Pickle

I'm looking at starting the whole wonderful process of visa application and would like to know how many people out there have used agents and are they worth it? what do they actually do etc etc etc

any help and advice on the process, what to look for what not to do would be great.

karenjc

We used a agent but would say that depending on what visa you are going for then it is quite straight forward to do it yourself. We did a 136 skilled independent and all it seemed is that we did all the work and the agents just posted it. Good luck with what you decide.

lee/jane

Hi,

We DIYed, because at the Sandown show, we asked a guy on the stand from Victoria State, for his advise if we should use a agent. He asked us if we were applying for an skilled visa. When we said we were, he said "if you are skilled enough to apply for a skilled visa, then you are skilled enough to fill in a form". that did it for us. If you do it, the big thing is to go overboard on information. There is no trick questions, just make sure you read the forms over and over again so not to miss anything. I know people who have had bad experiences with agents, but I have read on here that some are great. This forum helped us a great deal and if you have any worries just post on here and you normally get good advice,

good luck

Jane

Alex Hall

I used an agent (136 Skilled Independant)...

Did I need to.. Probably not..
Did it save me stress and sleepless nights.. Definitely.
Would I consider him value for money.. Yes
Would I use an agent if I had to do it again.. Yes

I used George Lombard

hth

Alex

Sue2

If you do use an agent just make sure it is WELL recommended as some are alot better than others, if your application is straight forward then you could DIY it does work out alot cheaper.
If you`ve got some extra cash, lack of time on your hands and not very organized then agents can give you peace of mind...but please choose your agent carefully wish I could recommened the one we used but they are pants

Good luck

Sue

karenjc

Thats almost praise Sue, there worse than that

Sue2

Your not wrong there!! Pickle... Words cannot really express how we feel about our agent

Sue

jaxowen

We used and agent he has saved us loads of time and stress just having someone on the end of the phone with the answers to the 'hard' questions made it worth it for me. I suppose it depends how good you are at filling in forms etc. & they are expensive - £2000 to £3000 .

good luck
jax

Alex Hall

Erm... Some of the highly recommended ones on this forum (who are also MARA registered) are significantly less than £1000..... So in the grand scheme of things that makes them quite inexpensive (in my opinion!)

Unless you are including the DIMIA/Skills Assessment fees in your figures above??

:-)

Alex

hooperhome

We are using an agent and for us it was the right choice.

biggy

we used an agent and he was BRILLIANT well worth the money...his fees came to 1500 he also did our skills assessment...infact he did the whole bloody lot....worked for us for over a year....and was always just an e-mail away....best money we ever spent

SuperSeagulls

In used an Agent and they were great; ASA www.australia-migration.com They do a free assessment so it wouldnt do you any harm filling out the online forms.

I found it very useful to have an exert on my side, even though my application was straight forward (in for a penny, in for a pound and all that....). But this site is also fantastic.

Good Luck with whoever, if any, you choose - just make sure they are MARA registered.

SS

bridiej

We are using Thinking Australia (www.thinkingaustralia.com).

We failed 1st TRA having used an agent from the forum, 2nd time round went via TA and passed in only 6 weeks!

We're going 136 - paperwork on its way, we only had to sign the forms and enter our payment details, fill a general form in with all out details and the agent is filling the main form out for us.

Definitely worth peace of mind, and well under £2K as well!

JohnAndNetta

We used an agent - our application was very straightforward - although we didn't realise this at the time of appointing the agent - We had family sponsorship, my husbands occupation was on the 'occupations in demand' list, and we could raise the extra $100k if necessary. We comfortably came within the points requirements, and in fact had quite a few points over the top, so we were in a good situation.

Things started off ok (Dec 2002), but as soon as we got to the lodgement bit, we received the most appalling service - And from our first interview (Dec 2002) we didn't get our visas until Jan 2005. In fact we took things into our own hands for the last 6 months, by talking directly with DIMIA (who were actually REALLY helpful), and this definitely helped as we were actually able to find out what was going on rather than being left in the dark. We actually knew that our visas had been granted some time before our agents found out. One of our major problems is that our agents were not prepared to give us a proper breakdown of who they had contacted and when, despite many requests - so we had absolutely no confidence that things were progressing as we had hoped.

In hindsight, and in our particular case, we could have easily done without an agent, and my belief is that the whole process would have been far less stressful, and we would have saved a CONSIDERABLE amount of money. However, it depends upon how simplified your own situation is, how meticulous you are at filling in forms, how well planned you are, (and of-course how much of a budget you are on!).


So our main advice to you, if you use an agent, make sure from the outset that they are happy to share details of what they have done, what they are doing, and when they did it. At least that way you can be sure they are 'on the case'. Make sure they are prepared to confirm receipt of any forms / communications you have sent to them, so that you can be sure that things haven't been lost in the post. I generally landed up having to phone our agents several days after sending stuff, just to make sure it had arrived.


I'm certainly not anti-agent, and if you search through British Expats you'll see that there are a great number of happy satisfied customers. We just chose VERY badly, but I didn't start reading British expats until after we'd appointed an agent. Big mistake. Go for the firm favorites such as Alan Collett or George Lombard (and there are also plenty of other recommendations on British expats). We also landed up paying considerably more money than what appears to be the average. So higher fees certainly didn't represent better service in our case. Quite the opposite.

Please do not ask us to name and shame. Just make sure you choose a HIGHLY recommended agent, then you should be fine.

Regards

Bodger

I'm using ASA too, and can't overstate what a help it's been. I wasn't going to bother using an agent, and I think I could have managed, but the cost has been well worth it