It is embarrassing having to ask - we had to ask my Uncle to sponsor us and because he is retired my cousin to assure us. We had visited my Uncle and met my cousins a few years earlier but hadn't really kept in touch so we just had to swallow our pride an do it. It was even harder when we had to try and reassure them that we were not going to bankrupt them all - I can understand why some assurers pull out, particularly if they don't know you well as they could end up out of pocket if it all goes wrong for you. In our case we had to put a sum of money (in addition to the amount necessary for the bond) into our cousins bank account - basically enough to pay for our return flights + 6 months rent!

It was awkward at times but now actually I feel I know my cousin much more and we chat via skype and he has some contacts that might help us out when we get there. So go ahead and do it but make sure you read up on all thats involved for them so that you can reassure them about any risks to them.

If you have enough points to apply for skilled migration then why would you look at other options? 120 is the number required and 130 won't make your application any more desirable to DIAC.

have you seen the date on this thread?!!
April 2003!

If i was you i would have just started a new thread
Tiggs

Well spotted - quite a few people keep opening very old threads recently and sometimes I forget to check the date.