general cost of it all??!!

[Guest bookworm64]

Hi

 

Hope everyone enjoyed their christmas where-ever you were.

we are only at the early stages of applying to emigrate but Phil, my partner finally had a look at PIA site and asked me if I would ask everyone what is the genral cost of trying to emigrate? eg, medicals, blood tests and visas etc. He is the money man and he likes to have a rough idea what is coming up for us. he likes to plan!

 

 

Many thanks for your time

 

michelle

[Guest graandjac]

:DHi Guys , well we did pay over the top for our agent £3500......BUT it was worth every penny they were 100% spot on with EVERYTHING so that inc i think we have spent roughly £5,000, that is inc TRA assesment, visa application, Meds and agent.

Good luck......Cheers Graham

[Guest Trakki]

We haven't used an agent and although I haven't yet worked it out but it has cost about £2000. This includes, meds, x-rays, skill assessment, nurse registration in oz and all the nursing paperwork I had to have sent here there and everywhere.

 

Good luck with it all

[Guest soggy]

Hi,

we did not use an agent so saved quite a bit there, the medicals cost £115 each, this included the blood test but not the x-ray this cost £50 extra,they can vary alot so you need to shop around. My TRA cost $300 about £120 but this depends on which body you use to have your skills recognised and your trade, some building trades now have to pay around £1000. Then there was the visa cost, about £850 I think I paid but has gone up a bit now.

 

So thats about £1500 for the 3 of us, (well it would have been, but had to pay another £1200 for English lessions for my wife when we get there) what skill are you going out on?

 

Simon

[Guest Libby1971]

Hi

 

We used an agent - we felt that the money spent to make sure everything went off ok was worth it. They told us where to sign and when, they completed all the forms for us and were quick to reply. They were incredibly patient when I lost the plot two thirds of the way in, and were great.

 

We paid £800 for our medicals, between 4 of us. We had to pay an extra £30 for a blood test and had to go to London for them, Harley Street. They were the nearest to us that were open at the weekend and we couldn't get the time off work to go during the week.

 

All in all, including the skills assessment, visa application, medicals, I think we spent about £1500 and then the agent cost another £1300 on top.

 

Good luck

 

Libby

[Guest lynne]

It cost us £2080.85 for a skilled visa with out an agent. Agent costs do not cover medicals and police checks. If you are organised at downloading the application forms filling them in photocopying and getting your documents certified than you do not need an agent. However, if you are not organised than get an agent.

 

The majority of applications will pass with or without an agent. Within my family we have a child with autism and a grandad who had a brain haemorrage 3 years ago. Now the agents can not say either way if they will pass or fail. What we have found out is it goes on the individual application and how well it is prepared. (So these would be extra documents to the normal requested).

 

You can also claim some of the visa costs back on your tax returns as professional fees.

 

Regards

Lynne

[Guest Libby1971]

Lyn is absolutely right in my opinion. If you are organised then this could be done without an agent.

 

I am not organised at the best of times and applying for the visa was my coping strategy for losing my dad - I really just needed someone to tell me to sign this, pay that. And the agent gave me that.

 

Libby

[Guest bookworm64]

Hi guys

 

many thanks for all your replies. i really feel like a right beginner here as i hardly know anything! what is TRA for example?

 

about a week ago i got my inital assessment papers from migrating expert, for £285. thought this was a lot as only recieved about 5 bits of paper! we are applying to go on Phils. Nursing, just trying to work out which visa etc,

 

When you talk about agents i take it you mean people like the migrating experts?

 

iam quite organised so i am thinking that maybe i can do this without an agent. i suppose now that i have already paid out £285 i might as well send the papers off and see what happens and see if we qualify first!

 

thanks again for all your help and advice

michelle

 

[Guest Martin and Val]

Hi Michelle and Phil,

TRA= Trades Recognition Australia, they check your paperwork etc to ensure you can do what you say you can.

In our case we used an Agent and we are very pleased we did, they were great and knew exactly what to do and when. We paid them in two stages just under £1,000 at the start and the rest (just under another £1,000) when the Visa application went in.

Everything including, TRA, postage, all fees, medicals, Visa, Police Checks etc we have spent out a little over £3,500

Good luck

Martin and Val