190 visa app to Vic and agents

[eisenhorn]

Hi All,

 

I've been enjoying reading some of the posts here and thought I'd post to see if I could also get some advice. My wife and I (including 2 kids; 6 and 3) are seriously looking at emigrating to Australia and would like to settle in either Perth or Melbourne. We've got friends in Sydney, but we stayed there for 3 weeks a few years back and it was so expensive that to get reasonable property for a family meant a large commute.

I'm an Oracle Database Administrator (Schedule 2 - 262111), with over 10 years exp, and my wife is the same with more exp. We're looking at applying for a 190 visa to Victoria as I saw they still accept visas for this skill.

 

However, I also spoke to a UK emigration company "The Immigration Advisory Service", and he mentioned that as a British Citizen, we don't get any points for the language stuff. Is that true and would I therefore need to sit the language course to ensure I get tons of points? I seem to get 25 for age, 20 for language (one would hope i score an A!), 15 for job, 15 for a BA(Hons), 5 for the wife, and perhaps 5 from 190 support. So, without the language test I would score around 60-65 points. Do I need more to have more chance of acceptance, and therefore would the language test help?

 

Also, the company I was speaking to is based in the UK, so I was wondering about agencies. Is it easier to deal with in Aus or here? I asked him lots of questions, like their costs, timelines, associated services, and finally (as I've read everywhere on these forums) whether they were MARA agents. He said he wasn't as he was British, but there were MARA agents in his team. Do I continue with this kind of service (around £1200) or look for others that people recommend?

 

Thanks and Best Regards,

Stephen.

[lebourvellec]

Welcome to PIO

 

With the 190 visa you only need to pass the points test, so if you can get 60 points without the IELTS, you wont need to sit it. It doesnt matter who, you or wife is primary applicant, but who can get the positive skills assessment and prove the 8 years of relevant work experience is the better applicant. If there is any doubt in proving work experience, the IELTS is a easy way to make extra points, and better than getting your partners skills also assessed, cheaper and more points.

 

Not really heard of the agent, (his fees seam a bit cheap to be honest, you would be expecting a bit more nearer the £2000 mark for the work that need to be done) but you should always have a MARA agent who is in charge of your case, if you are unsure of this agent, recommended agents from other PIO members Go Matilda, Visa Bureau and Overseas Emigration/Ian Harrop.

 

You dont need to use an agent, many people on the forum have done the process themselves, if your case is quite straight forward, it is not too difficult and can get support from the forum for things that you are stuck on.

 

Good Luck.

[eisenhorn]

Thanks for the quick reply lebourvellec. The skills assessment may only prove awkward in that I was contracting for the first 4 years of my last 6, so I'll have to look at how I verify that, and my wife and I were both living in Germany to make matters more interesting. Also, what about working for companies who no longer exist? Gah, tons of questions and we've barely started

[eisenhorn]

And one more question. Does my wife need to have her skills assessed in order to work if she was the spouse on the application? She has the same potential (and hopefully will) to work full time as well.

[North to South]

Hi,

 

My wife was the lead applicant and although we didn't need the points our agent advised us to do it to boost up the points which we, sorry, my wife did. In terms of employment history all we had to send was a CV in the Australian style and a letter from our current/prior employers to prove evidence of work and role etc. I was the secondary applicant and although I didn't have to be assessed, my CV was used as secondary evidence that we could both find roles when we moved.

 

We used Sort Out My Visa as our agent and I think we paid about £1600 in total - plus all other fees - visa, police checks, medicals etc etc.

 

Hope this helps.

[eisenhorn]

Thanks, does that mean the secondary applicant MUST be assessed in order to work?

 

Looked at another agency selected, and it seems upwards of £3K for their services! I did look at the IELTS tests, and sat the test ones - they were straight forward enough ;-)

[North to South]

Hi, no the secondary applicant doesn't need to be assessed to work, it was just our agent showing further evidence that we could both find suitable work in Australia and not be a drain on the economy. My wife breezed through the IELTS and scored I think 8.5 or 9 on most of the modules. I know she didn't enjoy doing it, and couldn't understand the logic of having to prove that you can speak English when it was your native tongue, but that's what was asked for and we got our visa, so it wasn't so bad.

 

Does the £3K include all the visa fees or is that just the agents fees. I think we paid about £5K all in including agents fees, visa fees, police checks, medicals etc.

 

Hope this helps.