belleandscone

We decided to use an emmigration agent for our visa application as we thought this would be easier and quicker and done properly. My friend who is now in melbourne recommended Overseas Emmigration Visas to us so we jumped at the chance and went for the meeting, all sounded great and straight forward for we gave them half the money (£1080.00) in June and we sarted the process - grand!

We received the pack which included the application form for the ANMC but I noticed this form had expired but thought these people know what they are doing so this must be okay or they wouldnt have sent it, anyway I got it validated by a notary of the public £35, sent all the stuff in that they asked to be told this was the wrong form and that I'd have to do it all again, I know I know I should have just phoned them about the expired form but thats all fair and well in hind sight, anyway got that done, had a go at the girl at OE visas and was told they would refund me, but this also held back the application. My references from my previous employment took ages as the person wasnt there, or not on duty and when I sent emails they werent getting through so this took forever. Blah blah blah, everything was going well passed the skills assessment, great, didn't hear anything from the above for a month so I emailed them to see what the next stage was, got an email back with everything we had to do but the date to be in by was 2 weeks previous, they just hadn't bothered to sent the info, so just a little bit pissed off, anyway got everything together all ready to lodge visa application so they asked for the remainder of the balance (£1051 - the notary payment) for which I sent a cheque and they cashed, when I got an email at 5.22pm on a Friday night - sorry but the references (that they had put together, all the bosses had to do was date and sign -- very bizarre and boss not too happy about this but eventually signed) did not include the hours that I worked even thought this was provided on the different sheets they asked me to fill in. So again I have to start the process of getting my employer and former employer to re do these bloody references and now send in payslips from bloody september 2002. The worst thing is it is a different person from one stage to the next and after lodgement it will be some one else again who will probably f*** it up as well!!!

Am I alone in this or just having a run of bad luck? My other collegue at work started the whole process before us with OE visas and also paid half the money up front but she hasn't yet been asked for anything for her skills assessment or anything, whereas another lass at work did this all herself and she is going to New zeland in December and had not set backs and it took her less than 6 months all in.

I just thought it would be easier to have "experts" doing it all, but now I wish we'd done it ourselves and saved a whole wach of money and hassle.

The worst hing is they took the cheque and cashed it yet it wont be for another couple of weeks before they will lodge our appliaction.

This is just soo frustrating that I thought I'd let my grumble out. Maybe we will get there by soon as another year in this rain will kill me!!!!

Bordy

I think you should start raising your voice a little.
Be firm with them, let them know you expected better service than this.

marco121068

On the face of it the service does seem to be lacking.

Good luck.

BOAT

Sounds to me like you are having similar problems to a friend of mine who used The Emigration Group in Chester, all they were interested in was taking their money. All talk and no action, ""just gives us your money" is how she described it, some flambuoyant guy called Paul I think, all talk then once the money was handed over, no action. If I were you I would get on to them and demand action ora refund and then submit your visa application yourself.

BOAT

woogle

We used OE Visas ,from TRA to visa application didnt have a single problem,took 11 months from start to finish, kept us informed,all document requests made easy to follow,very smooth. Miriam Munroe (skills dept) Bridget Murphy(lodgement dept) both very freindly and helpful. Hope you get things sorted and good luck.

madsad

No,your not alone with this complaint! sounds typical of Oe

Donna.

mickagnew

Hi

Sorry you seem to be having a bit of bad luck with the above, but I am using OE Visas and I have to say that they are doing a fine job, they email to let me know what is going on and phone also when they have sent or sorted things. they also have me on the case with regards to form filling etc. I guess you have just been a little unlucky as there are always good employees and bad. I would ring them and demand to speak to someone of importance telling them what bad press the internet can be if you get my drift. You are after all the customer. Good luck Mick.

leezo

We used OE Visa's & moved out here on a 136 Skilled Independant PR 2 months ago. We had no problems at all, I suggest you talk to Richard Gregan (the Managing Director - based in Edinburgh), he will sort out your issues I am sure of it.

Good luck

Leezo

Fiona&malc

We used OE in Edinburgh for our visa, and thankfully had no problems, we had our initial consultation in the May and had our visa granted the following April. We also dealt with Bridget in the lodgement team, who was very helpful.

Good luck and i hope you get your problems sorted, as someone else said, get in touch with Richard Gregan if you are unhappy, he is the MD and he should be able to sort them out for you.

YFitz

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ghlight=Gregan

terrym

We used OE, on the whole they were fine, we got our visa in July following a delay due to baby being born.

One thing I did say to them when they kept sending us paper work to complete was along the line of; what am I paying you 2K for if I am doing all the admin.

After this it stopped and all we got were papers to sign and the odd bit of personnal info required that they couldn't do.

Like everything else in life people will keep going as long you let them.

we do kind of wish we'd done it ourselves now though.

Lets face it if it was that hard OE wouldn't have taken the case on the first place!

We are just as lazy as the next people I suppose, and we all hate paperwork.

arkon

Unfortunatly your not alone, We used OE visas and never had a consistant service, they kept changing the person handling the visa application so the next person each time had to re learn the case etc. The did things like as us to send them docs that we had already sent, then seemed to take forever to actually send of the app. it took us nearly 2 and a half years by using them and I am 100% certain it wouldn't have taken this long had we done it all ourselves. In the end we had to call the MD to make things happen and say we wern't happy with our handler.

BlueToffee

Hi

we used OE and had no problems. In fact without them we wouldnt have got through. Our circumstances were quite unusual and basically they used my old bakery qualifications to get me through although I left that indusrty years ago. Without Brendans expertise in knowing the system and Bridget's patience then it would have been a nightmare and thats the reason we used an agent, rather than do it ourselves.

Yes we are also a bit lazy !

As someone else has stated, you get good and bad employees everywhere, I'm sure you have them where you work, but dont let them spoil your overall view.

We lodged the ap in Oct and visa granted in July.

Hope this helps and I would take the advice of asking to speak to somone higher if you get no joy with your alloted person.

belleandscone

Thanks for the link, that was only days before we started the process and hadn't yet came across british expats but if we had and I saw that we would never had went with them, we only went on a recommendation from a friend who couldn't fault them, but it seems like she is in the minority, I will definately be getting in contact with this Gregan man!! Thank you.
Clairexxxx

possoms

Hi we also used them, had some problems in the beginning but they sorted themselves out and we got the visas.

Good luck

Possoms