Migration Agent or not?

[Guest Trillian]

Hi there, Im new to this forum. Ive recently visited Adelaide with a view to migrating there with my husband and 2 boys and we thought it seemed a wonderful place to live. Now that we are back to reality in Brum (brrrrr its cold!) i am doing more research on the whole visa thing. We have been told different things by a couple of different people and wanted to know do most people use a migration agency or not? It seems a fairly complex affair to get a visa, is there a book you can get on the steps involved or is it best to leave it to a professional? If so any recommendations? And... what sort of costs are involved ?

Many thanks :emoticon-signxmas:

Jean

[Guest sarahsmartiepants]

It would depend on how much time you have, how good you are a filling in forms, what jobs you have.

There are a fair few people that get their info from forums like these by asking Qs all the time. I dont know if I would trust someone other than an agent for true info, or if I would do it myself with the help of other migrants who have done it themselves.

I used an agent and never had any trouble, also as a result of using an agent I never had any worries, or know half of the things people talk about dimia needing as my agent did it all for us.

sarah

[froobie]

I would say to use an agent if you can afford to.

 

Thereis no way we could, and we have done it all ourselves.. It is good in that you know all about what is happening, what info you have sent and you are giving private information to only one company, not two . . .

 

however, there is a lot of work involved. Once you think you've got it, they ask for some more information and you are screaming at the computer again!:arghhxmas: But then you remember why you are doing it and you just get on with it and hope that is it this time!:confusedxmas:

 

Good luck either way, just do some research and I'm sure you'll make the right decision for you!:biggrinxmas:

 

Lucy x

[Denise]

Hi There

 

This question has been asked many times on PIA , If you look under Migration Issues you will find lots of advice on there but ultimatley the decision is yours. We used one, costs a fortune but really takes the hassle out of it all and you know its being done properly at the end of the day.

Good Luck

Denise

[Guest lynne]

We applied for our visa by ourself (without the help of a forum, as we only found the forum at the end of our visa process. All the information is on the visa website. This is the link

 

http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/Visas%5fand%5fMigration.html

 

The agents use exactly the same website to download the forms read the guidance on completing the forms. They have no additional advantages of obtaining a successful visa. They contact the case office in exactly the same way as someone who is applying for themselves.

 

Agents cost alot of money and if you are organised and able to read the guidance information than it is straight forward. Just remember to check the documents prior to sending.

 

Also it is much easier now as you can scan all you documents and application form and send it by email.

 

The agents have experience and can advise on the possibility of someone getting a visa, or advise them on the visa that is most suitable.

 

You can also have an agent just to do part of the assessment, eg skills assessment. Skill assessment is getting information of what the training actually covered for the skilled person applying for the visa. Its also about work experience, what you have done in your job, references.

 

Good luck in what you decide.

[Guest Alipally]

form filling is just that.... form filling. It is NOT rocket science and the questions are crystal clear.

Providing that there are no skeletons in the cupboard and your qualifications are appropriately certified and you can get references. There is no reason why, given enough time you cannot do this yourself (we did, and there are quite a few more who did too)

There are accompanying booklets for the form filling (The TRA one is perfectly clear you have to take everything literally) the really do help

 

If you need specific help, there's always someone who will be happy to help, either here or on the 'other' forum!

 

Migration agents are costly. Personally, it would have choked me to have paid someone else to do something I could do for myself.... p.s. I worked fulltime when I did ours!

 

Ali :emoticon-signxmas:

[Guest smit]

 

Migration agents are costly. Personally, it would have choked me to have paid someone else to do something I could do for myself.... p.s. I worked fulltime when I did ours!

 

Ali :emoticon-signxmas:

if its straight forward then yes, its only straight forward form filling. We would not have got our visa without an agent:winkxmas:.It was his experience and his knowledge of what was required that got us ours.

[Guest Alipally]

How so?

 

Got to ask, but you don't have to answer, I respect peeps need for privacy but would be glad if you shared....

 

 

Ali :emoticon-signxmas:

[Guest graandjac]

form filling is just that.... form filling. It is NOT rocket science and the questions are crystal clear.

Providing that there are no skeletons in the cupboard and your qualifications are appropriately certified and you can get references. There is no reason why, given enough time you cannot do this yourself (we did, and there are quite a few more who did too)

There are accompanying booklets for the form filling (The TRA one is perfectly clear you have to take everything literally) the really do help

 

If you need specific help, there's always someone who will be happy to help, either here or on the 'other' forum!

