climate!

    The Passports arrived on Saturday although our son's was given to the delivery rider for Toril and Digos and arrived some 8 hours after my wife's.
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  9. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    My wife had to undergo her CFO seminar back in 2012 when she applied for a replacement Passport in her married name. Yesterday she returned to CFO in Cebu with her and our son's Passports. She now has a sticker in her Passport but the CFO has refused to issue my 2 year-old son with one. According to them, he has the wrong kind of Visa.

    Mae Malta Visa.jpg Mark Malta Visa.jpg

    There are two distinct types of Schengen Visa that a Filipina spouse can apply for: Type C and Type D. Both provide a maximum stay of 90 days during which time a holder of a Type D Visa should apply for a Residency Permit; Type C Visas are not extendible. A Filipina spouse who intends to seek work - or a child that will receive education - should apply for a 'National Long-Stay' Visa Type D - which translates to "Family Reunification". Family that will only visit would apply for a Type C Visa which translates to "Family Visit". My wife has a Type D Visa which is described under 'Remarks' as 'Family Reunification" whilst my son's Type D Visa is described as "Family Visit".

    In any other country but the Philippines, the different wording of the Visas' Remarks would have little or no significance. That wording has no significance to an Immigration Officer of a Schengen country, I am reliably informed; they are only interested in the Type and its validity dates. But this is the Philippines where the population is subjugated by multiple layers of competing bureaucracy and where nobody trusts anybody. The CFO rules-bound jobsworth told my wife that my son's Visa is "visit only" and we would have to prove to Immigration that our son will return by producing affidavits and a roundtrip ticket dated within the 90 day period. And not only that, since a 2 year-old can not travel unaccompanied, we too must show roundtrip tickets - and where was the DSWD clearance? Worse, the woman spoke with a superior attitude and in not a very pleasant manner - as if she took some pleasure from making our lives just that bit more complicated. Our son does not need a DSWD clearance as he is travelling with his parents and I am perfectly certain that the CFO woman was well-aware of the correct requirement but chose to use it anyway in a further exercise of power.

    I have provided my wife with two webpage addresses: this one from the Schengen Visa Information page and this one on the Maltese Government's Home Affairs site. I have also spoken with VFS who tell me that CFO should know about Schengen Visa Types since they are not rare and VFS has provided explanatory notes on Schengen Visas. VFS is raising the issue with the Maltese Embassy but advise me that it is most unlikely that a new Visa will be issued as the existing one is perfectly valid.

    I've just been informed that a supervisor has rather grudgingly agreed to issue my son with his sticker. But he warned my wife that an Immigration Officer may question why his Visa says "Family Visit" but that he has a CFO sticker. He said that we may be refused permission to leave the country and face charges over the issue of the sticker. Wonderful.

    In light of this, I have asked VFS to get the Embassy to issue us with a letter stating that the mistake is theirs, not ours, and that "Family Visit" should read as "Family Reunification" on his Visa.
  10. CampelloChris
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    CampelloChris Well-Known Member

    This is all crazy. You would think that the Philippines is a hotbed for ISIS recruitment the way some of these bureaucrats behave. Get it ALL in writing!
  11. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    Today we received an email from VFS. It contained mixed news. The Embassy has decided, in its infinite wisdom, to cancel my son's Visa and replace it with one that does not contain misleading wording. We are told that the Embassy will do this free of charge - as indeed it should since there is no charge for this particular Visa. However my wife and son have to fly to Manila for the day tomorrow as the Embassy requires a new set of biometrics - a new photo, in other words - and a fresh application. Although the replacement Visa is free, VFS' email does not state that they will not be making a charge.

    Last minute reservations are the most expensive. When the three of us flew to Manila to apply for Schengen visas, the roundtrip flight cost was around P10,000 including Terminal Fees. Tomorrow's flight for the two of them is costing just under P19,000 - over double the previous fare. I am not a happy camper.
  12. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    I'm nominating VFS Global for the Wooden Spoon as far as customer service is concerned.

    In spite of the fact that my wife had an appointment for 9.30, she was not admitted by the VFS Security until 12 noon, that being the time that they deal with Visas for Malta. So she and our son had to stand outside and wait for two and a half hours.

    The appointment itself was brief as all they wanted was the boy's Passport and a retake of his biometric photo. Which they completely cocked-up but didn't realise the fact until my wife and son were walking down the jetway and about to board their flight back to Davao! By that time, the traffic between Terminal 2 and VFS's offices in Makati was at a standstill and it took them well over an hour to make the journey by taxi.

    Replacement photo taken, they rebattled the traffic and only just made the 7.20 flight.

    Earlier my wife explained that we are departing for Malta on the 29th and that VFS is closed for 3 days next week. In view of this, would they kindly ask the Maltese Embassy to DHL the Passport direct to us in Davao. The woman wouldn't entertain the idea and told my wife that she could collect it in Manila when it is ready.

    Later that afternoon, the VFS Malta lady - who had dealt with my wife and son earlier - sent me the following email: "Please be informed that the passport of your son MR JOHN MARK HAMILTON was turned over to DHL this afternoon. Maybe next week sometime the Embassy of Republic of Malta in Beijing will received the shipment together with the other applications." This in spite of the following, more encouraging, words in her earlier email: "We will give top priority to this child’s VISA application since the time schedule is tight." (emphasis hers).

    Not only did she write my son's name incorrectly, she contradicted her earlier email and my wife and I are now resigned to the fact that we've thrown-away good money on tickets we're unlikely to be able to use. And they were Business Class tickets, too.
  13. graham59
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    graham59 Banned

    Is the child yours ?

    If so, have you considered applying for a British passport ?
  14. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    Yes and yes.

    When I last checked three months ago, the British Embassy was still not forwarding Passport Applications (for those without any British Passport) due to there being a year's backlog at the Liverpool office where such Passports are issued. Once we're settled in Malta, I will return to Wales for a couple of weeks and get them expressed at the Cardiff office.
  15. graham59
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    graham59 Banned

    Oh really ? Good luck with that then.

    I'm a bit confused as to whether I can apply for a British passport for my Philippines-based son at 'this end'. I mean, sort it in person at the Passport Office, rather than muck about online and hope for the best.
  16. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    No sorry you can't Graham, the child has to be physically present in the UK in order to apply for a passport whether it is a first passport or a replacement.

    My daughter's is expired and given the difficulty of renewing it from abroad I will wait till I can bring her here on her Philippine passport and then renew express style in the UK.
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  17. graham59
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    graham59 Banned

    Ah, thought it unlikely the govt. would make it that easy (and logical). :rolleyes:
    Cheers.
  18. Bootsonground
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    Bootsonground Guest

    We just got the Mrs and kids Brit passports renewed...What a bloody nightmare that episode was!!!!
    Because they have two passports each (Dual nationals), the middle names on their R.P Passports`s (Mothers maiden name) and their old Brit PP`s with their given middle names are different, they refused to issue them and for about 2 weeks it looked like it was impossible for sensible a way around it!!

    Must say after we sorted that huge mess out,the turn around time from Liverpool wasn't that bad..About 10 days.
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 19, 2016
  19. Bootsonground
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    Bootsonground Guest

    Hope you all have a great life there in Malta Markham!!
  20. Bootsonground
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    Bootsonground Guest

    Sorry mate...But that doesn't sound correct.
    What do you mean by "replacement"??
    If you do decide to renew your daughters passport from the R.P,my advise would be not to declare in the application that she has a R.P passport or send it to them...It causes too much hassle as I have explained..(The middle name thing)..Apart from that its a pretty simple process and the backlog seems to have been resolved according to our recent experience.
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 19, 2016

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