3 Top Tips in Applying for Any Country’s Visa

As you might know, I’ve applied for US Tourist Visa in 2018 to be able to visit my sister and see her kids where one of them I haven’t met yet and growing up so fast. I made a video about it, and got a lot of questions from you guys who are subscribed to my YouTube channel.

I am not experienced on visas or don’t do this as a profession. I was just simply sharing my experience and knowledge on how I did it myself without any other help, other than research. I’ve watch a number of YouTube videos, read a number of articles about applying for a US tourist visa and that’s how I ended up knowing how to do it myself when it comes to applying for a US visa. With that, I also have at least a bit of idea on people like me who got denied, why they got denied, and all.

Other than the US tourist visa, I also applied and got APPROVED on my CHINA TOURIST VISA and was able to visit mainland china for 5 days, and as of writing this article I am also waiting for the result of my South Korea Tourist visa application – let’s all hope I do get accepted, else I’ll be heartbroken again. LOL.

NOTE: We're talking about TOURIST VISA here. NOT working visa, or getting petitioned.

With that, I’d like to share with you guys a couple of tips on how to get a higher chance of getting an APPROVED visa so you’ll avoid ending up like me. Heartbroken.

3 Top Tips in Applying for Any Country’s Visa south korea visa us tourist visa japan visa exotic philippines travel blog

3 TOP TIPS TO AVOID GETTING A DENIED VISA

There are a lot of reasons why a consulate will deny your visa application, but these 3 tips will help you avoid the most common reasons why. The other reasons are most likely you’ve done something wrong before or in your application that it becomes doubtful for them to give you even a single entry. So here are my tips.

STRONG TIES.

This was the main reason why I got denied for a US tourist visa. But what does it mean? It means they can’t find any reason that you or I will be back to our home country, and will not work there illegally or what we know as being a TNT (Tago Ng Tago).

I don’t blame the country for this. Because there are hard headed Filipinos who do this. I even know rich, educated, professional Filipinos that do this. South Korea wants to give us a VISA FREE access, but right now, even they’re a bit strict and don’t give us a visa free access, they have found out that there are 15,000 illegal Filipino workers there. Imagine if they’ll give us a visa free. Even the US there are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Illegal Filipino workers there, getting a tourist visa, then apply for her and never go back home. Even in the Visa Free country like Thailand, there are thousands of illegal Filipino workers there.

So this is the reason why they want you to have a STRONG TIES, STRONG REASON to come back home and not work in their country illegally.

What are the things considered as strong ties? It can WORK, so asking your company’s employment certificate or if you’re a freelancer like me, you can ask a letter from your employer or client. BUSINESS can be your another strong ties, even small businesses like an online business, water refilling station, etc. that’s still business. But what if you’re a STUDENT? You can ask your school for a form as a proof that you’re enrolled at your school. Make sure that the date of your target date to visit a country is not after a school year, but if it is make sure you’re already enrolled. Your studies or school is your strong ties as a student.

How about if you’re a single woman, with a kid, and visit your foreign boyfriend in the country that you’re applying for? It’s not that strong, especially if you’re leaving your kid. Foreigners knows Filipino will sacrifice to be away to give their family back home a better life by working in a foreign country. But, if you’ll be bringing your kid with you who is still studying, under 18, and enrolled there can be a possibility, but the kid might have a better chances than you.

FUNDS.

Another way is to have funds for your trip, preferably on your bank account. Fellow travelers would be trying to test and find out how much for certain country they require, but they just have don’t the same requirement.

For some who applied for a South Korea Tourist Visa, they have like P50,000 on their bank and got approved, some don’t. But what I’ve noticed is that those accounts that have been around longer and do shows that it has transactions (withdrawals, deposits) and the amount deposited there is reasonable (e.g. salary) and not like for the past 5 months it got P20,000 deposit, then suddenly a P50,000 shows up, then it goes back to P20,000 on the next month. That can be considered suspicious.

There’s also some people who says that they’ll also check your ADB (Average Daily Balance), but still there’s no formula or no proof that’s their main focus.

Just make sure that you do know how much your expenses will be when traveling, best if you do have an itinerary prepared with expenses, with technology these days you can easily find that out. Then you have an idea what will be your expenses there, form hotels, transportation, tickets, etc.

Don’t rely much on bloggers itinerary, don’t conclude that it will be your exact expenses. Since there are frugal bloggers, and there are travel bloggers like me who prefer to pay more for better comfort and security, and do buy a lot of stuff. LOL. But at least you have the idea on the very basic expenses, and get some travel saving tips too!

3 Top Tips in Applying for Any Country’s Visa south korea visa us tourist visa japan visa exotic philippines travel blog funds show money cash bank certificate bank statement


WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT?
A lot of small business owners asked me this questions about not having a bank account, how will they prove that they do have the money. I am really not sure how to be honest.

We do have a family friend that has a small business, and since they’re illiterate and not sure how the banks works and ashamed of being illiterate they don’t open any bank. So for years, they have their money at their home – can you just imagine? But we did help them make a bank account, it’s safer there.

Side Note: My mom don’t suggest that you deposit more than 100,000 on a single account, since in their insurance they can only refund you 100,000 even your deposited amount is 1 million. So be smart.

There was this subscriber who asked about this same situation. It would be best to create your bank account now, your savings for the trip, deposit it there. Then by the time you wish to apply and sure want to travel to that country, especially if they require bank certificates and statements, you have it. Do it now, before wasting thousands of pesos in applying for a visa and getting denied just because you don’t want to open a bank account.

Do note, that it doesn't mean you need what we call "show money", it doesn't mean you have to bring the whole money, like your 1 million cash in front of the consul. A bank statement and bank certificate will suffice. We do have a family friend who have done this (bring a million cash at the interview), he was a millionaire, but got denied. The consul wasn't impress about the million, it becomes suspicious for them.

HISTORY.

During my US tourist visa interview, this was the last question or the last thing that the consul is looking for about me. He asked “have you traveled to any other country for the past 5 years?” and I said “NO” since I’ve been traveling in the Philippines for the past years. And he even expanded it to “how about for the past 10 years?”, which is still a NO for me. So he also gave me a NO. LOL.

3 Top Tips in Applying for Any Country’s Visa south korea visa us tourist visa japan visa exotic philippines travel blog travel history

There are a number of VISA FREE countries for us Filipinos to visit such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. There are even countries that requires us a visa but they’re not that strict anymore like South Korea, Japan, and China. You might want to visit those countries first before applying for a hard to get tourist visa, such as the US visa, Schengen visa, etc.

I hope this was helpful to you guys when applying for a tourist visa for any country such as Japan visa, South Korea Visa, or even the USA tourist visa. If you have any more tips or got any more questions, please don't hesitate to comment them down below!

P.S.
Good luck on your application!

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