what EXACTLY do visa agents do for you? (Apart from the obvious).

[seanandsue]

Hi all, sorry to ask such z silly question but we are at the very start of the process and are looking at taking on the services of an agent next. Can people tell us what exactly they do to hlp you and how. Thanks for any answers. Seanandsue.

[VERYSTORMY]

Some use them and some dont. The advantages is if there is anything that makes the application a bit hard, they can make sure the all of the evidence in support of the application is put forward in the right way. They ensure that the deadlines are met - you would be surprised by the amount of people who stuff up an application because of missing a dealine by things like a email from the dept hitting your spam folder and things. They make sure the forms are filled in correctly and that the steps are done in the correct order. They also of course give advice on if you quaify for a visa and how that visa will work - you would be surprised how many posts we get on here from people that have gained a visa but dont understand any restrictions put on it.

[Incata]

They also deal with all the certifying of documents so that you don't have to pay a solicitor to do it. We used Overseas Emigration and they were great. We just sent everything through to them and they dealt with it. We had short timescales to work to and then there was a serious accident within the family, but because they were dealing with it all, we did not have to worry and could focus on looking after our son.

 

If you know which visa you want and are a straightforward case, you can do it quite easily yourself (according to many of the posts on here). We were not easy or straightforward, so although we knew exactly which visa we wanted, we went with an agent. We felt it was worth every penny.