Adam Grey

Are you and your wife eligible for either of these options?

This isn't a large firm, its as you say a boutique company. It hasn't been mentioned on this site or PIO, it is MARA registered and we have been in touch with others that have used it. So as far as being strung along for the money sake, I doubt that very much. I do agree with you that it's a crazy price! I won't be using them for my 186 anyway!

 

As for claiming costs back, my MA never once informed me that my employer was responsible for the fees. What was stated in the contract was that he was 100% liable for his sponsorship visa. To be honest, when we discussed it over a year ago we talked money and we both agreed that it we would both pay towards it. As I said, my employer has never done this before so I dont think he would be aware of the payment structure. What has shocked me is the lack of clarification from my MA.

There's a box on the online application form that acts as a declaration the employer will not seek to recover certain costs (including SBS & Nomination fees & migration agent fees respective to those applications). When the applicant makes their 457 application there is another specific question asking the applicant if the employer has sought to recover these costs from them. The RMA has a responsibility to ensure that the company and you are aware of all declarations and obligations involved so even though they can process the application on your behalves, they must point this out to you. If the company agreed to have you pay any of the costs of the SBS/Nom they have breached their sponsorship obligations.

It's not "filling in the dots", there's a lot involved that you may not be aware of. But yeah I'm in firm agreement that that's too much and is definitely not indicative of the average service fee for this visa.

Lynsey, that's crazy. Sometimes company's like to use the very large global migration law firms which often charge a premium, but there's often a cheaper, more personable and higher standard of service from boutique companies. I'm sure you're aware that the employer cannot seek to recover any of the costs of the Standard Business Sponsorship or Nomination (including agent fees). That's not a recommendation, it's actually part of their obligations as a sponsor.

Mate it's not a pickle, it's just something that needs to be planned for. The occupation, position and 457 vs ENS strategy depends on a number of factors including: your skills/experience, your aims, the company's aims, your eligibility for either of the visa classes, the planned salary, the company's current employees, the genuine need for a particular position, the company's training policies.....I could go on and on.

The thing is no matter what people will tell you on here, the vast majority haven't got a clue about these factors and they certainly don't have a clue about you or your company's individual circumstances, so how they can possibly advise you one way or another is baffling. Not even an agent can accurately advise you without a proper consultation between the agent, yourself and the company.

Wouldn't want to tell you what we are paying for my 457 then! :shocked: unless timberface is paying in £ then it might equate to the same.

Really?! I feel for you, that's very steep. For the SBS, Nomination and Application all combined we would charge less than £2,000 GBP

You could ask her to clarify.

Tbh I don't think I'll be using one as my work seem to be doing/ finding out everything. Having said that ( see my most recent post) I might have to advise them a bit as it all seems a bit too simple so in this case maybe an advisor would be good

Ethan, in a situation where there's employer sponsorship, it's slightly different because there's two (or sometimes three) separate applications being lodged by 2 different parties. Sometimes you may not require help but the employer does, or vice versa. The employer should not be relying on you to give them advice and unless you're actually working for them in HR I doubt you have knowledge of their training expenditure, plans & policy, payroll, other employee's salaries, their entity structure, organisation structure or anything else that may be required for their side of the process. That's without even getting into obligations or compliance issues, which failure to comply with can have severe financial penalties. They're responsible for that, not you.

I don't know any agent that would charge over 2k for assistance with a 457 visa application. Maybe you could update that so people in the future get an accurate representation of the costs involved with using an agent, might save them a few pounds.

Et Voila.

All of them are there to generate money, it's a profession. There's a demand for an advisory service and there's people who make a living from providing that service. If that's wrong then so is every other service industry in the world.

Likewise the demand and market will determine the cost. $5,000 is very steep for anything but the most complex of applications, so shop around for a cheaper agent in that case! Again like any other service. You can't fix a price in a service market, not sure about Australia but pretty sure it's illegal in the UK at least.

Since the DIBP and other external processes vastly increased their fees this seems to be cropping up more and more. The cost of migration is huge and I guess people are looking at agents as a non-mandatory expense.

As with most things in life you can do it yourself if you're prepared to put in the research and work. If my window was smashed I could learn how to replace it myself or hire a glazier, if I needed a new basin I could learn do it myself or hire a plumber....Using an agent is no different.

I don't understand the people on this forum who show so much enthusiasm to tell people how easy it is and that they should go it alone. The vast majority of the time they have no indication of the applicants ability, their circumstance, or their application. Using the analogy above it's like saying "I fixed my own leaking tap so you should be able to fit that combi boiler with no problems. Go it alone! Don't waste your money!"

Have a read through the posts over the last few days. You will find people who have lost thousands on rejected applications, people facing rejection and don't know what to do, people screaming for help and saying they can't sleep over what they believe to be important issues and question after question after question. I see lots of accurate and helpful responses, I also see lots of inaccurate answers that if followed will cause an issue. How do people decide which is which?......Yet despite all the non-stop questions, frustration, rejections, loss of time and money, people still say "I did it alone so you can too, don't waste your money". Then later the same person will ask a question and people say "I don't know, but hopefully an agent will come along and answer it for you". I find it bewildering.

It's every spousal/de facto relationship you've had previously. As you're applying for a partner visa on the basis of a de facto relationship it's a good idea to be familiar with all the factors that define it.

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/35relationship.htm

It's your application my friend, I've told you what you need to know, up to you to decide what to do.