 

Migration agents are costly. Personally, it would have choked me to have paid someone else to do something I could do for myself.... p.s. I worked fulltime when I did ours!

 

Ali :emoticon-signxmas:

 

Lots of people who fail are the ones who go it alone .....not that it cant be done......form filling it maybe but it has to be done right as for some people you only get one chance. Especially as the rules are getting tougher by the year, it is a personal choice for us a agent was the best money spent......at the end of the day it comes down to cost. good luck

[Guest Trillian]

Many thanks for all your answers, i will certainly be doing a lot of research before i weigh up what is best for us. I think ours may be a straightforward visa on my husband's skill but i wasnt sure if i would be eligible to work if i was granted a visa by being his spouse....?? Much reading to be done i think..... i will probably be asking you all a few more questions if you dont mind.....

 

best wishes

Jean

[Guest sarahsmartiepants]

How so?

 

Got to ask, but you don't have to answer, I respect peeps need for privacy but would be glad if you shared....

 

 

Ali :emoticon-signxmas:

Because some peoples careers and expireience are not straight forward.

 

Because some people might not like to ask all the time on forums for help ( who knows if what a bunch of migrants says is true?)

 

Because as you must have seen from Paul Smarts post the other week, he is a special electrician and he failed at the TRA part, he hadnt even applied for visa, his career is on the MODL list and he got it wrong, with an agent he would have passed.

 

I know it costs money but sometimes there ae things you cant be tight with.

sarah

[Guest Alipally]

Maybe it would have been better if I'd quoted Smit...... I was asking that question of her....

Nevertheless.

 

Bear in mind that 'passing' the TRA/VETASSESS/ or any other government qualification recognition body is an exercise in administration, nothing more nothing less. The people who make the decision have a criteria that they work to,afterall they are often not qualified in the trades they assess. These criteria are transparent, published and accessible to all. It isn't guesswork, however, if trailing through all of the information, to tease out exactly what they are looking for and making sure that these are included in the references and other documents isn't for you then, obviously, an agent is the way forward, particularly if you find 'government speak' convaluted and full of contradictions and seeemingly irrelavent statements. (which, incedentally it often is!)

 

There are migration agents on other sites that give their time and limited advice for free on other forums....if duff advice is given they often correct it!

 

Once you have the qualification recognition done and dusted, however, I would go as far as to say that the online visa application form is not complicated. It tells you at the end of it if you have the required number of points before you pay your money....... You can even try it out for yourselves to see what it's like.... you can save it and come back to it at a later date too....... providing you have a colour scanner and patience, are literate (I am told that this form requires a reading age of 11) and, perhaps, if you're a little unsure of yourself another pair of eyes to look over the forms that need to be filled to ensure accuracy and completeness.

 

An agent can not guarantee that you WILL get a visa, nobody can.

 

Please bear in mind that is ONLY MY OPINION. I am aware that others may have differing ideas, and again, I respect their entitlement to those.

[Alan Collett]

 

<snip>

 

http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/Visas%5fand%5fMigration.html

 

The agents use exactly the same website to download the forms read the guidance on completing the forms. They have no additional advantages of obtaining a successful visa. They contact the case office in exactly the same way as someone who is applying for themselves.

 

<snip>

 

 

 

No, we don't actually.

 

Agents generally use a subscription based product called Legend to access the electronic fillable forms, and to access DIAC policy material that is not (so far as I know) generally available.

 

Registered agents also have access to the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre through an agent only email address, which in my experience seems to generate more timely outcomes than the generally available enquiry portals (such as the web based enquiry form).

 

Best regards.

[Guest lynne]

Forms are forms regardless if you download them yourselves or if you have an agent.

 

Some people will always need an agent and we must remmber there are good and bad agents. Go Maltida do give you a good service.

 

If you are doing it yourself the response rate for communication with immigration is very good. Sometimes you wait 2 days other times they come back in 6 hours.

 

We knew nothing about the visa process but the guidance notes on the visa web site are very specific and very clear.

 

We were succesful in obtaining a visa for a permanent 175 visa with an aged dependent and also a child with special needs. So our visa was not as straight forward as the standard visa but it was very easy to communicate with the case office and also discuss the necessity of providing additonal reports that immigration had requested. When we questioned what additional information could be gained from providing an additional report our visa application was passed onto senior medical staff who passed it straight away. WITHOUT providing an additional report I think most agents would not of challenged immigration and I can understand why. However, in our application it was necessary.

 

Agents are expensive but do provide a service if you are unable to complete the process yourselves.

