lawyers and agents
Dec 8th 2003, 9:08 pm
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Stirling
Posts: 22
lawyers and agents
My dearest and I have spent the last 4 months researching our imminent application for migration to Australia. We were torn between doing it ourselves and appointing a migration agent to do it for us. We got would get confident in going it alone and then we would find some other thing we didn’t expect and began to get more and more nervous. We didn’t find this site till this week.
The hardest thing being a migration virgin is finding out where to find information. I do not like the OZ government site and find the whole thing more confusing than anything.
We have now decided how we will go about things. We have a plan! The cost of getting to this stage of proceeding has been over £350 in meeting fees etc (don’t believe the “free assessment� clap trap the firms promise) and travel, bags of Walkers crisps and the odd of pint of shandy on the trains.
Here are the notes we took while spending our time going about Central belt Scotland and the North of England and using the phone and internet to decide on which companies to use. What an exercise! Hope they are useful to some other newies or that someone may be able to confirm or otherwise what we think.
VisaGo: or no-go if our conversations with Dimwit Chatt are anything to go by. Light on but nobody home stuff with this drongo. Clearly he just didn’t grasp the fundamentals of our situation. He is very laborious in note taking but obviously doesn’t read what he writes down judging by the questions he asked us. He only became animated when talking about money - and how much he would charge. How hard can it be to become a registered migration agent? Not very if he is the calibre of brainpower they let loose on us unsuspecting potential migrants. His price is not too bad – if you get the visa. Recommend – ask you neighbours 3 year-old children to handle your application. Probably more chance of this working out than entrusting this numb-skull with anything as serious as migrating to OZ. We told him three times how to spell our names, address and home village – and he still got this wrong when writing to us to try and win us over as customers.
Four Corners Emigration: The biggest shower of unbelievable nonsense talkers and scammers of our research time was met in these “second hand car sales� offices. Their salesman (of the month?) spent most of the time telling me how good “cut corners� was and how rubbish everybody else was– which always puts my back up. His next biggest time chunk was spent telling me why he wanted to tape record our meeting. We felt like criminals on “The Bill�. He did his “lovely runner – only two lady owners� sales spiel then left me and herself to talk it over for ten minutes –with the tape recorder running! He seemed awake regarding our situation but his fees were over double anyone else’s – above £3,000 for them never mind other costs for Government, acca assessment and VAT. Recommend – take £20 notes – lots of them, and put them on a fire and watch them burn.
Visaconection: They claim to be registered migration agents- I couldn’t find any evidence of this on the official site. Decidedly suspicious lot, whom I was further put off by a rude aggressive South African man, scruffily dressed and with bad B.O. who stomped about during our visit to their office. The woman who spoke to us – Claire (no surname given for some reason – causing further suspicion!!)– was pleasant enough but gave us conflicting information to that gleaned from the ACCA website. She insisted she was right but an e-mail to ACCA confirmed she was not. I asked her about this and she back-pedalled like a startled springbok. Price was not too bad – but someone should tell her about wearing thong underwear when reaching for files – twas the stuff of nightmares.
It is a bad idea to suggest to any accountant that you can do a much cheaper deal “off the books� for cash.
Hygiene in the office – Yuck. Don’t touch them!
Concept Australia: Never got past the phone to this dude – arrogant, unhelpful and seemingly as aware of “customer service� as an English Rugby player is of humility.
Ian Harrop and Associates: Good sensible information – when you can get hold of him I have to find 1 thing to complain about and it is that they are hard to get on the phone– we had three conversations and I would say he has got it close to right – but lives miles from us and we are a “try before buy� outfit. Price fair. I recommend this guy.
Migrationexpert.com: seems more computer “techy� than migration advice of any substance to me. Swift on the self generated e-mails to try and hook you in. Price expensive. I do sort of -kind of recommend this outfit too but something is saying no – don’t do it!!???
Two nice dears in Manchester – Shirley and Sheila - V helpful. Never met them but would recommend them as well. They made it to number three on our list.
Still we made further our calls to various companies around Australia and the UK – and decided we did need help – we would have to pay for that help and like any market there is a low rent end a middle end and a high class end. We are usually middle market in our spending and took the entire 4 months coming to our conclusion.
In the end we have opted for a “partial assistance� package by Owen Small at OE Visas in Edinburgh. He is a registered migration agent with MARA and he listened to what we had to say. He did not run downhis competitors and he clearly had dealt with many people in our boat before. He will look over any forms we have for lodgement and charge us an hourly rate for a “pre-lodgement� check. He also advised us on different strategies for quicker or slower visa approval and took time to put his knowledge into “lay mans� terms.
We have been really unsure what to do for the last period of our lives when things have been dominated by this research – It feels like our life has been on hold for ages.
We are lodging our first part skills asess on Thursday.
Will keep looking here for further advice from you lot.
The hardest thing being a migration virgin is finding out where to find information. I do not like the OZ government site and find the whole thing more confusing than anything.
We have now decided how we will go about things. We have a plan! The cost of getting to this stage of proceeding has been over £350 in meeting fees etc (don’t believe the “free assessment� clap trap the firms promise) and travel, bags of Walkers crisps and the odd of pint of shandy on the trains.
Here are the notes we took while spending our time going about Central belt Scotland and the North of England and using the phone and internet to decide on which companies to use. What an exercise! Hope they are useful to some other newies or that someone may be able to confirm or otherwise what we think.
