ellen fedulow

At this stage (about to start skills assessment) me and hubby thinking of applying for assessment and visa without an agent (to save some money!). Would be grateful for any advice for and against

cheers
ellen1

Alan Collett

Main reasons for: peace of mind (or it should be!) from people who have seen it before; guidance throughout the process as to what's needed and what's not required

Main reason against: cost

Best regards.

ellen fedulow

Hi Alan

if i was to go with an agent (like your good self!) when would i need help: after the skill assessment or before? and are you experienced in the nasty side of getting parental consent from uncoperative (and un findable) absent fathers?

This may sway my desision
cheers
ellen1

Alan Collett

Hello Ellen.

In my experience the skills assessment application is usually the main hurdle (save for certain occupations/applications), so I'd usually recommend engaging an advisor for that stage at the very least.

And between me, John, and Helen (see our details here http://www.gomatilda.com/contact.cfm) I believe we'd be able to deal with the parental consent side of things in that at least one of us will almost certainly have encountered that issue previously.

Best regards.

ellen fedulow

cheers alan, i am begining to sway would i have to pay you in full or in instalments, i am a bit strapped for cash at the momment but looking at house sale completion in about 3 weeks (loads a money!). I have mailed AIWICW who say i do not need any post qualififying experience for skill assessment, so i can do it now, but i am aware i can not apply for visa till Jan 03 (need 6 months post qual experience)
cheers
ellen1

Alan Collett

Ellen,

Our fees (which are fixed from the outset - as you might know already) are payable in stages, but in advance of us starting work on each stage of the application.

I'll be happy to continue this exchange via Private Messages or email if you prefer ...

(Presumably you mean Jan 2004 - not 2003 - before you can apply?!)

Best regards.

ellen fedulow

sorry Alan had a few too many last night did mean 04!
would appreciate pm!

cherrs
ellen1

owieb

We used an agent because:

We wanted to get out here ASAP, so needed to go through a variety of visas to do it, so far we've had working holiday, 457, 457 + defacto, RPL assessment and now waiting for skilled independent. And although I did find a lot of information online, we didn't want to risk the chance of getting anything wrong, and if we ever had any queries it was good to know there was someone we could ask.

It really depends how confident you feel about doing it yourself, and whether you think you may have special requirements.

A lot of people on this forum have done it themselves and haven't had any problems.

Personally I was glad we used an agent, and would recommend you to use one if you want to have expert advice throughout the whole process.

joh117

Guess we were lucky did the whole thing without an agent as we did not want the expense and found the whole thing very straight forward. We did not have anything complicated like parental consent though

Jo

Kenand Nel

Tips for doing it with an agent....
When they say 3 months for a visa processing think about 9 months.

I wish I had been on this site before signing up with my agent. Then I would have had a more reliable idea od how long the process takes.

Skills Assessment done in March, application in Adelaide in early May, still waiting....

Ken of Ken and Nel

whisky

Ellen. If it hadn't been for this forum, and catching Allan Collette on here one late/cold depressing night in Nov02, we would have given up on going to Australia.
Allan answered questions, told us ways of us getting to Australia, e mailed us, and couldn't have been more helpful.
We did finally do it ourselves as we are going on a 457IE and although it took us a little while to put it together, it wasn't rocket science.
I feel that other ways may be more complicated, and especially with the children etc, and if I needed to I would have gone through Gomatilda as they had been so helpful
For this, I recommended my Uncle to Gomatilda, and he has been very happy with them, and has also got his visa now.
Really, its your peace of mind, and how difficult things can be, but from reading older posts, the children thing can be pretty straightforward too, and there are many that have been through the same thing.
Good luck Ellen, look forward to meeting you in Perth.

Whisky

Kenand Nel

Helen,

Another tip for using an agent is to pay as little up front as possible. The more they have of your money the more they have you by the short and curlies.

Ken of Ken and Helen

owieb

What a load of cr*p!

If you've had bad experiences with an agent then fair enough, but I think it's a bit out of order to tarnish all agents with the same brush.

Many agents on this forum provide a lot of useful information to people for no cost whatsoever, as Whisky has clearly pointed out.

goodwnsherratts

Hi
we have not used an agent but have had the support of a friend from work who has just been accepted so that made life easier and not to mention some of the advice and info on this site if you can cut through some of the c**p.

Having my skills assessed was the hardest as I have changed jobs a bit since I qualified as a nurse so that made it a little more complicated. But on the whole it has been straight forward. We applied for STNI in late May put in full application end of june and just been asked to have medicals and police checks !!!!!!! so we are presuming things are going well.

I wouldnt rule out using an agent especially if things are a little complicated for you family wise like ALL professions there are some good un's and some bad ones just choose carefully as its a lot of money to shell out. we did approach a local one and not impressed as they told us we weren't entiltled, didn't have enough points! when we actually did, as it happend we have gone for STNI and not been too bad.
Regards
Jill:scared:

Kenand Nel

Sorry owieb, but this is how I see it.

It is a really scarey time for anyone who has their life on hold and who has put a great deal of trust in an agent who is supposed to know a great deal more than we do about how this process works. But I have learned more from this forum than from my agent.

Helen asked for advice on how to do it without an agent. I said in the previous post that if I had known about this forum I would probably not used an agent.

I think we are violently agreeing.

Ken