vickycook Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 how easy is it to complete the visa application ? i am eligible for a visa but dont want to pay an agency to do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lebourvellec Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Which visa???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickyplum Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 You don't say which visa you mean. I did my 309/100 defacto myself... It was a bit dull and I needed to pay close attention but it wasn't difficult. But depends on which you are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickycook Posted December 26, 2013 Author Share Posted December 26, 2013 hi, not sure of the name but it is a skilled workers visa , permanent . i am a teacher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Grey Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Only you can really answer this question. What's easy for someone else may not be easy for you, what suited someone else may not suit you. I recommend looking into the visa class and seeing if you feel confident enough to handle the application yourself and whether you want to invest the time to research the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyupnorth Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Each to their own, I can recommend Alan at Go Matilda as we used them and they were very good. He pops up on here quite often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Yes, it is a personal choice. No wrong or right here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeacherBen Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 how easy is it to complete the visa application ? i am eligible for a visa but dont want to pay an agency to do it Hi VickyCook, I'm a teacher too and went for the 189 visa. I had 75 points and managed to do it all myself. Still costs a lot but cheaper if you can manage. Assuming your application is straightforward I'd say it'd be ok!! Be absolutely sure on points though because if you over estimate you'll be refused!! happy Christmas, teacherben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Collett Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 how easy is it to complete the visa application ? i am eligible for a visa but dont want to pay an agency to do it Looking back once you have secured the visa it can seem straightforward. By contract, at the start of the process seeing the strategy and identifying preferred options can be difficult - and that's when instructing a migration advisor can make sense. If you can make sense of the "big picture" and can establish your visa pathway you may be OK to progress with the support of this forum, but recognise that strategies can require amendment in the light of changes that strike unannounced (eg NSW sponsorships of 190 visas stopping on Xmas Eve until July 2014 at the earliest). Personally, I'd use a professional Australian visa advisor for a significant life changing decision - I did when we applied for a skilled visa back in 2000. Then again, I set up Go Matilda in the light of that experience! Best regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ryan the wizard of oz Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 how easy is it to complete the visa application ? i am eligible for a visa but dont want to pay an agency to do it You will get mixed responses naturally and the decision ultimately rests with you. I would agree that for a life changing move it would be advised to use an accredited expert to represent you and hopefully help you get it right first time. Not everybody is in a position to take advantage of the support and services available but I would suggest you speak to some of these agencies and see what they can do for you that perhaps you're not in a position to do yourself. Regardless of what approach you take we hope you're successful it's a big deal moving country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cki2011 Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 how easy is it to complete the visa application ? i am eligible for a visa but dont want to pay an agency to do it We used Go Matilda to get our PR visa and would highly recommend them.... I am not saying you can or cant do it yourself but for us we wanted to make sure it was done right first time and as previously mentioned there can be a lot of changes along the way which can get confusing.... it may be worth contacting the agent to have a chat before you start to get some prices.... Then you can make an informed decision.... Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerak123 Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 Hello, the only thing I would add is don't feel that if you have an agent do the app for you that this is necessarily the safest route. I went to many expos before doing my visa my husbands visa and later a child visa - I heard a lot of agents talking about taking the 'risk' of doing it yourself. I found no end of help both on sites like this and from the officials . If you are organised and ok with paperwork there's no reason you can't do it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatpack Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I did our visa after using Go Matilda to get my skills assessment. I found it very straight forward and we got our visa without a problem and saved a few quid. My sister and her husband tried doing themselves 8 years ago and failed miserably. It cost them as they had to pay the fees again but they were accepted using an agent. There are pro's and con's to both, it depends on how you feel about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Que Sera Sera Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 There are plenty of ways to cut costs during the immigration process. But if you don't get the visa you aren't going to be going anywhere. Also the visa process can change during mid application and what seemed like a straightforward process no longer is anymore. We used Go Matilda and we are very glad we did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bundaberg Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I wrote this a few months ago in