peppi

I'm just embarking on the application actual stage having done the TRA bit and passed(this part I saw as the most daunting as I had no paper qualifications just 9 yrs experience) I did this with no agent. It seems alot of you are using agents. Can you tell me what do they do over and above answer questions(which Ive found this forum most useful for,)and liase with the case officer(which you can do yourself). Would you people recommend getting one...? How much roughly do they cost...?

HUP

We didn't use an agent. We spent a month or so getting all the paperwork together and checking and rechecking and just for good luck checking them again. You know that feeling you get when you go on holiday and you are certain that you have forgot something, well its a bit like that but worse

If you are confident filling out forms and gathering the necessary paperwork then do it yourself and save some money. If that sort of stuff freaks you out or if you have any doubts thats you might not be able to get in due to special circumstances then use an agent

peppi

Thankyou thats what I thought. Im pretty confident at getting paperwork together and with a P.C. to hand all info seems to be available...to my mind the agent just saves a bit of the time spent sat in front of this thing and prob aint worth the money.

65 million

We did ours OK without one. Just make sure you download all the available documentation from the Aus High Commision website before placing your application.

If you do a little homework before your application, shouldnt be a problem.

Good luck!.

keith (UK)

We also did our application on our own. I think it is not too difficult a task if your application is straight forward.

If there is anything complicated with your circumstances, then maybe an agent would be able to help.

If you have already got your skills assessed, then half your battle is already won!

Good luck.

peppi

thankyou nice to know people do go about it without an agent...and yes thats the way I look at it TRA bit is half way there. Application is pretty straight forward Skilled-australian sponsered Good job Im going to visit my brother in October so he can do me a bit of form filling for me.should give me 125 points of the 110 I need. I would be 5 short of the skilled independant without his help as Im not prepared to stump up $30,000 for the extra 5 if I dont have to..

chippy

Er...I think you might be in for a shock there. It's $100K not $30K.

Don

Here's one from someone who used an agent. (NZ). Great agent, very professional, friendly and efficient. Always replied to our many questions by immediate return.

BUT: I still would recommend straightforward cases to NOT use an agent. (Hindsight is a wonderful thing.) The process is easy to understand once you download or buy the immigration forms and read them a couple of times. If you are crap at organising things or need your hand holding - an agent might help - esp if your case is not straightforward. This forum should make most straightforward cases confident of getting the application right.

peppi

If its $100 K then i definately wont be doing it...! Cheers

Wilf

There is no need to use an agent at all peppi. Anyone can do the application themselves nowadays because there are all the forms you need on the internet and so much information compared to years ago. Don't waste your money on an agent and in time they will have no people to sponge off. They might even get real jobs like everyone else instead of taking money for old rope.

Good luck.

peppi

Thankyou Wilf thats what I'd sorta figured when I started looking at it...what do they do I cant do myself

cheers..!

Jo Cousins

Hi Peppi

Just as a word of advice do not use a company called GLOBAL MIGRATION based in London. We used them last year when we started our application process and thanks to them we had to start all over from scratch again this year! They gave us misleading information, charged us for just basically sending out the application pack and then refused to give us our money back after wrongly telling us that we couldnt get in!! By this point we had paid out £1000 - based on a no win no fee agreement! Fortunately after speaking with many of their unhelpful staff I took things into my own hands and took them to small claims court and won!!! The agencies do nothing more than you could do yourself. They charge for simply filling in forms with information you have already supplied!! I would seriously discourage anyone from using them.

Jo

teresa.c

Hi

Well we did use an agent, and they were absolutely fab. But like evryone is saying, if you feel confident that you can do it alone then go for it and save your money. To be honest, now looking at it in hindsight, we probably didnt need them. I dont class myself or my husband stupid, by any means, but we felt this was a once in a lifetime chance and really didnt want to come unstuck when so much money and time is at stake. To find out you have been refused because you didnt cross your 't' or dot your 'i' somewhere down the line must be soul destroying. We just didnt want to take that chance. So we went with an agent purely for back-up. And it was a nice feeling for someone else to do all the running around for us!

And beware that some information on this forum is not correct either. Dont rely on it 100%. A few times I had the fright of my life when I saw something on here about what we should have or should not have done. It sent me running to my agent just to verify, and put my mind at rest. It was nice to just have someone you could trust to give you all the correct info.

But saying that, you take the chance that the agents you chose could be cowboys. All in all, its your decision and gong by what you have said you have made up your mind already!

Anyway, whatever you chose, good luck and all the best.

cadman

Our forms are just going in now and we are using an agent.

The reason? well, we're a bit borderline, I'm 35 and if we are going to go we need to go soon due to the kids ages. So, rather than mess it up and have to apply 3 times like my cousin, we chose to bite the bullet and employ an agent.

Just glad it wasn't the one mentioned above! that made my heart miss a beat or 2!

tinaj

If you are borderline on age/ points or have difficult circumstances then it can be wise to use an agent. We used one even though I got my own skills assessed, simply because we had to obtain documents from my ex-partner. We didn't know if he would try and prevent us from going so we thought an agent would be able to deal with delays a bit more than we could.

Luckily it all went smoothly- we could have done it on our own, but for £500 we got piece of mind and a quick result. Well worth it for us.