agent or not????

[Guest keelie152]

Hi can anyone give me advice on using an agent to help with visa application..... to use or not to use, rough idea of costs etc and any recommended agents in the midlands

keelie

[Guest dglamoore]

Hi Keelie

 

We went with an agent as our TRA was not the easiest plus wanted that peace of mind that nothing would be missed :?

 

We used Go Matilda who charged us £1495 for their services (this did not include the TRA and visa fees, meds etc) and I cannot recommend them enough. We live in Devon and they are in Southampton and Australia so everything was done by email and phone - we never went to see them but this did not hold anything up as all queries were dealt with very quickly.

 

http://www.gomatilda.com/visas/index.cfm

 

Good luck

 

Lisa

[Guest happy-jools]

We are using VisaBureau. They are charging us £2000. So far they have been very helpful and quick to respond. We found them online-and are regeistered with MARA. http://www.visabureau.co.uk

 

Cant tell you whether we were successful with them, as we are only in early days.

 

Hope this helps.

Julia.

[Guest jen&ian]

Hi Keelie,

 

We choose not to use an agent as our application was not complicated by a TRA or any other personal stuff (step families etc.) We found it quite easy once we got all our paper work together and we are about to get our visa, just bond to post now, so I guess we didn't make any serious boo- boos. It might help to find an agent who will do you a free initial chat to see what your needs are. If you decide to DIY it's not that scary and you can always ask for a hand on this or other such forums, people are always willing to tell you what they did.

 

Good Luck

 

Jen

[Guest graandjac]

Hi Keelie

We decided to go with one as from what we can gather the TRA is or can be a bit of a nightmare which i have to take, we were reccomended to four corners which so for they have been fab, we are down south but they are based in Manchester, Cost 2950 plus VAT but this inc all the visas and TRA also inc 500 relocation which looks is help with jobs,schools , banking,finance, tax and much more which is specific to the area you are going to,hope this helps

Graham and Jacqui

[Guest keelie152]

Hi Keelie,

 

We choose not to use an agent as our application was not complicated by a TRA or any other personal stuff (step families etc.) We found it quite easy once we got all our paper work together and we are about to get our visa, just bond to post now, so I guess we didn't make any serious boo- boos. It might help to find an agent who will do you a free initial chat to see what your needs are. If you decide to DIY it's not that scary and you can always ask for a hand on this or other such forums, people are always willing to tell you what they did.

 

Good Luck

 

Jen

Hi Jen

a couple of questions about not using an agent if you dont mind! did you have job to go to? how did you make a start without an agent? we filled in online form to see if we qualified but then automatically got a call from an agent! If we wanted to go it alone where would we start? Finding it abit dounting at the min. What sort of costs are involved when you dont use an agent

sorry for all the questions keelie

[Guest jen&ian]

Hi Keelie,

 

The first thing we did was go onto the immigration web site and found out what sort of visa we could go for, ours is a skilled independant 136.

From there we found out what sort of skills assessment we needed Ians was from the Australian Computer Society and cost us about £200.

 

If Its a TRA you need I'm sure someone else could fill you in.

 

Once that was done we downloaded the application forms and booklets and got our paperwork together, got cetified copies done by a notary that cosr us £5 per copy

 

When we'd finished filling in our forms and checked them, double checked them, triple checked......you get the picture

we sent them off costs about £900 to lodge them .

 

then all the contact is done by e-mail they let you know when its all been lodged, when you get a case officer, when they want your meds etc.

If you have any querries you can post them on the DIMMIA website and they reply pretty promptly.

 

It is dounting before you start and I know when we first got all the forms in front of us we were like HELP :shock: . But when you start breaking it down its not that bad, And thats coming from the worlds worst form filler inner, I hate them

 

I hope that helps a bit

 

Jen

PS. No, no jobs to go to will start looking wnen we get there.

