daddyoconnor

Hi

Yes - Sorry - The Immigration Forum has a lot of threads about using Agents - obviously due to the fact that this is when you are likely to need advice about them.

Sorry I just assumed that people read through other Threads.

kporte

They get you on the road to a visa and give a pointer regarding work etc. They will answer questions if you know what to ask......

ozzieeagle

Do you need accreditation in the UK to be an Agent ?

Dorothy

It depends on what kind of service you sign up for. Some have those services (at a cost) while others don't.

It can make a difference if your case isn't straightforward. If you don't have enough points or if there are children and step children or if you have a really involved or difficult skills assessment. I worked for an agency here in Perth (who I would recommend people avoid like the plague) and the agent I worked with specialised in sponsored visas only - business skills, skilled family or state sponsor or employer sponsored. Some of those applications can be complicated. There was another agent who only worked on 136/175 visas. And another one who only did family stream marriage, child, defacto visas.

Just because your application was simple doesn't mean that everyone's is.

copa

Went via Spouse visa without agent. Very easy to do. Had no probs at all.

Dorothy

Not in the UK you don't. In Australia you have to be registered with MARA to be an agent. To get registered with MARA it's a one year post-grad course in Australian migration law. Very difficult to get in and very difficult to pass.

kporte

It's all about choice and comfort level. I wouldn't if I had my time again. but then I traded my limousine in for a cat and I now have nothing to chauffeur it...

ozzieeagle

Thanks Dorothy.... I would assume that most people in the UK use UK based agents ?

Vash the Stampede

Same for us. Applied for a spouse visa; did it all ourselves; got it sorted within a mere 3 months. Easy as.

CosmicBertie

Finding out what ACS RPL is isnt the killer. But finding out how it should be presented, content, etc, the agent knew about that. Sure, you could pay for examples and help, but then again you're still paying.

I also had to gain visas for my two stepdaughters, which was fraught with pitfalls, but they knew all about how to address that.

I do get the feeling that your mocking the people who use agents though. To be honest, in hindsight, we could have done it all ourselves, but I think it would've taken much, much longer, and we'd have had to go through so much more stress than we did.

CosmicBertie

I would assume nothing

We used an Oz based agent, mainly because being MARA registered gives you some hope of not being ripped off.

And no, they dont line up job interviews and such, migrations agents tend to just work towards getting you a visa.

moneypenny20

Not at all. Many are happy to use Aus based agents, possibly feel there's more safety with the accreditation. Most of the work is done via email and calls anyway so it's just as easy whoever you go for.

I didn't realise they filled in the forms for you. I just thought they offered advice, told you what to send and when to send it and the best way forward.

CosmicBertie

They sent us the forms that were required, most of the personal details were already filled in (what they knew of us), we filled in the rest. Some forms just required me to sign and date, scan, and send it back.

We also sent all the forms back to them and they submitted everything for us. They also handled all the contact with DIAC. This helped as we didnt have to be awake during the night to make phone calls when the DIAC office was open.

Pollyana

In a lot of cases an agent can have the specialist knowledge of how to lay out a tricky case for DIAC. Something like criminal convictions maybe, the explanation of the circumstances can make the differecen between someone appearing to be a thug, and someone who was acting in self-defence. It's years of experience putting forward tricky cases that I feel earns the good agents their money.

I've had some discussions with the esteemed Mr George Lombard about unusual scenarios, and it really can be down to knowing what can be done, even if its unusual. With the right knowledge of precedents and of procedures an agent can get a visa granted when an applicant going it alone wouldn't have a chance.

Off to the Sun

we used an agent and it was circa €1000, we were a straight forward case but we had mountains of paperwork and couldn't figure out where to start, especially with the TRA.

Our agent is based in Ireland but has MARA accreditation or whatever its called and has to do exams every year. She also - I can't think of the exact word but its the swearing of documents to be true copies (anyone know, I'm having a brain fart!!) so that saved us I reckon something in the region of €400 - €500 (we had 86 pages in all for the TRA and 175)

I didn't like the way they asked for $500 to put in the Qld SS so I did that myself. No complaints - I'd use her again if I had to, she stays in touch with personal emails which I like.