VisaGo: or no-go if our conversations with Dimwit Chatt are anything to go by. Light on but nobody home stuff with this drongo. Clearly he just didn’t grasp the fundamentals of our situation. He is very laborious in note taking but obviously doesn’t read what he writes down judging by the questions he asked us. He only became animated when talking about money - and how much he would charge. How hard can it be to become a registered migration agent? Not very if he is the calibre of brainpower they let loose on us unsuspecting potential migrants. His price is not too bad – if you get the visa. Recommend – ask you neighbours 3 year-old children to handle your application. Probably more chance of this working out than entrusting this numb-skull with anything as serious as migrating to OZ. We told him three times how to spell our names, address and home village – and he still got this wrong when writing to us to try and win us over as customers.
Four Corners Emigration: The biggest shower of unbelievable nonsense talkers and scammers of our research time was met in these “second hand car sales� offices. Their salesman (of the month?) spent most of the time telling me how good “cut corners� was and how rubbish everybody else was– which always puts my back up. His next biggest time chunk was spent telling me why he wanted to tape record our meeting. We felt like criminals on “The Bill�. He did his “lovely runner – only two lady owners� sales spiel then left me and herself to talk it over for ten minutes –with the tape recorder running! He seemed awake regarding our situation but his fees were over double anyone else’s – above £3,000 for them never mind other costs for Government, acca assessment and VAT. Recommend – take £20 notes – lots of them, and put them on a fire and watch them burn.
Visaconection: They claim to be registered migration agents- I couldn’t find any evidence of this on the official site. Decidedly suspicious lot, whom I was further put off by a rude aggressive South African man, scruffily dressed and with bad B.O. who stomped about during our visit to their office. The woman who spoke to us – Claire (no surname given for some reason – causing further suspicion!!)– was pleasant enough but gave us conflicting information to that gleaned from the ACCA website. She insisted she was right but an e-mail to ACCA confirmed she was not. I asked her about this and she back-pedalled like a startled springbok. Price was not too bad – but someone should tell her about wearing thong underwear when reaching for files – twas the stuff of nightmares.
It is a bad idea to suggest to any accountant that you can do a much cheaper deal “off the books� for cash.
Hygiene in the office – Yuck. Don’t touch them!
Concept Australia: Never got past the phone to this dude – arrogant, unhelpful and seemingly as aware of “customer service� as an English Rugby player is of humility.
Ian Harrop and Associates: Good sensible information – when you can get hold of him I have to find 1 thing to complain about and it is that they are hard to get on the phone– we had three conversations and I would say he has got it close to right – but lives miles from us and we are a “try before buy� outfit. Price fair. I recommend this guy.
Migrationexpert.com: seems more computer “techy� than migration advice of any substance to me. Swift on the self generated e-mails to try and hook you in. Price expensive. I do sort of -kind of recommend this outfit too but something is saying no – don’t do it!!???
Two nice dears in Manchester – Shirley and Sheila - V helpful. Never met them but would recommend them as well. They made it to number three on our list.
Still we made further our calls to various companies around Australia and the UK – and decided we did need help – we would have to pay for that help and like any market there is a low rent end a middle end and a high class end. We are usually middle market in our spending and took the entire 4 months coming to our conclusion.
In the end we have opted for a “partial assistance� package by Owen Small at OE Visas in Edinburgh. He is a registered migration agent with MARA and he listened to what we had to say. He did not run downhis competitors and he clearly had dealt with many people in our boat before. He will look over any forms we have for lodgement and charge us an hourly rate for a “pre-lodgement� check. He also advised us on different strategies for quicker or slower visa approval and took time to put his knowledge into “lay mans� terms.
We have been really unsure what to do for the last period of our lives when things have been dominated by this research – It feels like our life has been on hold for ages.
We are lodging our first part skills asess on Thursday.
Will keep looking here for further advice from you lot.
Dec 8th 2003, 9:38 pm
#2
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 987
Re: lawyers and agents
Two nice dears in Manchester – Shirley and Sheila - V helpful. Never met them but would recommend them as well. They made it to number three on our list.
I have used these `Two very nice dears`, however I wouldnt refer to them as `dears`, sounds abit like `hinge and bracket`.
Anyway, I found them marvelous, havent met them though. I live on the south coast and they are in Manchester. Didnt think it was important to meet them, the service is fab and they are so quick to respond to any query that you may raise. I would have no doubt about recommending them
I have used these `Two very nice dears`, however I wouldnt refer to them as `dears`, sounds abit like `hinge and bracket`.
Anyway, I found them marvelous, havent met them though. I live on the south coast and they are in Manchester. Didnt think it was important to meet them, the service is fab and they are so quick to respond to any query that you may raise. I would have no doubt about recommending them
Dec 8th 2003, 9:46 pm
#3
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 987
Re: lawyers and agents
Sorry forgot to add `Good Luck`
Dec 10th 2003, 9:59 pm
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 87
Re: lawyers and agents
In the end we have opted for a “partial assistance� package by Owen Small at OE Visas in Edinburgh. He is a registered migration agent with MARA and he listened to what we had to say.
Dec 10th 2003, 11:14 pm
#5
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: Stirling
Posts: 22
Re: lawyers and agents
nope -
