hello all

[Guest pickard family]

Hello all, have been reading for ages now, without joining on PIA whilst me and OH were deciding what to do I have wanted to got to Oz for 16 years and should have gone to Brisbane then met my beloved and I moved back from Greece to sunny Manchester:goofy:, so Australia was a dream in the distance. But now having our own family and wanting a slice of the better life for them he has come round to my thinking. So after much research Adelaide seems the best, and friendliest place to apply for. So now it all starts for us, well for me as he is no good at either research, or form filling in. I really don't have a clue where to start, should I go through an agent or try myself?? How easy/difficult is it to it all yourself or should I spend the money and get it all done proffessionally???

 

Am not thick really just quite naive about all this.......

 

Carol x:unsure:

[Guest louiesmum]

Hi Welcome to PIA!!

 

Good luck with the process!! We did it ourselves which was ok stressfull at times. Apparantly though its a easier when yr a nurse! You can get a free consult with an agent they will give you a few pointers. try this site for info www.immigrationSA.gov. there are others but I can't think at mo! Sorry but I'm sure someone out there will provide them for you good luck!!

[Guest macu68]

Hi Carol and family

 

What do you do? I work in Manchester but we live in Liverpool. If you take your time and can fill in forms ok you shouldn't need an agent, but everyone is different. For every person/family that will reply and recommend an agent there will be another to say do it alone. We are not using an agent and have found this site to be a valuable tool. There is always someone out there with an opinion or idea to make you think. It is a lengthy and time consuming process, getting the information together to send has taken us about 7 weeks so far. www.immi.gov.au will give you information on your visa types and what and how to do it, we read through some of the visa's then came on to PIA to ask others help/advice. Good luck with it all.

[Guest caoimhe]

Hi Carol

welcome to a great site

We went through and agent but we didn't have this site then:notworthy:

I think it also depends on your occupations and wether you need the TRA, everyone reckons that is the hardest part, we needed to get our applications lodged before the changes last September or we wouldn't have qualified so we didn't want to fill the forms in wrong and have them sent back

It is roughly an extra 2grand to go thru through an agent so if you think you can go it alone then better in your pocket than thiers

Good luck with the decision and application

[Guest Django]

Hi Carol,

 

Whether to use an agent or not is purely an individual decission. As mentioned it all depends on how straight forward (or not) your skill assessment is.

Have a gander at http://www.adelaidebound.com/ This is a fabby site created by Lisa, one of our site members before she left UK. You will find it very useful along with the sites already offered above.

 

Good luck

 

Pete

[Guest mOZzy]

can't add anything really just

 

hello and welcome

[Guest pickard family]

Thank you all for a nice and friendly welcome and all the advice too, I am going to have a day on the internet doing all my research.

 

Carol, Neil, James, Jack (not forgetting Shirley Valentine and Scooby Doo), our very expensive stray mongrels from Greece !!

[Guest Libby1971]

We used Ian Harrop (offices in London and Burford, Oxfordshire) to help us with our visa. We wanted to make sure we got and thought that £1600 or so was worth paying rather than risk mucking it up at our end.

 

We chose their postal service where everything is done through the phone or post. We got the documentation together that we needed to, I discussed everything with Sue who completed the forms based on the information I gave her. She sent me the forms- I signed where I found a little note telling me to, sent it back, paid money when I was told to, to who I was told to and we got a nice little letter to say 'Come to The Party' several months later.

 

 

 

Libby

[Guest mOZzy]

:biglaugh:libby!! you make it sound so easy ....

[Guest Libby1971]

Look I am trying to be encouraging here.

 

I admit that what I have offered as explanation is a somewhat tidier version of stress laden phone calls, rushing around to appointments, crying in desperation when something else goes wrong, feeling sick in the night when you are waiting and waiting for news and shouting at bank managers when they made mistakes (in one case we threatened to sue the branch manager for criminal stupidity and incompetence (sp?) after they made a huge mistake over paying money. He kept saying sorry and I was so stressed I was really rude - I told him I was sorry too that he was so stupid that he thought saying sorry was going to calm me down)

 

Anyway, you will find out what you are truly made of during the journey. I wish you the best of luck, hope to see you soon.

 

And Sue did tell me what to do and she was very good at it. All the running around so she could tell me what to do I did unless it involved talking to and sending things to immigration.

 

Libby

[Guest pickard family]

Many thanks Libby, i will give them a call.