Please someone help us by providing information on our case. We had applied our file on June 30,2008 through an agent. Our ACS got approved in August, but did not get the ACS letter till Feb 2009 thanks to our agent. Now the agent has stopped contacting us regarding the next step for the visa proceedings. What do we do? Can we do it ourselves or is there any other alternative.

if you have time, why not... all you need to do is to read the booklet for skilled migrants...

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/1119.pdf

then read through the topics in the forum...

i did mine just by myself... but to make it simple here are the steps I did..

- Determine your Nominated Occupation / Visa Type
- Skill Assessment for your nominated occupation
- IELTS Exam
- Lodge Visa (Online/Paper)

Ofcourse if you are planning to apply for 176 state nominated, you need to apply for state nominated if you skill is available on a particular state.

I had the exact same problem. My ACS letter was sent and my agent did not even know it was waiting to be collected, I eventually tracked it down myself. Very frustrating. Shorty afterwards I cancelled the appointment of the agent, made a complaint with the MARA and did the rest myself.

Contact your agent to find out what they are doing and why they have stopped. If you cancel the appointment make sure that they return all the origional documents of yours they have.

You can defiantly do it on your own if you read all the info the DIAC provides on their website, also go through this forum to see what problems or experiences other people have had and make us of other agents who may offer consulting services if your case is complicated.

Obviously everyones case is different and in some cases an agent may be benefitial but saying that lots of people have done it on their own although it may feel a bit overwhelming at first.

If you dont feel comfortable doing it yourself try find another agent who you can rely on.

I made a post a while ago about something similar: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...95#post7032995 the forth reply.

Thanks alot for ur advice

Is your agent MARA registered? If so, you may have some recourse for refund of your fees paid so far. If not, you really have very little recourse and I wish you best of luck trying to get your documents returned.