[Guest Dave & Carole]

Hi Jean

 

We've been using an agent - and were, like you, given lots of conflicting advice as to whether to or not. Ours was recommended to us by someone who had got their VISA with her help. I have to say not the cheapest or most expensive but comes in at about £2000 + cost of Visa itself. Her advice has been brilliant as we weren't sure which visa would enable us to migrate due to job/age etc. We have gone down the route of state sponsorship 176 Visa. My husband is the main applicant but I will be able to work out there under this. Haven't got our visa yet - but no reason to think we won't - just a matter of time. If you want a recommendation I'd be happy to pass on details of her company - they are based in OZ but has have a British office too.

 

Carole

[Guest Django]

I think ours may be a straightforward visa on my husband's skill

 

What is your husband's skill Joan?

 

Its not he visa application that is a problem. The skill assessment is the hard thing as you will find for a tradesman this is hard work. We didn't use an agent because a nurses skill assessment is a bit different and is basically sending a copy of the training transcript. However if we were going as say a plumber or electrician I would be straight down to an agent.

 

Good luck with what you decide to do.

 

Pete

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Lyn

 

We were succesful in obtaining a visa for a permanent 175 visa with an aged dependent and also a child with special needs. So our visa was not as straight forward as the standard visa but it was very easy to communicate with the case office and also discuss the necessity of providing additonal reports that immigration had requested. When we questioned what additional information could be gained from providing an additional report our visa application was passed onto senior medical staff who passed it straight away. WITHOUT providing an additional report I think most agents would not of challenged immigration and I can understand why. However, in our application it was necessary.

 

 

My view of your case is that it was one where the MARA Code of Conduct would have let you down. The Code would have required a MARA Agent to "fail safe" on your behalf. It is so keen to prevent shonky Agents from encouraging potentially futile applications that the "safe" advice to you would have been:

 

1. Exclude Father in Law from the application because some DIAC COs will kick up a stink about his inclusion and will threaten to refuse the entire visa application unless he is withdrawn from it; and

 

2. Your child might not be able to meet the medical requirements for migration, in which case think very carefully indeed about whether you want to risk the costs of the application, the meds and my own fees.

 

I think with some of the cases where there are issues like the ones you faced, it is better to do the visa application yourself (regardless of whether you get an Agent to help with the skills assessment aspects) because you can take a chance which an Agent would have to be nervous about, plus you can use the Human Factor with the CO. COs are humans: nobody likes to fail a volunteer but that is much easier to do when the CO is one step removed from the visa applicant because of an Agent's involvement.

 

I think the Code of Conduct is a bit silly in this regard because it more or less forces Agents not to take risks on behalf of a client. I am not convinced that that is the right way to do it - I think the command is not subtle enough. There should be scope for an Agent to be able to say, "I am no more than 50/50 convinced of likely success but I will explain that to you in writing. If you are prepared to accept my reservations then I will act for you if you wish." The only way to find out what the law actually is is to test it. The Code seems to me to wish to negate the possibility of testing the law when it would be appropriate to do just that with it sometimes.

 

I've been puzzling about your case anyway because of Grandpa. A friend of mine was not allowed to include her elderly Mum a couple of years back. Mum was included in the skilled application but the CO threatened to refuse the application unless Mum was withdrawn. I don't know the financial circumstances of either of the elderly dependents and would not want to.

 

The one big - and obvious - difference between them, though, is that Grandpa meets the Balance of Family Test whereas my friend's mother does not. The BoF test should have no relevance whatsoever unless a Parent visa has been applied for. I can see a pragmatic argument in favour of saying, "What is the point of the ASPC being obstructive when a Parent visa would be possible in any case?" I completely agree with the pragmatism and would add, "One less person in the lengthy Parent visa Queue is a very sensible idea."

 

But - and Alan Collett may wish to comment on this point - it leaves Agents in the lurch. Alan does not need me to tell him that the BoF Test should be totally outside the scope of any decision made by the ASPC. How can Alan justify telling somebody, "Your Parent has not got a prayer with the ASPC because s/he would not be able to meet a different legal test which is irrelevant to skilled migration"???? Whilst telling the next client, "We might as well wing it with you because your Parent would meet an irrelevant legal test as it happens." It makes it impossible to advise a client accurately, I suspect.

