Lavmondo

Myself and my girlfriend are planning to immigrate to australia. We have to wait until november when we can prove we have been living together for a year. I was planning on doing the forms myself but i think our application may be a bit more complicated as i have a drink driving conviction from 10 years ago so was thinking of getting a agent. I have a few questions:

1. Can you recommend a good agent.
2. What will it cost approx?
3. What will we get for our money.
4. Do you think we will have a problem? I work in IT but it does not seem like my job is on the list for occupations.
5. Is there any paperwork we can be stating now or do we have to wait until we have been living together for a year.

I know people say the agents are rip off but with this conviction that may mean a more complicated application i just think if paying a agent means a new life its a small price to pay.

Any advise would be great.

Bigaitch

Lavmondo, we used an agent because our application was not straightforward and we live in a high risk country.

The costs may have changed since we started the process about 18 months ago, but I think we paid about A$ 2500 to A$ 2900. My wife was the main applicant and dealt with the agent (paid with my credit card so I suppose I should know how much we paid!). It sounds a lot but we think it was money well spent.

My wife monitored some of the migration forums and got a feel for which agencies seemed to be professional and reliable. I’m sure there are many good agents but we went with Alan Collett at Go Matilda. (Moderator, I’m I allowed to be that specific?). We got our visa granted in ten and a half months.

Our agency had us fill in their forms which they then used to complete the appropriate migration forms. They also gave advice and feedback on how detailed the documentation, that we needed to provide, should be. They also provided examples in some instances.

I’d need to check with my wife, but I think the initial fee included some kind of review of our situation including whether we could make a successful application. Your conviction issue would be something they would know about. I think the police clearance go back ten years, so I guess you should be ok. They would also advise on the IT job and SOL issue.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
H.

Sally Simpson

There are loads of threads on the topics of agents & previous convictions if you use the search facility.
Your conviction is unlikely to be a problem now & you can support your application with a statement to say what a reformed character you are etc.
If you are looking for agents, make sure that they are MARA registered & search on here for reccomendations. As above, Go Matilda have a good name but lots of others do too!
Shop around, get some initial consultations, usually free, which should give you an idea of your options.

And yes, there is loads you can do before Nov like getting your skills assessed & all the documentation together.

Ask away on here & good luck!

Sheff_Sparky

ASA are fantastic with us so far!

They may seem expensive but they do include the assessment fees and a few other things which bump the price up. We decided that if we paid for it all up front then we wouldnt have to worry about getting the funds for various things together at a later date.

The only things we know we have to pay for are Postage to get stuff certified, meds and police checks. (We know several people who are able do the certification for us so we dont have to pay for that - where as most people do)

Good luck

Wol

Being MARA registered does not in itself mean much - we were ripped off by one four years ago.

Pollyana

I hope you complained .

Wol

No, we didn't for the simple reason that I had signed a contract that allowed him to claim the full amount in any case. We told him to go running so technically owed him thousands more.

Co-incidentally, a few months ago I was at a friends for lunch, and one of the guests was a director of MARA. I asked him whether he had heard of ****** and he became interested. Turned out that this guy is well-known to MARA - but they won't do anything about it for various "legal" reasons!

Sally Simpson

Sorry for your experience.
I guess the lesson here is to go with someone who is highly regarded!

newjersey

What kind of IT work is it? There is always a -79 code for "not elsewhere classified" ya know. You'd have to go through the ACS, they want a IT degree+4 or 6 years of proven post graduate experience (years depending on % of IT content) or 8 years experience if degree is unrelated or non-existent. Experience is counted after graduation, in full-time equivalents and must be paid-for. ACS is keen on pro-rating the years if they decide that part of your job description is not IT relevant or not at "graduate level".

Re. what to do now - especially if you changed your IT jobs in recent years - get your reference letters sorted, it takes a while. You can apply to the ACS now if you wanted to/can muster enough qualifications and ref letters. They take about 2-3 months to come up with a decision and the result letter is valid for 12 months. ACS could not care less about de-facto, it's the immigration that needs it, so you can get started pretty much now.

NJ

newjersey

Btw ACS process does not involve criminal background checks either. If your job case is fairly straight forward, you can save on the agent fees there. The visa is whole other story, I would not want to think talking you out of it.
NJ

steveandtina

We used Concept Australia and they have been great, respond to our emails really quickly and was always at the other end of the phone for advice.