The High Cost of Bad Advice: Why I Built Goya de Hoog Consultancy
The story of the woman who became my Nanay.
VISAOUR STORY
By Jessica Goya de Hoog | Goya de Hoog Consultancy
4/28/20262 min read
Some stories stay with you. This one became one of the reasons why I built this consultancy.
In 2018, I met Ms Teresita Isip in Madrid. I had arrived in a new city, just months after losing my own mother. My husband was beside me, but my family felt very far away.
Ms Teresita was one of the first people to make me feel at home. She is the kind of person who calls a stranger "anak" within minutes of meeting them. Anak means child in Tagalog. I called her Nanay Teresita. Nanay means mother.
What she told me
When Nanay Teresita found out that I had worked at the Australian Embassy as a case officer, something shifted in her. She opened up.
Back in 2014, she had applied for a Canadian visa. She wanted to visit her newborn grandchild. A letter arrived from the embassy with a request she could not understand. Not knowing what to do, she hired an agent. She paid her. She did nothing.
By the time she realised what had happened, too much time had passed. She never made that trip. She never got to hold her grandchild in those early weeks.
She thought she had a visa. She trusted someone to help her. That trust cost her something she cannot get back.
I decided to help her. I worked through her application with her, at no charge. It was a pro-bono case between two women who had only recently met. Nanay Teresita received her visa. She finally made that trip to Canada.
Nanay Teresita with her beautiful granddaughter in Canada
Why her story matters
Nanay Teresita's experience is not uncommon. I have heard versions of it on multiple occassions, from many people. Vulnerable individuals, navigating a system they do not fully understand, placing their trust in the wrong hands.
Migration and visa decisions are not just administrative processes. They are emotional ones. They involve families, milestones, and reunions that cannot be rescheduled.
At the same time, access to accurate information has never been more complicated. Visa guidance has become content. It fills social media feeds, WhatsApp groups, and comment sections. Some of it is well-intentioned. Much of it is wrong. And in a landscape full of noise, it is difficult to know who to trust.
When emotions are high, the capacity to make clear decisions is low. That is exactly when people are most at risk.
Why I built this consultancy
Goya de Hoog Consultancy exists because of people like Nanay Teresita. I built it to be a place where vulnerable people are not exploited, where questions are answered honestly, and where the complexity of the system is explained clearly rather than used against you.
My experience working in a visa decision environment at the Australian Embassy gives me a perspective that very few education agents have. I have sat on both sides of the process. I know what decision-makers look for, and I know what goes wrong when applicants are given bad advice.
That knowledge is what I bring to every client. Not false hope. Not clever marketing. Just honest, qualified guidance from someone who has seen what this process can take from people when it goes wrong.
A note on this story
In Canada, only authorised immigration representatives (Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants or lawyers) may provide immigration assistance for a fee. My assistance to Nanay Teresita was entirely pro bono and took place in 2018. I am not a Canadian immigration representative, and this consultancy does not provide Canadian visa services. My services cover Australian education and migration pathways in partnership of a Registered Migration Agent (RMA).
If you or someone you know needs honest guidance on studying in Australia, I am here.
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