 

Right now I am trying to help my other friend to work out whether or not an Aged Dependent Relative visa might be viable for her Mum. I have come across a most peculiar, recent, Migration Review Tribunal case in which a British Parent has succeeded with this particular visa - against all the obvious odds, I would have thought. The Report is very cryptic and does not say whether the child in Oz is the Parent's only child. Lots of other things don't seem to me to stack up with this decision either.

 

As far as I know the most recent similar case before the British one involved a mother from Malaysia last year. The official Malaysian and British Poverty Line documents were relied on in both cases but the Malaysian one is based on the price of food. The British one is based on average income per capita. There is no obvious correlation between the two, even though each document is as valid as its oppo given the general way of life in each of the countries concerned. (Having lived in both countries myself, I am sure about this bit albeit about nothing else with the two cases.)

 

But how do you take either document and "translate" it into Australian Law? It might be that LEGENDcom has stacks of guidance about this - dunno because I am too stingy to pay for a subscription to LEGEND since I will willingly help with research - for free - but I will not get involved with anyone else's actual visa applications.

 

I am foxed by the whole thing at the minute and I am irritated because I am foxed!

 

I am hoping that Alan will help by investigating the whole thing and finding out how it really works because the tests used in the Aged Dependent Relly visa are - or should be - identical to the tests used in determining whether or not an elderly relly can be included in a skilled application with a reasonable chance of success.

 

This thing ought to be predictable but as far as I can see, it is not.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Alan

 

Apart from the fact that you can see that the Question of Elderly Rellies is really bugging me at the moment, I comment on your own post as follows:

 

Agents generally use a subscription based product called Legend to access the electronic fillable forms, and to access DIAC policy material that is not (so far as I know) generally available.

 

It is compulsory for MARA agents to subscribe to Legend. Do the MIA or the MARA have any statistics about the number of RMAs who actually consult Legend and how many understand it when they do so?

 

Anybody can purchase a subscription to Legend if s/he is inclined to fork out for it:

 

https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/subscription/new

 

The British Policy Documents used by the UK Border Agency are available to everybody for free:

 

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/policylaw/

 

I suspect that the Aussie Government will have to cave in on this point and follow the British example sooner or later.

 

Registered agents also have access to the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre through an agent only email address, which in my experience seems to generate more timely outcomes than the generally available enquiry portals (such as the web based enquiry form).

 

Are you suggesting that Registered Migration Agents enjoy a special "cosy relationship" with DIAC which DIAC specifically, categorically and vehemently deny?

 

If this suggestion that you have "God's personal e-mail address" (which was a phone number last week, I recall) enables you to get better service from the ASPC than an applicant in person can obtain from them then you are necessarily also claiming that DIAC act in breach of their Client Service Charter when they deal with an applicant in person, are you not? Is this the allegation that you wish to level against DIAC, my friend?

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest lynne]

Gill,

 

your posts are always thought provoking.

 

Diac did not ask us or question us about any details we put down about my father in law. They also did not recheck on the balance of family test.

 

We also only put Grandads state pension and a small private pension on the application form.

 

May be has confused you further.

 

During our visa application the communication via email was always very quick and the response time was very good.

 

On reflection is we did go to an agent they would of rejected us because obviously they want applications that are going to be straight forward.

 

take care Gill and I hope you are successful with your friends application

[Alan Collett]

Hi Alan

 

Apart from the fact that you can see that the Question of Elderly Rellies is really bugging me at the moment, I comment on your own post as follows:

 

 

 

It is compulsory for MARA agents to subscribe to Legend. Do the MIA or the MARA have any statistics about the number of RMAs who actually consult Legend and how many understand it when they do so?

 

Anybody can purchase a subscription to Legend if s/he is inclined to fork out for it:

 

https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/subscription/new

 

The British Policy Documents used by the UK Border Agency are available to everybody for free:

 

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/policylaw/

 

I suspect that the Aussie Government will have to cave in on this point and follow the British example sooner or later.

 

 

 

Are you suggesting that Registered Migration Agents enjoy a special "cosy relationship" with DIAC which DIAC specifically, categorically and vehemently deny?

 

If this suggestion that you have "God's personal e-mail address" (which was a phone number last week, I recall) enables you to get better service from the ASPC than an applicant in person can obtain from them then you are necessarily also claiming that DIAC act in breach of their Client Service Charter when they deal with an applicant in person, are you not? Is this the allegation that you wish to level against DIAC, my friend?

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

 

Hello Gill.

 

A few comments in reply:

 

- I believe (please correct me if you know otherwise) that there is a requirement for registered migration agents to maintain a professional library. A subscription to Legend fulfills that requirement, but there is no obligation for a RMA to have a subscription to Legend.

