Hi there. My partner and I have finally decided to take the plunge and emigrate to Australia. We are at the very beginning of the journey to get there and we have been approached by a company called emmigration experts who say they will help us through all the steps to get us to Oz - has anyone heard of them/ used them?? If so, were they any good, are they above board?? If not, can anyone recommend anybody?? Sorry - loads of questions but feeling quite nervous at mo as its such a big decision and we want to get it right as we also have three children to consider in all of this so need this to be an absolutely positive experience for them. Any help would be massively appreciated!!!

Think we used the immigration group, not 100% sure of the name tho as am a bit brain dead tonight but they were very efficient, if a bit pricey.
we also moved over with 3 children, 12, 9 and 6 and they've never looked back.
Don't worry too much about them, Australia is a wonderful country for children.......and adults!

Hi,

We are also at the same stage as yourself. Just wondering how much did the company quote you for the service?

Hiya - yeah they quoted 285 inc vat. not sure whether this is an acceptable amount really. my friend and her hubby were quoted 5000 by a company to help them move to canada but this was actually managing the rental of their home in england and sorting out everything - accomodation, flights the lot?? Just beginning to realise the magnitude of what we are about to do!!!! How is it going for you?? Have you been given any quotes or are you planning on doing it yourselves?? So many questions!!!

Try Concept Australia.If your eligible they will get you through
Best of luck

Hiya,

Good luck on the whole journey dunno what visa your gettin but that is a well cheap quote a take it thats just wot they're charging for an initial assessment?

Try companies that don't charge this first cause we lost a few quid with a company that charged for a assessment and they gave us no more info than others.

Mandy

Hiya, we have just started the process today we are using global visas 1500+vat but i have heard lots of good feedback. Were are you planning on moving to Good luck

this company have said that this cost is for the initial assessments, and then providing us with info and putting us in touch with companies for travel, property, foreign exchange, etc. They have said that if we don't get a visa then they will give us our money back in full. It does sound much like the company you used mandyp - what company did you go for in the end. How much do visas cost?? we would be going on the skilled person visa. We are hoping to move to Melbourne - I think the Eastern side.

Just wondering if going through an agency slows the process down. Was having a look at some other websites and from what I can tell it appears to be quiker if you apply online. Any thoughts?

yeah initially we did but then we panicked and thought that we may miss something important and mess it up - just feel like there is so much to think about and we don't know where to start. But you are prob right - what websites have you been to?? so hard to know which are the good ones......

Welcome to B.E newbies!

I'm doing it all myself (with a lot of help from here on B.E!)

If your application is fairly simple then you can find most of the info you want yourself.
It's worth using an agent if your application isn't straight forward or you don't like dealing with all the paperwork.

Hiya,

Can't remember the company but they're in the Sun every day and wanted to charge a bleedin fortune once we'd paid them the initial amount.

It's a student visa that we had to go for in the end as we weren't eledgible for any others. In hindsight it could have been very easy for us to do ourselves, but we went through an agent immigration2oz.com a guy called John who has been great.

I believe there is a lot a work involved wether you go through the agent or not, so don't go through an agent thinking that it's a coupla signatures n thats all. We've paid just under £1000 and am pretty confident we could a done it ourselves.

The form was really straight forward dunno what it's like for other visa's, but you're gonna have to do most of the legwork anyway.

Cheers
Mandy

try go matilda, their fees are really great, no upfront for initial assessment and come highly recommended.

We are using concept australia manchester branch.

It costs about 1450 with VAT, thats the lot, the whole process.

You get what you pay for I guess, it is possible to do it yourself and both the immi site and the VETASSESS site have tonnes of info for you to follow.

If your going with an agent then add on your application fee which depends on your visa and VETASSESS fee.

We have budgeted about £3,500 in total for the whole process.

We could have done it ourselves but we wanted to be 100% on the ball and be able to ask stupid questions. I send an email to my agent and I always get a response the same day if not within an hour! That makes me feel better!!!

285 sounds like money for work you can do yourself. Most sites offer free initial assessments so don't pay for it.

Cx

cool!! thanks for that advice - i agree totally - now i have had time to think about what they are actually offering, its true, its work we can do ourselves. Have been in touch with go matilda and they have been really helpful as our application is maybe not gonna be as straightforward as we first thought. we are getting the wobbles a bit as we have seen posts on here that are really negative about the financial side of things. My partner was by trade a mechanic (he now works for honda uk in technical support so is off the spanners - hence y our application is getting complicated!!) and we don't know what sort of wage he could expect so thats becoming a major worry as he doesn't want to take a drop in money - aaarrrgh so much to think about!!!

sorry went off on a bit of a rant but thanks for that advice - wow - ur all so helpful!!!!