All the best,

I'm not on the plane yet !!! Just wanted to alert potential migrants to the risk - I feel there's a little too much economy with the actualite when it comes to just how easily you can find yourself in the departure lounge..

Yeah people should just make unsubstantiated statements instead to suit their own viewpoint. Seems to be an increasing trend on here.

Seems like your issue is more to do with the finances of an application, in which case nobody is really going to be able to help you. Why not borrow the money for a partner visa (if you're eligible)? They're not that expensive and once you're on the bridging visa you'll have the right to work and you can start paying it back.

If a state sponsors you for a 190 visa you get 5 points extra, so yes if you have 55 points without it, this will take you to the 60 point benchmark

For a 189/190/489 the benchmark total is 60 points. The higher you score the more likely you will receive a quicker invitation.

You can submit an EOI whenever you want, but for these visas you must have a valid skills assessment and competent English at the time of invitation so no point in doing it until then.

Have you looked at getting the extra 5 points from state nomination - sc190 visa?

I agree, but there's enough to start narrowing things down.

Mr T - I'm going to assume he was assessed by ACS as having a bachelor degree, otherwise it's unlikely his ACS assessment would have resulted in 3 years experience. So if he does have a bachelors degree, going by the above info he currently has 50 points in the skilled migration points test. The minimum benchmark total needed is 60 points as I'm sure you know.

As his occupation is on the SOL and you as his brother are an eligible family member living in a designated area of Australia, then the sc489 visa could be a possibility and would grant the extra 10 points required. The issue with the sc489 is that the invitation places are extremely limited (around 15 a month I believe for family sponsored) and it's not a PR visa. It merely allows the holder to remain in Australia for up to 4 years, and after living in a designated area for at least 2 years (and working for a least 12 months of those 2 years) they could be eligible to then apply for PR through the sc887 visa.

I understand that he's taken the IELTS and only achieved band 6, but of course it would be preferable if he could score 7 in all bands to gain the needed 10 points that way and apply through sc189/190 instead. The benefit of re-attempting this until the desired score is achieved is something that has to be considered against the likelihood of him obtaining the result, and the fact that he is 32 and will lose 5 points when he turns 33 (it's not clear when this will be from your post). Age should also be considered if you do look at the sc489 visa, because as mentioned above the invitations are limited and can take a long time to be received.

Different English language tests will be introduced from November I believe, but whether these will prove easier is unknown.

I'm assuming again that he has no partner (for possible partner skill points) and that there's no health/character concerns.

As he already holds a positive skills assessment with 3 years experience and has achieved IELTS 6 in all bands, if he were to apply for and receive a job offer in this occupation he could enquire whether they would be willing to nominate through ENS - Direct Entry rather than a 457 visa.

....There's still lots of considerations and options. As WRussell said above, more information is required to give a fully informed assessment. I've had to make a couple of educated assumptions in the above, which if wrong make the whole thing moot! As you can see its difficult to go back and forwards on a forum as questions need to be asked and sensitive details need to be known for a proper assessment, the above will give you a good indication IMO but it's no substitute for a telephone or face-to-face consultation with an RMA which will look at every aspect, and be able to ask those questions in real-time.

All the best,

Ah, my apologies, I did misunderstand that comment.

It is clear that you are not arguing with any sense of logic, rather a barrage of complaints because you believe that agents must be right, and anyone else offering information and advice that agents are not willing to depart with, must be wrong and irresponsible. I am not going to entertain this argument further.

I know that wasn't directed at me and I'm not an agent, but what info and advice would you like? Seriously nobody is withholding anything here. The system is buggy, it hates duplication, it hates importing, applications disappear and reappear randomly, it's not the most stable thing in the world and playing around with it as little as possible generally works best.

I can understand your point, but unless you can stop your clients from using the Internet, you are better off being the first person to inform your clients of what they can find in various forums and even the DIBP website. I am certainly not the only person who has shown people how to access their applications, but I suspect I may be the rare poster who suggested they do it safely.

 

If you think about it from the human psychology point, if a client find out about this access from the Internet when their agent said s/he cannot have access, s/he are likely to think (a) "my agent does not know", or (b) "my agent does not want me to know". Either case, it means lack of trust and the client will still access the application, likely to do it wrong because s/he not aware of the possible complications and consequences.

 

If an agents sets up this access for his client, he may even be able to set the type of role and access the client can have. The ImmiAccount interface is fairly simple and boring. The status rarely changes and there are few terms that the client would need explanation, mainly the meaning of status changes from Recommended to Required to Received. This way, the client can see that they have a reliable source of knowledge to tap in, who trusts and is willing to educate him/her, s/he are far less likely to take advice from strangers on forums without at least consulting the agent first.

 

I understand that this means more work for agents, but think about the hours you will spend fixing problems, if your clients went their own ways without your guidance. The reality is that you cannot stop them, so personally I think you should help them make the right choice.

The immiaccount and skillselect is not designed to be used in that fashion, you can ask the DIBP why if you want to. Funnily enough they don't like to make things user friendly for agents, although I'm not sure how they could possibly benefit from discouraging people from trusting their application to a professional representative............

Hi Mr T,

What are his intentions...Work? Travel? Holiday? Bit of everything? Short term? Long term? What's his occupation? His age? His nationality? Lots of factors, lots of options, lots of things to consider. The more info you give the more someone will be able to help you.

Nursing agency based in Randwick, NSW - http://www.247nursing.com.au/index.html

Worth seeing if they have anything available themselves, if not I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction.

An 8 week turnaround is about right then.