walkerroo

Hello everyone, I will be shortly applying for a 175 visa. I've spoke to one or 2 immigration companies and they reckon I shouldn't have any problems going down under.

I just wondered if anyone had any ideas of cost for the whole process? I believe it to be over the £3,000 mark and wondered if there were any cheaper solutions? I imagine doing the whole process on my own would be a nightmare!

I was also wondering of general processing times for the visa although i'm sure this can vary quite a lot.

Lastly.. I am aware of the IELTS Englist test, police checks and of course medicals. Are there many other checks involved?

Thanks in advance

loubiegreen

Hi, not sure if I can help fully but we paid £900 ish for the visa application, our meds were £900 for 2 adults and 4 kids and the police checks were £35 per person. Obviously there is also the agent if you decide to use one. Their costs vary from agency to agency. The only other thing I can think of is the skills assessment. I can't tell you what they cost as it depends who you need depending on your job.

We applied back in Feb (8th) and are still waiting but there are others that applied after us that already have visas and also a lot before us that are still waiting.

Hope this helps and good luck with your decision.

Kind regards

Lou xx

walkerroo

Hey Lou,

Thanks for your quick reply, so it looks like you managed just fine without an agent as such. Looking at your costs compared to mine it would be £1,000 cheaper to do it myself.

I'll have to have a little think..

Thanks for your help

lilsweets

If your application is straight forward I think it's managable to go it alone. That's what I did. Depends how confident you feel about the whole thing. I read the information on the DIAC website before starting, it really is a great website, the info is somewhere to be found. And of course asking about a million stupid questions on this forum will also get you through it!

As to the time it takes to process, that is the million dollar question. Only advice I can give you is to make sure you lodge your application electronically as paper based takes longer.

This week alone saw grant for people who applied in October 07 and April 08. So very difficult to give a timeline although DIAC say 12 months as a guideline on their website.

Dorothy

www.immi.gov.au is where to start. Take a read of booklet 6, which will explain everything you need to know.
First step is to have your skills assessment done. Have you done that yet?
Next step is to start gathering all the information required.
Then you apply for the visa.
IELTS is only for people who do not hold passports from UK, Canada, US, New Zealand or Ireland or those who require an extra 10 points to meet the 120 mark.

Start by reading booklet 6.

peaceboy

Do it by your self if you and the agents think that you will be OK and save the £1,000 for the air tickets...

geordies4life

i am applying for the same visa did my skills assessment in january and sent my visa application in at the end of march. still Awaiting a CO doing medicals on Thursday and getting Xrays on Friday, just so that there is no hold up when we finally get our application looked at. I used an agent Four Corners as they have been fantastic for help and information, but there is nothing now that i found this site that you can not find on here. I wish i had done it on our own now. Me, my Husband and 2 daughters. straight forward. To be realistic i would look at 1 year to 18 months and you will not be disappointed. It sounds like a long time but it isn't there is so much to do. Selling houses sorting finances out saving to have money to take with you. taxes pensions, shipping, ect doing research is important as well, if i can help you in anyway just let me know. Keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on.

Smith Family

Hi we did it alone (no agent) similar to you there appeared to be no obvious obstacles.
Quick timeline - skills assessment feb08, application lodged april 08, Medicals £510 for 2 adults 2 kids/ police checks £35 each adult in May 08 (we did this before being allocated a case officer! only because we thought that was required at teh time. in hindsight this has made our initial entry date sooner which may be good for some but we have not sold our house yet!), visas granted sept 08. We couldn't believe the speed of it all! But are thrilled. I would definately recommend doing it alone you cut the cost by half. I did spend time reading and reading info and it helped.

good luck with it all, go for it! Jenx

fraz1019

hi all,
I required guidance about application. How to place application by internet. I have already studied Australian immigration web site. but i could not understand how to upload documents with application, how can I pay fee to the department, then how, when and where to sent attested documents. when and where to perform health checkup, and what about character certificate??
kindly anyone who go through this process or have knowledge about these issue please help me out, I will be very grateful to you.

Dorothy

Did you want to do electronic application? If so, you have to input all of the information on the screens as they come up. At the end you will be asked for payment information. You will need to put your credit card details in there. Once you have done that you save it and create a username and password. You can then submit it all and will be given a TRN (transaction reference number). Once you have your TRN you will be given a list of outstanding documents. Print it out. Scan then upload your documents.

Alternately, do you application paper based and mail/courier it all.

fraz1019

thanks dear,
Actually i am from Japan and I checked that from japan application fee cannot be paid by credit card, I want to ask that for e application will it be ok to pay by credit card??? Secondly will they contact me again for medical or character certificates???

Dorothy

Yes, on an e-application you should be able to pay via credit card. when you get a case officer you will be contacted to do your police checks and medicals

fraz1019

thanks dear,

fraz1019

Hello Dorothy,
I am disturbing u again,
Can u please guide me about documents upload. have to upload orignal scanned documents or certified photocopy scanned documents?? etc....

Dorothy

You can scan originals or certified copies. Either way.