kira

hi all,
yesterday me and the hubby went to a seminar in leeds held by the emagration group. this has given me an idea now on the little things i didnt know how to do. myself would like to do the process without using an agent but the hubby is saying what if you do things wrong and also it would be easier as there would be no pressure on us. the thing is i dont see the point in paying upto £5000 for doing a job search, medicals, police check and getting a visa, when i could proberbly do this myself for alot less. we do know by speaking to the people at emagration we are strong candidates to go. my hubby is worried about me missing something critical out,lol (ok i do understand this as sometimes i can be a bit dizzy ), all id like is for you great people to give your views on doing it yourself to resettlement over in nz before we do decide which way to go.
many thanks

luvwelly

You are right - an agent is a complete waste of money and you will end up doing all the work anyway and paying them for the privilege of just checking it.

teebrown

We didn't use an agent, far too much money that could be used for other things, I have done all the paperwork myself (wont let my husband touch it, things would only get lost), There is tons of info on this site to be able to easily do it yourself, why don't you register with the NZIS online and fill in the EOI - you don't have to submit it, but you will get an idea of what info and answers you need, there isn't a time limit to complete it, and as you are strong candidates I don't you should have a problem with the points. If you work your way through the form and ask any questions on here as you go.

You don't need an agent, you will have to supply all the work anyway so in fact you are paying £5,000 for them to ccollate it all - you can honestly do it yourself.

teebrown

Forgot to say, when you fill in the EOI, it will tell you how many points you get automatically at the top as you go.

dynnif

Hi there we are looking to relocate to NZ and I was also thinking of using an agent but having read some of the things on this site we have decided that it is going to cost us alot of money, money that could be used else where.
So what if you miss things they will always get in touch with you and let you know what you have missed.
Its part of the adventure doing things by yourself and there are plenty of people here to help.
Hope this has helped you and Good Luck
Maxine

whitesand

If you can read and write then you are able to do all the paperwork yourself. You don't need to pay someone thousands of dollars to do this for you. If you are eligible then you can get residency, If not, then the agents can't get you in either.

Heal

Using an agent is expensive,however we used the Emigration Group and for us they were very good.
We didn't need a job offer so not using the job search option they provide brought the cost down considerably.
Its true you don't need to be a brain surgeon to send all the paper work in but for us I'm glad we used them.We felt once we had paid we went past the point from considering to being fully committed to the move and to be honest with all the waiting between processes for some there would be a risk of losing patience and interest.
I'm not saying anybody should waste their money but for some people agencies work and are not the bad guys as sometimes portrayed on this website.
Everybody please go easy on me this is only my opinion

malcoltom

I am using an agent. I am having to go on the work to residence visa route which is not as easy as having a skill to go on, but it isn't costing me anywhere near £5k. £1,500 i am being charged.
It is true that all these lovely people on this site will help you and answer when they can but i feel my circumstances are a little bit different and i work 12 hour shifts and hardly a day off to be able to sit here for hours trying to get my head round it all.
Hope you make it. Good luck.

newzealandplease

We used one and a waste of time and money.

We have almost had our PR letter a week and our agent still hasn't let us know Thats says something.

Persephone

You're right. I chose not to use an agent but my case is pretty straightforward. Others may feel that the peace of mind of having someone else do the paperwork is worth the cost and I suppose if your situation is difficult, unusual or if you just don't have the time then it may help to have someone who knows what they're doing. If you're working long hours then I can quite understand why you don't want to spend any time off reading through the NZIS website!

One thing I would suggest to anyone thinking about an agent is to have a good look at the forms you need to fill in first. That way you can get an idea of what it all entails and whether you feel happy doing it yourself. I would expect that most people would find it fairly easy to do and soon decide that they can do it themselves.
I did think about an agent at first only because I'd never done anything like moving to a different country before. Just thinking of dealing with immigration departments and the form filling was quite daunting at first. However once I'd had a look at what I needed to do I found the EOI form pretty simple. There was the odd bit I needed help with but found the answers either on here or on the NZIS website. It's not easy to do anything "wrong" if you take care and just ask about anything you're unsure about. You don't have to do it all at once either, you can save it and go back to it later to add bits or just a final recheck before pressing that submit button

Though £1,500 isn't as bad as £5,000 it's still a lot of money which could be spent on the myriad other costs of migrating - which seem to keep popping up as you go along
Hey unless you're a millionaire, in which case will you pay for me as well?

Give the EOI a trial run and decide from there whether you need an agent. If you do it yourself you also get that extra satisfaction that comes from achieving something that originally seemed so mysterious and difficult [ but in actual fact turns out to be pretty simple]
Good luck!
Sue

kira

cheers guys and gals really appreciate the info and i can see it from both points of view. i think we will give the eoi form ago ourselves and decide from there, hopefully we will continue ourselves ,
agencys seem to hype it up by saying that they help with finding you a place to rent, work places and help with information once we get a pr and land and also by helping us settle in. im sure with the great advise on here everything will slot into place, but just to ease the hubbys mind ill do the 1st form and see where it goes from there.
thanks again and for all your words of good luck,
ill keep you all updated when we put in our eoi.

BEVS

As your husband is a joiner, you really should try to do this yourself before paying out shedloads of dosh. Even with an agent , there will still be pressure on you both as you will still have to do the bulk of the work yourselves. In my honest opinion £5000 is way too much. In fact , it is money for old rope. If you had an unusual application or special circumstances, I could understand that type of fee better.

It's not really possible to miss something critical or do things wrong as such. He should have more faith in you. It is possible to find some of the form filling a bit arduous but we are all here to help . If you did miss a piece of paperwork , then NZIS would simply ask for it. If part of a form was incorrect , they would tell you.

The first thing to check is the POINTS INDICATOR. How many points do you think you will have ? [ please click the pale blue link]

The EOI form can take a good couple of hours. It is possible to save it and do it a piece at a time. Any problems with it, save the form and ask us here.

ldwilliams

We used an agency and received our Invitation to Apply for Residency about 1 month ago - Went via the Work Permit route. I am STILL in the process of getting the paperwork together to apply for PR.
HOWEVER, we only used one because we were borderline cases. If hubby & I had a strong case we would have done it ourselves. I have filled in all the paperwork myself anyway, just relied on the Agency for advice. Our one knows the system very well and have some good contacts so it works for us, but they are expensive. All in all it will cost us about $12,000. We took a chance and came over lock stock and barrel on a Tourist Visa so we had to be sure we would be able to stay once we got here which is why we used an Agency who got us the Work Permits. They were recommended to us by my mother who used them and she was a very tricky case - she was being threatened with being deported before the Agency stepped in and she is now a Resident.

There are pros and cons, but if you have a half decent case (enough points) you can do it yourself. The forms are very long but not difficult.

My two pence worth!

luvwelly

Fair enough but my OH's employer paid a lot of money to a Visa agency as part of a long-standing arrangement and all they did was check the paperwork I had done so it was not even MY money I felt was being totally wasted...money for old rope just about sums it up. They can't go to the medicals on your behalf after all.

If you are unsure under which scheme to apply, just email the NZIS helpline with details of your circumstances....I found them very helpful after you have read the website and remained confused that is.

jueinnz

We used an agent not sure about people mean by saying you still have to do a lot of the work yourselves, all we had to do was provide the evidence and get everything copied, and we were not a shut and dried case we scraped in under skilled migrants. I don't regret using them at all.