[Guest dglamoore]

Hi Keelie

 

There is loads of info on the DIMIA (or DIAC as now known :roll: ) website where you can work out the best visa to apply for and see what points you come out with.

 

If you take a look at the skills list (SOL) and find your skill it will tell you in abbreviated letters next to it which agency you need to go through for your skills assessment eg TRA, VETASSES, etc. Then at the bottom of the list there are the contact details for each assessing agency for more info and to download forms etc.

 

You can find loads of links to do it yourself here - http://www.adelaidebound.com/visa.html

 

We got all our copies for TRA certified by a local solicitor and it is definitely worth phoning around as we were quoted from 50p to £7 per copy and ended up with over 90 pages so no guesses which price we went with :lol: (Don't forget to get 2 copies of all your skills paperwork as this is needed for the visa application too)

 

If it the TRA route you are going then just pm me if you get stuck as we still have all our paperwork etc so might be able to help a bit

 

If it helps out costs were - -

 

TRA $300 (approx £120)

Certified Copies and Stat Decs approx £100

Medicals inc xrays for 2 adults and 1 child £475

Visa Application $1985 (approx £830)

 

We had agent fees on top of £1495 too.

 

Lisa :mrgreen:

[Guest simtrakyra]

We contacted an agent (can't remember which one) when we were initially thinking about it back in 2000 but were basically told that the only way we'd get a visa is by going through the back door and going to New Zealand for a year first. We thought that was it and our dream over, until we contacted an Australian agent who told us that we were eligible. So that unsettled us and we got itchy feet again.

 

We ended up doing the whole application ourselves from start to finish. It was pretty uncomplicated, but the whole process took us almost 2 years from start to finish despite us meeting every single deadline.

[Guest JPT07]

Hi, We are using Visa-go. You can do everything by phone and internet although we met up with them in Liverpool as it seemed to make everything a little more real. With everything I think it costing us roughtly between £3,700 -3,900 (2 adults and 2 children). We also went to a seminar in Australia House in London last week which was very informative. We started our process in December and had our TRA passed end of Feb, hoping for our visas to come though end of August!

[Guest ste n sasha]

Hi,

 

We used four corners they were brill,and would recommend them, we have our visas and are going in may

[sparkly cat]

Hi

 

We used Ian Harrop and they were really good.

 

We used them twice once to get my partners skilled visa and secondly to get my defacto visa. We had a difficult process with both our kids needing court orders, but they were very supportive and helpful.

 

Once my visa was submitted, she gave me a lot of help with all the documents I needed to go with my visa, i had my visa in 10 days.

 

I dont think I could have done it on my own, she checked everything and advised me throughout the process.

 

Sandra

[Guest Yates's]

Hi Keelie,

 

We did not use an agent. First we did the online tests to see if we had enough points. Then went onto the DIMA website to see which visa was most applicable. For us it was Aus sponsors 138 as we got extra points due to my sister acting as sponsor.

We are going over on the strength of my wife being a teacher. 60 points.

On the DIMA website it told her what was required for her skills assessment. There was a bit of wait for letters from previous/presents employers and for copies of exam certificates to be sent from University that had been lost years ago. Got the skill assessment after about 2 months.

The procedure for the visa was similar. Everything you need to do it written on the DIMA website. All the documents that are required can make the process seem complicated. We made our own time line over a couple of months until all documents had been gathered.

Sent everything off Adelaide processing centre. Waited 2 months for acknowlegdement and got the visa 6 1/2 months after logding the application.

An agent would have saved us a lot of time trawling the DIMA website to make sure we were doing everything correctly. But we decided they were asking a lot of money for acting as a go between.

 

Regards Warren

[Guest ali@51]

Hi Keelie

 

We are also useing go matilda and have just lodged our skills assesment.

 

We have found them very helpfull so far. If you do decide to use an agent I would advise shoping arround as we found the fees differed by as much as £2,000 for basicly the same service.

 

Good luck

Ali

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