Jo Deon

Hello. We would like to start the process of emigrating to Australia. The first question we have is where to start(here I guess). Do we need to use a Migration Agent? (quoted £3000 so far). Best to use an online company or face to face company? Any recomendations for UK migration firms? Thanks in advance.

wmoore

Hi Jo, welcome to the forum.
Should you use an agent or not? It's an age old question!! A lot depends on how straightforward your case is and how much time you can give to the researching and form-filling. If you're happy that there are no 'quirks' in your case and you have the time / energy to fill all the forms in then go it alone and save the cash. If you're in any doubt, then an agent could save you a lot of grief in the long run.

Jo Deon

cheers thanks for that. I guess i will spend a some more time looking through the masses of information out there. I have started to follow some of the links in this forum. Some great info. Just downloaded the Skilled Migration Program (booklet6).

wmoore

This forum is a great resource. Use the search facility to find the answer to any 'obvious' questions or feel free to ask on here. There are lots of very helpful types who have been through it already.

pike

Hi a lot on this forum have filled in there own forms and have sucseeded were i could not mine being complicated so ive now inlisted an agent to take away the stress you will find some on this site which arehalf thatcost and with a lot of knoladge that will help.

mandi248

Go Matilda don't charge any where near that figure, I've found them very helpful and knowledgable.

pike

ive sighned up with go-matila . good thing you can pay there melbourne branch in oz $ and save paying vat ,and thanks for spelling knowledge correct ,ahh my spellings bad

DazL

Hi Jo,

We have used a Migration Agent for our 457visa intercompany transfer, they are called Australian Visa's in London, they have been really helpful and taken away some of the fears and stress. It only took 2 months to have our visa issued from submission of the forms. The agent we used offered face to face communications and also via email and phone. They kept us up to date with the progress of our application, which is very handy, they also gave us quite alot of information to read, regarding opening bank accounts in oz from the uk and special cheaper flights thru qantas for migrants and various shipping companies. Our preference is to have face to face coms as its sometimes nice to talk to someone rather than read and reply.

Good luck with your application, all the best

Darren and Kymm

Rich and Angie

Yes they are very helpful sent us the details more or less straight away.
Then I read the forms and I spoke to a really good friend of mine who persuaded me to do it myself.
I have to say the cost is less, but you do the work anyway as you have to send all the docs to them instead of sending them to the relevant states in Australia. It does depend on how difficult your application is.... what trade are you in? My hubby is a nurse so pretty straight forward. But still have to get all qualifications and transcripts etc certified myself.
Don't make any decisions until you have read through all the forms and booklet 6 from Dimia website.
Alos if you need to ask any questions you are in the right place to ask them.... HERE!
Must admit it is quite satisfying when you have done all your work and got it in the post and then received letters back... we have received our police checks back today. What a doddle that was.

Good luck with whatever you decide and hope it works out for you.
Take care
Ang

cagandchris

Hi Jo

We started the process a year ago and started, like you, by downloading the info from the DIMIA website. Have you worked out what points you will get? You will then know what visa you can apply for.

We then went to the show at Sandown and found loads of useful info. We wrote down all the questions we had and asked them to a number of the agents there (to ensure we got the same answers from all). Take all the leaflets you can and read them at home ... even if you're not sure what they're about some may turn out to be uselful!

The hardest part was the skills assessment - TRA. We spent a month compiling all the info. Detail, detail and more detail! Then went back to it and added more detail!!! Also went back to referees for more detail. The best thing to do is to write the reference yourself and get the referee to print out on their headed paper and sign. Not sure what the other skills assessment agencies are like can only tell you about TRA and they are STRICT!!

Once we got over the TRA hurdle it was pretty easy! The actual form for the visa was straightforward for us. But as others have said it depends on your circumstances. Our case was pretty straightforward in that we had more than enough points for the Skilled independent visa. Our only "complications" were Chris had a very minor blot on his criminal record and I am on daily medication for a minor illness.

I would say if you have a straightforward case, you shouldn't need an agent... we have also got LOADS of useful info from this forum!!!!!!

Hope this helps!
Carole

mandi248

You're welcome

desperate2go

Did mine myself. The skills assessment was definately the most time consuming and exasperating The visa application no where near as bad.

I found that most of the little niggly questions that you would rely on an agent to answer can normally be answered on here for you. Will save you thousands and give you something to do when all the nervous energy kicks in.

Whether you use an agent or not its mostly about collecting info and evidence, which you will have to do yourself either way.

Good luck in the process and welcome to the forum

Jo Deon

Thanks for that Carole, From what we have been told, our application should be reasonably straight froward. I would be applying for a 136 Skilled Visa, looks like my (Deon) points score is 115 and Jo will be my DeFacto partner. Hope this reply gets to you, not sure how the threads work yet!! Thanks to everyone else for their input too. One thing is for sure, there are a lot of very helpfull people out there willing to help. Cheers folks

cagandchris

Don't know much about defacto visas but as long as you have lots of evidence of you're living together for a set time you should be fine.....if you do a search on this forum you'll find loads of stuff about de facto visas though...or anything else that you may want to know about!!!
Good luck!!

JAJ

The pass mark for 136 is 120 points - not 115.

So I'd look at your points score carefully if I were you and see what options you have to increase your score or look at another visa (eg skilled sponsored, employer nomination or SIR).

If you want to use an agent, make sure the agent is MARA registered - http://www.themara.com.au

Why not use an agent in Australia?

Jeremy