a previous thread "We thought about this for a while. I already had my qualification recognised. We thought about using a agent because we heard scare stories about how complicated the process can be. So we decided that we'd do the EOI ourselves first to see if we'd get and invitation to apply. We did this as an EOI is free and we'd loose nothing if we weren't successful. Make sure you have everything in your EOI for your points and that you can back these up. If you want to include an English test for extra points, you need to have it done before to have it included in the EOI as you need to put in your test number. Anyway, we got an "invitation to apply", and said to ourselves "do we get an agent now?" so we decided to look through the form and fill it out as much as we could, and then suddenly we finished it, you can save the form as you go through it. So we thought then where do we attach our documents. I rang the helpline and they are very helpful. It's after you pay for the visa that you can upload the documents. We didn't have a big enough credit card limit so we put the money on the card a few days before and rang the credit card company to say we'd be making a large payment. We didn't want them to block the payment as it was an unusual large payment abroad. So after we did that we got our documents together. Qualification Recognition Letter of Reference Police Certs Certified Copy of Passports Defacto relationship Most there are simple to get. The police cert was free (live in Ireland :cute:) the UK one cost a fortune (I lived there for a few years) Proof of Defacto relationship caused the most worry to us but when you go through everything you have more than you realise. We had, old (more than 1 year) and recent letters with common address, rent contract, flight bookings from email, photos from holidays infront of famous landmarks. Anything with both of your names on it is good. Medical - we waited till asked. So we uploaded all that (except medical) and waited. After a month I think, they sent a letter (via email) "request for more information". They requested the medical tests. So we looked at the list of medical centres that they have on the immi website. I rang the hospital instead of doing it online but you can do either, I did this to get a price, as I rang a few, there is a difference of a couple of euro. It's not paid for by the public system here as it's for a private purpose, I'm not sure what the story is in the UK. So while on the phone to the last one I booked it with them as they were the cheapest. So that's why we didn't book online. Medical was grand, nothing mad. Urine test, blood test. Reflexes, X-ray etc. The hospital uploads the results to immi so you don't have to do anything. A few weeks later we got our visa. We applied for a 189. The one piece of advice is that you need to read everything a few times to make sure that you have filled in everything, and filled in correctly. Maybe print it out and highlight everything you've completed. Everything is uploaded to the website. So that was very straight forward. You have to upload documents for the main applicant and below that for each additional applicant. Overall I'd say immi did a great job with the website and whole application process. I found it good and rang the helpline when I had questions. If you have any other questions, maybe I forgot to mention stuff, just ask." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Grey Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Hello, the only thing I would add is don't feel that if you have an agent do the app for you that this is necessarily the safest route. I went to many expos before doing my visa my husbands visa and later a child visa - I heard a lot of agents talking about taking the 'risk' of doing it yourself. I found no end of help both on sites like this and from the officials . If you are organised and ok with paperwork there's no reason you can't do it yourself. On the contrary, using an agent (a reputable one) is most definitely the safest route. The majority of agents are pretty honest about the whole process. They mention risks because far more applications fail than you may realise. I work in an agency and hear about rejections everyday that could have easily been avoided. It then costs more money and our intervention to rectify the problem. By all means people can do it themselves, but agents provide a great service and have a far better success rate than applicants that go it alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obxer7 Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I am a teacher and didn't use an agent. I spent a lot of time researching things and felt that for me that we didn't need one. I am organised and ensured that I read and reread everything, asking on here for any advice. I did this along with planning a wedding (we got married 12 days before we flew out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaggieMay24 Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I agree that if you're organised and not intimidated by paperwork and forms, and if your situation doesn't have unusual complications (criminal record, medical issues, etc.) the visa process can be successfully managed by a lot of people. But you do need to make sure you read everything carefully (read it several times, over a period of several weeks to make sure you haven't missed things). I've seen posts of people making simple mistakes (over-estimating their points and not qualifying, completing steps in the wrong order so required assessments weren't completed when required, etc.) Heck, I paid for an RCMP criminal record check for my non-migrating son before I realised I didn't need it (he's not dependent). But if you don't mind spending the extra money for the peace of mind of having professionals guide you through the process, then using an agent can help make sure you have the best chance of success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PommyPaul Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 i went with an agent for piece of mind really, if the budget allows its a no brainer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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