Doing state nomination yourself

[Bluey128]

Hello everyone,

We received an invite from SA yesterday to apply for state nomination for a 491.

Our migration agent wants £600+VAT JUST do complete the state sponsorship for us.

We are not well off and are reluctant to part with this money for what seems like a relatively disproportionate amount of work compared to the cost.

My question is - is there anyone out there that has done this bit themselves? Was it easy? What does it entail? If there is any level of skill involved we are happy to pay an agent to do it for us as we don't want to take any risks.

We are definitely using said agent for the main visa application but just trying to see if we can save a bit of cash by doing the state nomination bit ourselves.

Thank you all in advance x

[Ausvisitor]

The overlap between the info for state nomination and main visa application is massive. If you think you need one for the main visa you probably want one for this step also.

That said, loads do it themselves so no reason not to do it that way if you want.

Just as an aside we have just moved over here and all in (visas, tests, travel, temp accommodation and new furniture when we got here - we didn't ship anything) we are about £30k in total spending so far.

Not including the rental bond or new car purchase -if we add both of those it is nearer £60k - just to get over here and get setup.

Now we don't live in a hovel and we bought a brand new car, but even so I think the least we could have done it in is about £40k

So £600 is approaching a rounding error in the overall scheme of things

 

[Cobs_Ahoy]

Great news on the nomination Bluey! I just completed my nomination application with NSW by myself and it was fairly straightforward, they didn’t ask for anything that I didn’t already have from doing ANMAC and AHPRA - they wanted skills assessment, professional references, English Test, ID stuff, PDFs of the EOI.

They hadn’t updateD some of their forms (still made reference to Australian Residency etc), but they got back to my emails really quickly, and after I’d submitted they got in touch with me again to ask for a couple more documents, so it wasn’t a case of ‘if your application is missing something you are rejected’. But I don’t what the other states are like, they might have a more hardline approach.

just to warn you though, in NSW they had outsourced the 491 nomination processing to the individual regions, and northern rivers charged $800 to process it! I almost cried, I was expecting the $300 NSW fee, but $800 took me by surprise. It seems like there are hidden (Or at least not obvious) costs all through the migration process - when I applied to AHPRA I paid the first fee, (which seemed expensive) and almost fell off my chair when there were another 2 fees further along the process. 

[Bluey128]

Hi @Cobs_Ahoy,

Thanks for the info! We chickened out and paid the agent to do it for us haha.

Just worrying now cos SA want transcripts of uni degree but they don't have them. The uni provided us with a letter to say that the documents were destroyed even they moved buildings years ago. It was enough for ANMAC so hoping it will be enough for SA. 

Have you had your proper invite yet? Xx

[Cobs_Ahoy]

That’s a strange thing for them to ask for?!? Mind you, I’m not sure why NSW wanted my professional references, particularly when they already had my skills assessment.

Not had an invite yet, their website said 4-6 weeks for processing the application. Nice to have some progress though, even if each step brings me closer to bankruptcy! 

[wrussell]

Nothing wrong with going bankrupt, some of the best people do it, not RMAs.