 

- Not sure whether Legend is available to the general public. The DIAC website indicates it might be: http://www.immi.gov.au/business-services/legend/subscription-cost.htm

 

- I believe that migration agents have an ability to access suitable people at the Department in a manner that the unrepresented cannot. I don't consider this a "cosy relationship" at all.

 

- I invite you to have a look at the forums for the numbers of individuals whose skilled applications are not progressing at what appear to be a reasonable pace given the general pattern of processing. My perception is that this is an increasing number - or at least there is a steady number of applications that are seemingly not going anywhere quickly. If you were in their shoes who would you contact? Who goes into bat for these applicants if they do not have an agent who is prepared to make suitable enquiries?

 

- I recognise you have an issue with the competency of some agents and the regulator.

 

Best regards.

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Alan

Thanks for your comments.

I will not rehearse my opinions about the incompetence of some RMAs because I know you are not unsympathetic to my views about those.

Legend is available to anybody who wishes to pay to use it. I enquired about that when I was preparing my mother's visa application but I did not bother to buy a subscription to it because I was concerned only with the question of how the legislation would treat my half-sister. The POPC dealt with that when I asked them about it before submitting the application, so I had no need of Legend as well or instead.

- I believe that migration agents have an ability to access suitable people at the Department in a manner that the unrepresented cannot.

Not so. Please recognise that just because you do not know about alternative ways & means with the Department does not mean that they do not exist. They do exist and they work well because the Department is a lot more inclined to help the layman who is stuck with a genuine query than it is to help an Agent who ought to know - or be able to discover - the answer without having to ask them.

It is common knowledge that the Department and Agents enjoy a thoroughly uneasy relationship. Barbara Deegan has commented on it, so has the Commonwealth Ombudsman and according to Mrs Deegan's report, the Law Council of Australia has commented as well. Mrs Deegan has recommended in black & white that the Department should copy everything it sends to the Agent direct to the applicant as well. Please see Page 63:

http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2008/457-integrity-review-report.pdf

I suspect that Mrs Deegan shares my own scepticism.

Is this evidently uneasy relationship, described by Mrs Deegan from Page 60 onwards, really the best basis from which to shell out a shed load of money to a third party who claims that s/he will "help" one with obtaining a visa for Oz?

The Ombudsman has no faith in the regulator of this industry and neither have I:

http://www.comb.gov.au/commonwealth/publish.nsf/Content/mediarelease_2007_05

18 months after the Ombudsman's Own Motion Report, the MARA is still at pains to ensure that the consumer is aware that they will take a year or more to do exactly nothing that will actually assist a consumer who has cause to complain about the service (or lack of) provided by an RMA:

http://www.themara.com.au/Online/Default.asp?DeptID=136

Apparently the MARA is dedicated to the idea of conducting internal inquests at considerable inconvenience to the poor bloody client who has already been inconvenienced by the RMA in the first place or s/he would not be complaining to the MARA or anyone else. It would seem that the client can enjoy the dubious privilege of helping the MARA to navel gaze next but there is a cast-iron guarantee from the MARA that this codswallop will have no useful impact whatsoever today and will not under any circumstances provide financial redress for the client. Apparently helping the MARA to conduct nothing more than research might help future generations of migrants. Are they real? Is anybody who subscribes to this MARA outfit real in any way? It beggars belief, doesn’t it?

I'd be thinking of a lot less than £2,000 for "assistance" when the whole thing is so blinking gimcrack & flaky, frankly.

I am the first to say that I personally believe that you and Go Matilda are one of the better RMAs/firms in this game. I have no reason to doubt your own ability or your integrity.

I do find your unwillingness to discuss the issues which so clearly face your new-found 'profession' with the public whom you wish to serve rather strange, though.

- I invite you to have a look at the forums for the numbers of individuals whose skilled applications are not progressing at what appear to be a reasonable pace given the general pattern of processing. My perception is that this is an increasing number - or at least there is a steady number of applications that are seemingly not going anywhere quickly. If you were in their shoes who would you contact? Who goes into bat for these applicants if they do not have an agent who is prepared to make suitable enquiries?

I have come to the conclusion that the forums are not very accurate depictors of the market, actually. My observation is that about 50% of wannabe migrants who come to the forums are represented, nearly always by Registered Migration Agents. Jamie Smith insisted to me that only about 20% of the overall number of visa applicants are represented. So there must be a lot of applicants out there who never come to the forums, evidently, because I am pretty sure of my 50% or so on them.

