Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Hello,
My husband and I are wanting to apply for Skilled Migrant Visa. I am a primary school teacher. We would like to go to Perth, Western Australia.
I have had a phone call from one agent and they quoted us 3,500-4,000 GBP for this full service from start to finish. I thought this price was rather steep! At first I thought she was quoting me in $AUS, but she wasn't.
Has anyone else done this and if so can you recommend a good agent, and approx. what was the price?
Also anybody done this by themself. If so how difficult is it?
Thanks Leanne

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

We applied online by ourselves, our case is straightforward and after reading and doing as much research as we could we decided we could do it ourselves quite easily.

Mind you - we are tight-wads and didnt have a spare couple of grand to splash out either! IMHO Those figures quoted do seem steep?

Good luck in whatever you deicide!

P
x

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Does that amount include the fees payable to Teaching Australia and to the Department of Immigration, Leanne?

If not, I agree the fee is higher than you could pay if you were to ask around.

This said, remember that cost is not the same as value for money.

Best regards.

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Check out PTLabs: http://ptlabs.com.au/testimonials

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

We're at the business end of our 175 application with George Lombard. His agency is pleasant to deal with, prompt, dedicated and they definitely know their stuff.

In my opinion, you would have to look long and hard to find a better agent.

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Hi

I'm also a primary teacher looking to migrate to WA. We originally looked into using an agent but in the end applied ourselves. The form for teaching australia was fine and the online application quite straight forward. In the end we asked the migration agent to check our onlne form and paid them £100 for the checking service. If your application is pretty straight forward e.g. no step children etc and are prepared to spend a bit of time reading the information it could be worth while having a go yourself.

Sue:thumbup:

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Thanks everybody for the tips and hints. Very helpful. Much appreciated!

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

George Lombard & Alan Collett are usually the two most recommended agents on here. Alan posted above so you could find his details there if needed, or have a search for George.

But I agree with Alan, you should see what's included in the quoted fee. They may have included the visa fee, or other things in that price. If they haven't then it's really high.

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

I'm a teacher too on a 176 we are with George - great so far - he even emailed me in the middle of the night (his night and not our middle of the night) because I was upset about something. I would also go along with what Mach is saying, our visa wont be straight forward either, defacto relationship, sponsored by OH brother, my son is not my OH's so lots of complications and I feel that I can trust George to help - money well worth it :thumbsup:

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Yes this price is for everything (including the visa fee). Is it reasonable then???

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

Visa application charge is A$2,105 - about £900.

TA fee is A$450 - about £200.

So assuming no other costs are included, the agent fee is about £2,400 (which might include VAT).

I believe this to be at the top end of agent fees for a skilled application where a teacher is the main applicant.

Best regards.

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

The way to compare professional costs is to identify the professional fees component and then look at http://www.themara.com.au/Online/Default.asp?DeptID=275 bearing in mind that the fees there are in A$, and that the cost of using a registered Agent in Australia is rarely more than using an agent in the UK. In this case a professional fee component of A$5000+ is so well over the odds that I would doubt that they're registered agents at all.

Cheers,

George Lombard

Re: Skilled Migrant Visa - recommended agent?
 

try
george lombard..i have heard he is really good.

But if you have all the documents with you you can very well do it online