Hello All

My Hubby and I have been thinking of emigrating to Oz for about 6 years since we spent 3 months there travelling (hubbies brother and sister live in Brisbane).

We are going to see an emigration consultant tomorrow we have been quoted one price for a "Application Checking Service" and another for "Full Application Processing" I must say the cost for the full service was a shock.

My hubby is a self employed bricklayer and his job is on the demand list.

The main question we have is it worth paying for the full process or is it quite easy to do and get them to check the application?

Thanks for any advice in advance

Hello to you and welcome to the site.
I did my own skills assessment(i am a nurse) and fully intended doing the application myself but then i hit a brick wall and seemed to come to a standstill both with motivation and time.
I contacted Go Matilda by e-mail and havent looked back.They have been fantastic and so quick at replying when i have had a query.
Yes it is expensive but we paid in installments and it was well worth it for me as i dont think i would be nearly half way through it by now.As it is our visas are now in the throws of being processed as we speak and should be in our passports by April!
If you can fill a form in you can go it alone but for me it was a time thing.I just didnt have enough of it!
Good luck whatever you choose.
The folks on here are a great help.
Janice x

Hi, it all depends on your case.

Mine was quite complicated, i had several doubts in regards to TRA, plus my defacto relationship was shy on evidence, - i could go on.

Some people have problems with expartners letting the kids have med's and giving authorisation, unsure of wording ect

It all depends on how sure you are on your case, i worried about the risk of spending 6-9 months applying and being rejected at the end.

Best of luck Chris96

Hi

We have decided to use a migration agent purely for a bit of peace of mind. Just waiting for my wifes new passport to arrive before we start the application process.

I can also recommend Go Matilda, who have been very helpful and forthcoming with information even before any money has been parted with.

Phil

We too will use Go Matilda to do our application, they have been so helpful and forth coming with advice and quick to reply too.

We did the entire thing ourselves. But in our case everything was very straight forward and I had a lot of time to research.

To use an agent or not really depends on how comfortable you are with doing it yourself and whether or not there are complications.

If you are looking for a good agent, do a search on here and you'll get a lot of information. The names I see most often are George Lombard and Allan Colett, they come highly recommended.

Welcome to the boards , these guys can give you lots of help and advice.

We did our skills assesment ourselves and we are now at the point of sedning our VISA application off in the next couple of weeks.

good luck with yours.

Was just wondering the same thing myself! all looks very complicated to do alone. How much are we talking for an agent though?

x

Ours cost £1600, other fees VETASSESS (like TRA) doctors, lodgements etc cost another £1400. Some fees are unavoidable; skills assessment, lodgement, doctors, postage/courier, police checks etc.

We were an open and shut case and I think if we had our time again, we might not have paid the cost of an agent but if you like security and piece of mind, an agent can be worth every penny.

We went through workpermit.com and have no complaints, gomatilda and alan collett recommended by many. Beware the 'drip by drip' costings of some agents, get a total fee payable. Some agents will even refund the non-avoidable element of the fee if you do not get granted a visa.

do it yourself !!!! i am a bricklayer and got my visa in 6 months £1400 in your pocket if you need any advice on your tra or main visa pm me

Me & the misses are in a simular situation. She's a hairdresser(noyjing like bricklaying, I know) so from what I've learned so far it would be better for her to the main applicant. There are gonna be some complications in our case so does everyone think if there are complications it's best to use an agent? If so is that the first step we should take?

(noyjing like bricklaying)

*(nothing like bricklaying) Fat fingers, sorry

So if you do it yourself who does the skills assessment?

I've copied some text from an earlier post of mine. It seems like you're interested in a skilled 136 independent visa, so most of the links are for that except the first couple.

Here's some links for you:

A summary of all the visa classes (make sure to double check requirements with DIMA website):
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397377

DIMA: which visa is for me?
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...dex_filter.htm
Look at the bottom of the page and go through the checklist.

DIMA: 136 visa information:
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener.../136/index.htm


Requirements for a 136:
1. You must be under 45 at the time you apply (you will need full birth certificates to prove this)
2. Your job must be on the SOL list: http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf
3. You must get at least 120 on the points test, follow link on this page: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...-applicant.htm
4. Have a certain amount of recent work experience (depends on occupation)
5. You must provide a complete application (don't forget to sign or something) and pay the fee of course
6. After you've applied you must pass a medical and a police check


Before you can apply you need to get your (or your husbands) skills assessed. Check the SOL link above and you can find out who assesses your occupation. There is one main applicant, which can be you or your husband. The spouse is included in the application, but you may or may not need to use their skills.

In our case my husband was the main applicant, and me and the kids were included, but I did not include any points for myself as we had enough already.

Here is a two more great links for information.

Here's the checklist for the 136 visa:
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/checklists/136.pdf
It gives you some idea of the supporting documention, keep in mind not all things are applicable.

Booklet 6: General information about the 136 visa (Very helpful!)
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/1119.pdf

And finally the application form
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/47sk.pdf

Here's the short answer to your question. The skills assessment is done by whomever the assessing authority is. It goes to the same place whether or not you have an agent.

See my more detailed post above. Go to the SOL link: http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf

Find your occupation on the chart, and on that link it will tell you who the assessing body is. You can look up the abbreviations at the bottom of the document to get more information.