Just be careful which agent is best for you.
It makes me furious that my MARA-registered agent is surprisingly unskilled to a terrible degree. I even made a list of his fatal and repetitive mistakes as this became his standard behavior.
1- He is not updated AT ALL. It is me who should keep tracking websites so as to hunt for recently open programs. I have to enlighten him by reminding him in an email to apply for me in such programs.
2- His internal communications and bureaucracy are killing time. My date of effects are always 5 days behind just because of this.
3- Always confused and correcting himself. One time, he uploaded draft documents to the skill assessment authority. From this time forward, I had to name all files differently in order to prevent him from uploading an expired one. For example, I took the English test (PTE Academic) several times. I renamed each file like this PTE1, PTE2.. and so on. SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR HIM I HOPE
4- Sometimes, he provides complete misleading information.
5- He acts without asking for my permission. Once, he updated my Expression of Interest with no change in points.
6- A phone call is mandatory in case I need something to be done in time. Ignoring e.mails for weeks is a habit.
7- No strategic thinking at all, he is best at just uploading stuff, nothing more. You cannot depend on him to think which is best for you. For instance, my Expression of Interest was due to expire on May 2019. At the time I expect an invitation, there is a chance that this Expression of interest would be removed. Hence, I told him to delete it and to create a new one because I had to update it, got a higher score in the English test. Thus, my position in the queue remains forward.
In the end, I would just like to know if this kind of treatment is normal or not. Especially for that point related to being totally off the grid with regard to the current immigration programs. Do other agents really follow suit ? I am certain that other agents keep their clients under the Sun. I am sure that they even push these clients to apply for any new/recently open programs.