THE BUREAU of Immigration (BI) has denied Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox’s request for a missionary visa extension request due to the deportation order against her.
In a statement released Sunday, the BI announced that it denied the request, which was petitioned by the Superior of the Religieuse De Notre Dame De Sion, Inc.
In a two-page order signed Thursday, the agency upheld the grounds of the deportation order issued against Sister Fox.
“The BI already saw that Sister Fox violated the conditions of her stay and is considered undesirable, hence a deportation order was previously issued against her,” BI Spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval was quoted as saying.
“Our legal team saw that approving the extension of her missionary visa will be inconsistent with the findings cited in her deportation order,” she added.
Ms. Sandoval also said that the missionary nun is required to apply for the downgrading of her visa within 15 days upon receipt of the denial order.
“Downgrading will revert her status to a temporary visitor’s visa, with a 59-day validity, starting from the date of the expiry of her missionary visa,” she said.
Ms. Fox’s missionary visa expired last Sept. 5.
The BI also noted in the statement that Ms. Fox has been in the country for 27 years, which is beyond the “ordinarily” ten years that foreign missionaries’ stay following the Memorandum of Agreement between the Immigration bureau and Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines.
The missionary nun’s petition for review filed before the Department of Justice on Sept. 3 seeking the reversal of BI’s deportation order remains pending.
The BI “still needs to wait for the decision before acting on the deportation,” Ms. Sandoval said, but clarified that the bureau may still grant Ms. Fox a Temporary Visitor’s Visa upon downgrading “without prejudice to the resolution of her appeal to the DOJ on her deportation.” — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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