The forums provide no evidence for the proposition that applications which seem to have stalled inexplicably have been made by un-represented applicants. In very many of the cases that I help to sort out the solution is actually to ditch the Agent and for the applicant to take over in person. That works like a charm with Contributory Parents, as the Poms in Oz boards reveal. With the GSM applications the applicant is often from a high risk country, which brings inevitable delays by itself.

And in far too many other cases an RMA is involved, the application has stalled and the RMA concerned is the one who refuses to do anything meaningful about chasing it up. How so and why so?

I am the first to agree that Go Matilda then gets tarred with the same brush - completely unfairly. But that should give you the best possible incentive to set about cleaning up this scruffy little cottage industry and forcing the thing onto a properly professional footing, shouldn't it?

Why don't you discuss with us why it is that the Law Council, Mrs Deegan and the Ombudsman are all so critical of the migration advice industry? Bad news travels on a skateboard. Good news takes a lot longer to disseminate. Your desire to brush these very real issues under the carpet in favour of trying to make out that you have some sort of hotline to God makes me suspicious, my friend. Smoke & mirrors is what I suspect.

Best wishes

Gill

[Alan Collett]

Gill,

 

Thank you for your faith in me, but I alone am not capable of resolving the issues with the registered migration agent profession.

 

As you might suspect, I lobby behind the scenes, and I have strongly held views as to the competencies of many who enter the profession/industry/call it what you will.

 

I also recognise that you (and perhaps Ms Deegan) are on a bit of a crusade against migration agents. However, it is grossly unfair to tarnish all with the same brush, and you can be assured that I will not allow my firm to be smeared in this way - there is a limit to what I think is a reasonable commentary, and (if I may) I think you are getting pretty close to the line.

 

All this said, I think you are likely to see some fairly significant changes to the regulation of migration agents in the near future.

 

I am also surprised to see you being so dismissive of the evidence on the forums as to visa processing difficulties. I have just had 3 x skilled visa grants in the last 20 minutes - all were from visa enquiries lodged through the RMA only enquiry email address in the last 5 days. Do you not believe me when I say that applications can be expedited with suitable input?

 

Onwards!

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Alan

 

I also recognise that you (and perhaps Ms Deegan) are on a bit of a crusade against migration agents.

 

She might be. I'm not anti migration agents per se. I am completely against the dishonest, disreputable and incompetent versions of the animal. PLus the bone idle version who grabs the money up front, spends that on him/herself contrary to the Code of Conduct and then has no further interest in assisting the client. £200 for a domestic conveyancing transaction and I will mutter, "Well, Mr Jones. Did you seriously expect the Red Carpet for that?" However, £2,000 is a different matter. For that sort of money he is entitled to expect nothing but the best. All too frequently it is not supplied.

 

.....and (if I may) I think you are getting pretty close to the line.

 

Nonsense. I have been at pains to stress that I personally do NOT tar Go Matilda with the same brush. Read my commentary again, I suggest.

 

All this said, I think you are likely to see some fairly significant changes to the regulation of migration agents in the near future.

 

In what way, please? Is it your prediction that your cryptic allusion will improve matters for the consumer? If not, what is the point of your statement?

 

I am also surprised to see you being so dismissive of the evidence on the forums as to visa processing difficulties. I have just had 3 x skilled visa grants in the last 20 minutes - all were from visa enquiries lodged through the RMA only enquiry email address in the last 5 days. Do you not believe me when I say that applications can be expedited with suitable input?

 

All 3 of these were un-represented DIYers before they came to you and you sorted them out in 20 minutes flat? If that is true I might even start believing in miracles.....

 

Is it not more likely that all 3 are long-standing clients of your firm and you decided it is time to put the boot in and get the visas granted? Applicants in person are able to that as well as it happens.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Alan Collett]

Comments below, Gill.

 

Best regards.

 

Hi Alan

 

 

<snip>

 

 

 

 

In what way, please? Is it your prediction that your cryptic allusion will improve matters for the consumer? If not, what is the point of your statement?

 

=> I am not at liberty to say. Watch this space ...

<snip>

 

Applicants in person are able to that as well as it happens.

 

=> This is another area where we shall have to agree to differ.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest CARMEN]

Hi

 

We used Go Matilda, and I have to say they were worth every penny.

 

Nothing but help and assistance every step of the way, that got us our visa in little over 6 months.

 

If possible I would advise anyone to use this service.

 

LYNNE:yesxmas: