judeyoga

We have signed up with an agent and are starting the skills assessment, however we are starting to wonder what we are paying him for. We are contacting everyone and filling in forms to send back to him in order for him to send them to the assessment boards.

Can anyone with experience of going through the process with an agent tell us what they actually do in order to earn their fee? This isn't intended to be disrespectful but we cannot see at the moment where our money is going.

I wonder if I'm a bit simple but I'd like to see a list of things they actually do - does this make sense?

Jonahs_mummy

Speaking from personal experience, we thought we had the TRA sussed.... we did my hubbys TRA oursleves and sent it off thinking that we would have no issues whatsoever.........then we failed! Wow did that bring us down to earth with a bump!

We wondered around for a few weeks in a bit of daze to be honest thinking whats the bloody point? etc etc until a good frined of mine from the forum said 'look why don't you contact an agent & get their input'.... we spoke to various differnet agents and got their input & finally decided to go with Mr George Lombard & Mr Roger Laws (http://www.austimmigration.com.au/).

Since we made that decision it has been flipping hard let me tell you! For a while there it felt like writing the TRA assessment stuff was taking over our very existance (I am sure Professional Princess, Rooksie, BridieJ, to name but a few will concur!) but I have to admit, without the never ending support of George Lombard & the invaluable advice of Roger Laws we would not be able to say 'I got off my backside, swallowed my pride & got all the information together humanly possible for TRA & resubmitted last month'.

We have not yet received a Yes or No from TRA for this 2nd attempt but I can quite honestly say that without the fantastic morale & support and sheer bloodymindedness of our agent-partnership we would not be in the position to hope we would be given a second chance!

Hiphiphooray for George & Roger!


Claire
x

Professional Princess

Claire, I am going to start the George and Roger Fan club.

I select myself as a groping groupie wearing a cheerleader outfit, I shall throw myself at Georges feet when the notion takes me.

Oh god, another story is on its way.

Jonahs_mummy

Fanbloodytastic! LOL

hehehehe

Please Please Please can I be the groupie with the purple boa & sparkly platform thigh-high boots????

Claire
x

kris maynard

I too will agree with the above we are only 2 weeks into the process of gathering info but so far have been guided by Roger who seems to be a really nice bloke who also has a personality, somedays i feel i could probably do it alone but to me its just not worth the risk and potential waste of time the whole process is long enough as it is, i also find this forum a totally invaluable help if i have any questions no matter how dim i sound!!

So banners out for george and roger

TheRossers

I concur with Jonahs_mummy, yes you do have to do most of the leg work yourself (realistically you can't expect your agent to go around getting it all for you) and yes you do fill in most of the forms yourself.

We were the same, thought we could do TRA etc on our own and failed!!

With the help of our agent we redid everything and then redid the bits they didn't like! Eventually when they were happy they submitted it to TRA. Then we got the YESSSSSS!

The visa application itself is straight forward but they still asked for more information and did all the nasty bits like putting it all in the right order etc. etc. and making sure it was right.

If your case is straight forward then usually there isn't a requirement for an agent but they can be useful with inside knowledge that the average joe doesn't have access to, and they've done it so many times they know all the pitfalls that can come along. You just have to pick the right one and as most will agree on here there are some good and some really bad.
Best of luck with it all and no matter how good your agent you will still stress all the way over the slightest thing!

Professional Princess

Yes, but I want to wear a bright red cheerleader outfit and have frilly pom poms. I do like a frilly pom pom.

I dont know if George reads this site, but he would be blushing.

Here is a mini story

The Agents

Alan, George and Roger sit nervously tied up to the chair. Their hands restrained by pink furry love cuffs, they had no idea of what was awaiting them.

Suddenly, the expat girls come in dancing.

In a perfectly sequenced dance display and a flash of brightly coloured short skirts, ankle socks, white boots and furry pom poms, the girls gave high kicks in time to the music.

'Oh my God!' Roger shouts to a terrified Alan. George tries very hard to hide his head behind his wide rimmed hat with cork screws dangling.

Jonahs Mummy and Princess circle the boys', imprisoning them with their long legs.

Merlot enters the team from the right side, grinning saucily at George.

Bridie comes in at the left and does a high kick, making Alan go a lovely shade of pale.

'Give me a 'T'
'Give me an 'R'
'Give me an 'A'

What have we got?

'TRA TRA TRA' The girls shout in unison.

'Holy cow' Roger shouts to Alan who was by now taking notes.

With DATA sheets imprinted on their brightly coloured panties, each girl had their TRA file number on their bottoms.

Merlot then gives the command.

Doing summersaults across the front of the boys, each girl then sits on an agents lap.

'Oh god no' Roger whimpers nervously.

Bridie sits firmly on Rogers lap.

Jonahs Mummy sits on Georges and smooths down his ruffled hair. Such a cutie.

Alan looks around absolutely terrified. He couldnt afford to be in Princess's stories, for their reputation would reach Australia long before she did.

