MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration rejected the request of Australian missionary Sister Patricia Fox to extend the validity of her missionary visa.
The bureau based its two-page decision signed last Thursday on the deportation order already issues against the nun, according to agency spokeswoman Dana Krizia Sandoval.
“The [Immigration] already saw that Sister Fox violated the conditions of her stay and is considered undesirable, hence, a deportation order was previously issued against her,” Sandoval said in a statement released Sunday. “Our legal team saw that approving the extension of her missionary visa will be inconsistent with the findings cited in her deportation order.”
The Superior of the Religieuse de Notre Dame de Sion, Inc. filed the petition.
Fox already spent 27 years in the Philippines as a missionary, which means she already exceeded the prescribed length of stay of missionaries stipulated in a memorandum of agreement between the Immigration and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, the agency noted.
Under the agreement, foreign missionaries can stay in the Philippines for only 10 years.
Sandoval said Fox has to apply for the downgrading of her visa.
“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,” the Immigration spokeswoman said.
Fox’s appeal on her deportation was pending at the Department of Justice.
Sandoval said the Immigration “needs to wait for the decision before acting on the deportation” but clarified that they may grant Fox a temporary visitor’s visa upon downgrading, without prejudice to the resolution of her appeal at the Justice department.
Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra echoed Sandoval’s comment.
“The denial of Sister Fox’s request … is consistent with the [Immigration’s] order of deportation, which is on appeal at the DOJ,” Guevarra said in a text message.
“I understand though that Sister Fox is given an opportunity to apply instead for a temporary visitor’s visa,” he said. (PNA)
