HelenSmith

escapedtonz

If you consider your process to be straightforward - i.e. as far as you know you will not have any difficulties with your qualifications being recognized in NZ, proving your skills and experience, police reports all good, no issues being able to prove partnership and no expected issues with anyone medically then I would completely steer clear of any Immigration agency. They do charge a huge amount of money and promise you the earth but in reality all they are doing is being the middle man and Immigration won't favor your application in any way just because you are using an approved agent. You still have to do all the leg work, fill in your own application forms and all the usual jazz, the agent doesn't do it for you at all. An agent is good for stepping you through the process and being available on the phone/email for advice but they only really earn their fee when there's a problem or delay. We did use an agent (WorkingIn, Auckland) but we knew our process wouldn't be straightforward and they offered half the usual fee as we signed up at an overseas expo.
You can do it all yourself and if needed just ask on here if you have any questions.
So, an initial assessment from an agent says it looks like you have enough points for Skilled Migrant Visa, BUT neither of you has a job offer........In reality that means you will NOT be approved this visa as points alone doesn't cut it. You need minimum 160 points on the EOI and a skilled permanent written job offer. Without the job offer you may have sufficient points but all this will give the principal applicant is a 12 month job search visa. If you don't score at least 160 points there is no point submitting EOI as it will never be selected.
Also bear in mind this type of visa, even with a job offer takes several months to secure even when everything is in place. I'd say minimum 9 months from job offer to submission of EOI to preliminary checking to receiving ITA to submitting ITA with qualification, skill/experience, partnership, police and medical evidences to getting the application allocated a case officer to getting through all the processing. Our Skilled Migrant process took 16/17 months from initial EOI submission till we were approved the visas and receipt of the letter stating we had been successful. That was because of the know delays caused by medical challenges we needed to get through.
I do remember the Emigration Group being around when we started the process but their fees were higher and no deals on so we went with the other option.

MrsFychan

As Escape says if straight forward keep the agency costs. you'll probably need it, and do it yourself. Its very straight forward, just make sure you read the accompanying guide on how to fill in the forms.
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Please check out the skills list to make sure you have the appropriate qualifications and worked time to enable you to possibly up lift a visa.
https://skillshortages.immigration.govt.nz/

also check out the salary ranges and see if they are within line of what you expect, cost of living is high here.

Clairemidwife

I was in the same dilemma. Have a go at filling in the forms yourself and see how you get on. You don't need to use them if you find you want to use an agent but as others have said they may be able to give you info but you still need to do the leg work. I took free Info provided from Agents, did lots of research and this Morning have submitted by eoi with not too much difficulty without a agent.

BEVS

You should be able to complete the forms and sort the applications yourselves. Any problems just come here and we will all try to help best we can. Most of us here did our own work visa and residency applications.

I sometimes think using an agent is throwing valuable $$ away. It can be money for old rope. Really it is when there could be an issue meeting criteria that it is best to use a professional and in that cae I usually suggest immigration lawyers. Having said that if one was dyslexic or was absolutely hopeless with paperwork, then yes, paying for an agent to collate the paperwork might be sensible. As ClairMidWife has written, you would still need to do all the leg work yourself.

As far as I can see from a quick look neither of your occupations are on the NZ shortage lists. Have you done the points checker please?

ClaireRussell

I went through Paul Goddard and he gave me loads of advice and then put me in touch with NZ Shores. I have been impressed with them both so far. Our temporary visa applications have been submitted. I highly recommend using an agent as even when I thought I had provided everything required they came back asking for more information to hopefully prevent any delays once visa submitted. I personally just didnt want to risk not having application right.

scrubbedexpat094

As others have stated, you really don't need an agent at all unless you have a complex case. We got some advice initially from the Immigration Group but then decided to do it ourselves. The process is actually fairly simple, it's just a question of getting all your paperwork together. You need to do that whether you go with an agent or not. So save your money and if you have any questions come back and ask here.

spouse of scouse

Might be better to wait for the outcome of your visa applications before you recommend them

spouse of scouse

BEVS

This doesn't make much sense in terms of how NZ Immigration case officers operate. If anything, using an agent slows down the process as they are a 3rd party intermediary. Should an NZ immigration case officer require further information of any sort then they just ask you direct either via a phone call, txt, email. You can't get quicker than that.

If you provided everything that your agent asked you to but yet that was still deemed insufficient for some reason , then that says the agent was not clear enough in the first place or that they had overlooked something .
The appplication & process for a temp work visa is really very simple provided one meets the good character and health requirements.



I did ask the OP if they had tried the official points checker, as a starter for ten, but received no further response.

ClaireRussell

Maybe I misunderstood the original posters question but I thought she had asked if anyone had any dealings with Paul Goddard, which I have and therefore I responded. However, clearly from other posters my comments are not welcome. My response on this forum was my first ever post to this site, however clearly my opinion is not welcome and I will delete myself. To the original poster, I wish you good luck in however you wish to proceed with your visa application.

MrsFychan

Really can't see that anyone is saying your comments are not welcome. But as many of us have done the process ourselves we are aware that as long as you read through the guide you really cant go wrong and even if you do Immigration will just ask for more info if you get that far. Also some of us have initially spoken to agents and been given misinformation and I know of a couple who had their visas refused because the agent mishandled the application.

RobDon

We did it all ourselves and saved ourselves thousands of $$$$$$$$$$$

starbucks72

I am one of those people who initially started with an immigration lawyer and have since got a refund from them. They did not help in any way, shape or form.
When we went for the initial consult, I was told that I qualified for the SMV, so great I thought, but then we paid him an initial installment for him then to give us a pack with all what was needed, nothing of what he had mentioned in the first place. No mention of needing a job offer first etc etc.
For example we were first told that if we were British citizens with a British passport then we wouldn't have to do the English test only to see in the pack that if we can provide statements from our schools that we had an 'English' education then it would be fine. Not fine when you're 44 years old and have to start delving back how many years to get school records. Anyway, that's just one small example of our experience, the list goes on. I did lots of research on the company so was quite disappointed and now we're back to square one with trying to navigate the 'which visa ' to apply for' situation.
Anyhow, like previous people have posted, I would still say, do the application yourself. I learnt the hard way but here's to going forward somehow

MKJudge

Hi Helen,
I am new to this forum and just reading through threads that are relevant to our situation. I was wondering what you decided to do?
We have just had our consultation with Paul and he's sent us through the fees breakdown

Initially I was just going to pay it as so stressed with the whole catch 22 dilemma. My hubby had 2 interviews over SKYPE for a job in NZ a few months ago but was unsuccessful so we are quite frustrated.

After thinking abt it over the weekend it just didn't seem to make sense to use them. We still need that job offer to submit an EOI, they can't get us a job that's all on us so why pay them £1700 retainer fee just to wait for the job offer and then for them to submit a form that I am more than capable of doing myself .

They also said hubby has to get his HNC assessed NZQ but I checked the excempt list and unless i'm reading it wrong an HNC is not required to be NZQ assessed. Can anyone clarify this?? So that doesn't add up!

We have decided that we won't use them we will take the advice they were very good to give us so far, get our evidence/paperwork/checks done and go over to NZ for a visit so Mike can look for work.

Karen