'Please no. I cannot be corrupted' Alan yelps, looking round for support.

Paul from admin pretends he didnt see him.

JAJ pretends to faint.

There was no help for Alan.

Jumping on his knee, Princess winks at him and simply replies 'My world, you are now in it.'.

Who can save him?

TheRossers

Genius

Can't wait for the next installment. Well done PP.
Won't let me give you karma but the thoughts there.

Professional Princess

Alan is now panicking. He couldn't let people think he was naughty, it really wouldnt do.

'You shall go to naughty training' Princess orders Alan.

'But I can't' Alan replied lamely.

'Its rather simple. You either do as I tell you or you shall be forced to listen to Celine Dion and Cliff Richard. Not to mention I will make you wear chunky jumpers with santas on them'. Princess said firmly.

'No, not Celine?' Alan looks around for support.

Wombat is busy mopping the floor moaning about whinging POMS and totally ignores Alan.

'You need a hand?' Lynnlovessun shouts to Princess.

'Hmm, maybe, just to do the waxing' a thoughtful Princess replied.

Meanwhile, George and Roger were still tied to their chairs with Jonahs Mummy and Bridie sitting on their laps.

'What on earth is that?' George shouts as he hears squealing coming from the naughty room.

'Please Princess, no, I shall do as I am told' Alan yells like a baby.

Ten minutes later, Alan emerges from the room with a totally all over waxed body.

Princess had enough body hair on the waxing strips to make a rug.

Only rugs wernt needed in Australia, so it would be used to stuff pilliows instead.

Taking Alan back to his seat, Princess lets him cool off.

'Oh George, she made me listen to Celine Dion and everything' Alan stammered.

'Jesus, that is bad' George replied, pale.

'Right, who wants the feather treatment?' Princess shouts,

At that very point, you couldnt tell who was the palest, Alan, George or Roger.

Tiawamutu

Getting back to the poor judeyoga's question, can anyone help as I would also like to know please....

Professional Princess

BANG!!!!

Suddenly the door opens and slams against the wall.

Standing there in a gold cheerleaders outfit was a very angry Rooksie.

Doing backflips, cartwheels - which she really shouldnt have as she had forgotton her panties, Rooksie landed at Alans feet.

Staring at him, she whips out an emu feather from her boots and tickles his feet with it.

Giggling like a girl, Alan looked such a cutie as he laughed, prompting Rooksie to do it more.

'I dont like it when Im not invited' Rooksie shouted to Princess.

'Sorry mate, I was busy with the waxing' Princess gasped.

'So I see' Rooksie said admiring Alans beautiful smooth legs.

'Did my own bikinni line yesterday, nearly did myself an injury' Princess grins saucily.

George was now having his legs waxed and screamed like Cliff Richard.

The girls were out of control.

All you could see was Rooskie in her gold outfit, Bridie, Jonahs mummy and Princess getting up to no good. No good was a new male on the block and all the girls fancied him.

Merlot sat there thoroughly enjoying herself.

Jonahs_mummy

You bad lass! hehehehehehehehe

Fantastic as always!

I also must spread karma around before I can give it to the most reknowned PP!

Professional Princess

Sorry

In my opinion, an agent should send you the relevent forms for your skills assessment, guide you into filling the forms in correctly, guide you in the writing of employer statements, check they are written to the skills assessment specification and all evidence is submitted,

Get you through the TRA and on to the next stage.

Jonahs_mummy

As I originally said before......Speaking from personal experience, we thought we had the TRA sussed.... we did my hubbys TRA oursleves and sent it off thinking that we would have no issues whatsoever.........then we failed! Wow did that bring us down to earth with a bump!

We wondered around for a few weeks in a bit of daze to be honest thinking whats the bloody point? etc etc until a good frined of mine from the forum said 'look why don't you contact an agent & get their input'.... we spoke to various differnet agents and got their input & finally decided to go with Mr George Lombard & Mr Roger Laws (http://www.austimmigration.com.au/).

Since we made that decision it has been flipping hard let me tell you! For a while there it felt like writing the TRA assessment stuff was taking over our very existance (I am sure Professional Princess, Rooksie, BridieJ, to name but a few will concur!) but I have to admit, without the never ending support of George Lombard & the invaluable advice of Roger Laws we would not be able to say 'I got off my backside, swallowed my pride & got all the information together humanly possible for TRA & resubmitted last month'.

We have not yet received a Yes or No from TRA for this 2nd attempt but I can quite honestly say that without the fantastic morale & support and sheer bloodymindedness of our agent-partnership we would not be in the position to hope we would be given a second chance!

Hope this helps....... BTW: when you have been doing the TRA as long as us lot it kinda sends you a bit batty! LOL

Tiawamutu

Sorry about this judeyoga...they are normally quite sensible (I think)

I think maybe the latter part of this conversation would be better in 'the lounge'

It's not very helpful to judeyoga all this, really is it.....