Tiawamutu

I am looking at emigrating to Australia, and was wondering what people's thoughts are on whether to use an agent or not?

My friend emigrated 3 years ago, and did not use an agent, and she said that her experience of emigrating was fairly straight forward.

She has advised me that agents are very costly, and are not always as helpful as they could be for the money you pay.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Tia

coxfamuk

Hi there

We decided to go with an agent that is based in Adelaide (where the DIMIA is located) at the recommendation of a friend. Although we are still in the fledgling stage, he has been fantastic. I swear the man never sleeps, no matter what time we email him, two hours later, we have a reply. Plus, he came in at a few hundred pounds cheaper than the agents here. He details exactly what you need for the best chance of a complication free visa process and is really on the ball. We were delayed in getting some documentation to us and he phoned us to make sure all was okay . So far, we cannot recommend him enough.

I know though that other forumite have not been so lucky. If you want his details let me know and I will PM you.

Good luck

Sarah

yamahaha

Yes the process is very straight forward. Id say (and Im sure not everybody will agree to this) that you can split the process into Three 1/2 stages for a Skilled Independent application. Yes Three and a Half stages:

1/2) Make Sure youve got enough points.

1) Youre probably planning to go on a Skilled Independent Visa so you need to have your skills assesed. Download appropriate forms and follow instructions then post (use a courier) completed form, covering letters/docs & fee to relevant organisation. (This will probably be the hardest part of your app as you may need to get employer references, replacements for lost education certs (ahem, like me) etc :scared:

2)Once you recieve a positive assesment (can take upto 12 weeks so b patient) download final application form and complete following instructions making sure you dot all your is and cross all your ts! Then post (use a courier) to processing centre with all the required paperwork & fee.

3) You will then get a request for Police and medical Checks and yes, youve guessed it, download the appropriate forms fill in as per instructions, book medicals and send request for police checks.

Hey presto you are ready to emigrate! Easy as pi! All you need to do now is tell the family...thats the hardest part!!!

If you are in a hurry or have complicated cirumstances then agencies are a good idea otherwise save yourself 1 1/2K and do it yourself!

All forms can be found at www.immi.gov.au and follow the links.

Tiawamutu

Thanks very much for your advice.

I am actually planning to go on a skilled independent visa, as I am a registered nurse, but my husband is waiting to finish a course he is doing in IT. I know I have enough points on my own to get us over there.
Do you think it is just worth applying on my own or waiting for him to qualify? (in 21 months)

It takes a while anyway, and I think he could well be finished the course by the time our visa is granted, plus I don't think I could wait that long!

OzWannabee

Hi Tia

We are in the process of applying at the moment and I would say that having an agent has been worth every penny. The application form does seem to be quite straight forward but there is always a few questions or queries that you need answering and upto now the agent has answered all of them very quickly. Also we have heard, I don't know wether it is true or not but if you apply and you turned down then you cannot apply for three years???? so to pay somebody to take out all the stress in my opinion is well worth it.

island.girl

just my oppinion, but dont bother with an agent, we havent and so far so good! just make sure you read everything over and over! i say dont bother with the middle man its a waste of money!

Phil-UK

If I were you I'd apply now, Nurses are in demand so you should be fine. Another point to know is this, if you pass the points test you pass, you don't increase your chances by having more points.

What I mean is, if the pass mark is say 115, it doesn't matter if you have 115, 120 or 130, once you pass your treated the same, so your husbands qualifications won't come into it, and besides, if you do want to add his qualifications to the application it will actually cost you more, because you will have to get his skills assessed by ACS so more money and time.

All the best

Phil

Tiawamutu

Thanks for all your help....It seems even stevens with half of you saying use an agent, and the other half saying don't, so I'm totally confused now

Tiawamutu

Thanks for that OzWannabee...

Does Anybody know if what Oz was saying about not being able to appy for three years is true or not, as it would be useful to know this before going ahead?

Rich and Angie

Hi

We didn't use an agent. We were going to and then a really good friend who I met on here told me what to do so I have done it myself.

My other half is a registered nurse and I filled out all the forms and got all the paperwork myself. But a tip for you is as you are a nurse go the modifed route rather than full skills assesment as it is cheaper. You have to register yourself with the state you are going to practice in so eg I regiestered Rich with QNC (Queensland) first anfd then downloaded the ANMC modified assesment and got his skills assesment done after. Big saving. You will see from our timeline that it doesn't take very long. The longest part is the postal bit.

Where are you planning on going to?? which area??
Good luck
Ang

yamahaha

To be honest I dont know about the 3year rule but what I do know is that if there is a descrepancy in your application it 'causes delays' in the processing times, you could always be cheeky and phone an agency and ask them! . Basically they will query anything they are not clear on or any mistakes you have made. Its really up to you and how confident you are in your form filling abilities...

Tiawamutu

Hi Ang,
Thanks for that info. We are planning to go to Perth.

We have just come back from holiday in Australia, and Perth was our last stop. We met up with a friend who emigrated 3 years ago, she is a Nurse too.

We have been wanting to emigrate there for nearly 2 years now, and the holiday certainly made up our minds for definate, as we spent some time at our friend's house living the Aussie life, which I could definatly get used to