zenamethyst

If we can afford it I think using an emigration visa agent is a good idea but most of our money is tied up in our house which we don't want to sell at the mo and can't really afford a loan. We are selling our car and getting an old banger to release some cash but wondered whether anyone has applied for and got visas on their own and whether they saved a lot or was it not really worth it?

Any help gratefully appreciated!!! Has anyone ever written a book/manual on how to emigrate to Australia? Would be great if they had!!! If not by the end of all this I may just do it!

Pollyana

Lots of factors can affect your need to use an agent. For a start, what visa are you thinking about applying for? Spouse/Skills/Sponsored etc?

zenamethyst

We're going on a skilled with sponsorship visa (although we are well in with points without my hubbys aunty sponsoring us we just want to be safer!)

My husband's a web designer and has all the uni degree/work experience etc that they need luckily but I'm not sure whether this is makes applying any easier???!!!

gavstrad

I got told at an Emigration Show that over 50% fail due to incomplete/incorrect documents etc! But I have no real evidence of this…

Gav

Phil-UK

Hi,

We applied under the skilled visa 136 class and I am in I.T. also. At first I was in the same undecided state that you are, whether to use an agent or not. I decided in the end not to use an agent and to save my hard earned cash. I'm not saying never use an agent, if you have a complicated case then they can definitely be worth the money, but as our application was straight forward I was happy to go it alone.

What made me decide not to use an agent ? Well the more I looked into it, I realised that a lot of the paperwork I had to do myself anyway, there are certain things that an agent just cannot do on your behalf. So to me it seemed like all the agent would actually be doing for there £1,200 was to vet our application. I didn't see the point in this. It was obvious from the information I had from DIMA that I had enough points to qualify and the application forms were easy enough to fill in.

If you break down the process into stages, and make sure you send them absolutely everything they ask for you should be fine. I also included an 'Index of Documents' which itemised all the documents that were enclosed with the application, something like this:

Appendix A - Qualifications & Certificates
Appendix B - Skills Assessment
Appendix C - Police Clearance Certificates
Appendix D - Job letters
etc...

I then put each set of documents into a clear A4 sleeve with the relevant Appendix A,B,C, etc on it. I just wanted the whole application to be organised and it helped me ensure I hadn't left anything out. There is a checklist on the application forms to help you to.

Also about your sponsorship issue... I wouldn't bother!
We were also going to get my Aunt to sponsor us, we had 115 points without being sponsored or 130 with (the pass mark at the time was 110). I was thinking the same thing, more points, better chances, but I emailed DIMA to check this and their reply was, "If you meet the pass mark it makes no difference if you have 115 or 130 points", basically if you pass you pass.

Since going the sponsored route was so much more complex, just how do you prove someone is your aunt anyway, you need to get a lot of birth certificates, just work it out and you'll see what I mean. That plus the extra cost of lodging a bond and your reletives having to prove their incomes, etc, etc... it was just too much hassle for something we did not need, so why bother. If you need the points then you have no choice, but if not, I wouldn't bother.

So we applied without an agent and without a sponsor and we got our visa within 6 months (back in 2001). I'd say if you feel confident about doing it yourself then do, as I feel most people use an agent for moral support when they propably don't really need one (unless your case isn't straight forward, then that's another matter).

I wish you all the best.

PS. where are you heading to ?

Phil

Phil-UK

But they would wouldn't they, they want your business !

Pollyana

Mine was a spouse visa, straight forward, no need to pay anyone. After 2 years on this forum, I would say - do it yourself....
UNLESS: you dislike or feel uncomfortable with paperwork ; you don;t have the patience for checking and cross checking small details; you read the DIMIA booklets and are confused ; or you have issues that complicate the process - criminal record/health issues/previous marriages/children not migrating, all that kind of thing.
If its straight forward and you have a good brain, you should be able to do it. not everyone can do that though, and many people would feel better if they knew an agent was doing the job.

Make sure though - pick a MARA agent; there are good ones that use this board, esp the Immigration forum, like George Lombard, Alan Collet, Jeremy (JAJ)

binbird

Since the process is broken into two separate parts - a) getting your skills assessed and b) the visa application itself - some people have found that the services of a migration expert have been invaluable for the first part but have been happy to go it alone for the latter. If you have had a good look into what is involved and are still not phased by it then I would suggest giving it a go on your own. Plenty of other things to be spending your money on!

Good luck

Binbird

Emz

Hello

We were in a similar situation - we had enough points to go skilled independent, but also had an Aunt to sponsor us. In the end we applied ourselves under 136 skilled independent.

It took us about 6 months just to get eveything together but if you're thorough, not in a rush and you make sure you've read all the documentation, I honestly don't think you need an agent. It all depends on how much time you have.

The timeline for 136 visas was 52 weeks when we applied (December 2003), and it did take almost 10 months before we had our request for meds.

We had absolutely no hiccups with ours, all pretty smooth really.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

spottydog

if you're going via ACS and don't need to do an RPL I think you should be able to do it without the use of an agent. We completed 2 successful ACS non-RPL skills assessments (one group A & one Group B) and completed our 136 visa with research on the forum and lots of reading of booklet 6.

Parker

We were in same position - to use an agent or not.
Brother in law had used an agent for Aus and said it wasn't worth it.
And my brother went to NZ without an agent.
So we opted to do it ourselves.

It was all very straightforward - time consuming and bit nerve racking (checking all was in order), but fine. But then our case was fairly simple.
And we now have our visa so all is well!

The only time I missed having an agent was when I had a question but then discovered this forum and found that most answers were on here. Thanks everyone!

NKSK

For what it's worth - given all of the other replies - I don't think you need an agent - providing:

1. Your case is relatively straightforward and
2. You can cope with what is essentially basic admin.

The application process is not rocket science but it is drawn out. This forum and the australian and nz immigration groups (Google: groups) will help you enormously.

gajjitt

We went for the Sponsored Designated Area visa (Class BQ/subclass 139), we had to go through Vetassess to have our skills assessed first off. Then we had to have an assurance of support assessed so that they would support you for 2 years. My wife's father lives in Adelaide and so was a perfect sponsor. One stipulation of the visa was that the sponsor would not reside in certain high population areas such as Sydney, Melbourne etc.

We did all this on our own, didn't use an agent. It was a hard slog with all the form filling, but we just had to wait, they (DIMIA) wouldn't respond to questions, just had to let them get on with it.

Perhaps ours was an easy case though.

Have other people managed without an agent?

Paul

Marlo

I got told at an Emigration Show that over 50% fail due to incomplete/incorrect documents etc! But I have no real evidence of this…

Gav

We also went to an emigration show, at Sandown race course, we spoke to someone at the Australia High Commission desk who told us that if you send incomplete/incorrect documents that they WON'T fail you or throw your application to the bottom of the pile, but will request from you the information they want. This is exactly what did happen to us, we sent the relevant documents off, a week later we received our visas (skilled migration, taking 10 months in total). This was in 2003, no agent.

Good luck

markeh

Hiya Zenamethyst,

I did our application, the forms are all designed to be filled in without an agent and my assessment was straight forward.
I was asked to send another police check for the wife in the UK by DIMMA, even though she had been in the country les than 12 months. No problem.

I think it's worth considering using an agent if it's a complex application, but otherwise save the money and go DIY.

Bye
Mark