Hi,

This is a bit personal but I wondered how much people were paying for their agent fees. We have been quoted £3,500 (this does not include TRA, Visa or medicals), and they want it up front. :crying:

Do you think we will be paying too much if we go ahead? They have come recommended and seem very good, but it is a lot of money. We feel the process is too complicated to go it alone though.

Any advice much appreciated, you can PM me if you would prefer.

Mandy :D

We used Thinking Australia for a flat fee of £1500.

This didn't include anything but agent fees but they wouldn't take any money at all until after you had had the FREE consultation and been assessed and then only if you were happy to go ahead. We paid £750 for tra etc then the remaining £750 when application lodged with DIMIA.

Thinking Australia are brilliant, they were available 24/7 you can call day or night and no problem/worry is too small, well worth the money in my opinion.

We saw a couple of agencies before going with TA one was also £3500 AND we had to pay £100 for the initial consultation, it turned out that we made the right choice not using them as they were more NZ specialised.

Hope this helps, any questions feel free to PM.

Sue xXx

I used John Adams at Immigration2oz.com. Total for agent's fees only was £1,250 paid over 3 instalments throughout the application process. John has been available at any time for me, and is still continuing to help me out despite being paid in full and our visa having been granted. First class service (just mention you'd been recommended by Andrew Gray).

Andrew

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned we have already paid £25 for a consultation where they went through everything, and gave us lots of advice. I must say I do feel very comfortable with them but even so, it is a large amount of money!

Best wishes
Mandy :D

Hi there, I'm using Go Matilda for the visa only. Their visa service fee was £658 including vat. I believe that they charge around another £900 ish for the full TRA so they would be around the £1500 mark. My agent is extremely helpful and I must admit I've been getting my money's worth.

Good luck

Mark :) :) :)

Hiya,
We went alone and didnt use an agent. I suppose it depends on your circumstances (ive been in same job since apprenticeship). Lots of people use the agents for peace of mind and then realise you do most of the work yourself anyway. This site has some very helpful people on it and lots of good info.
Good luck with your application. :)

Brijacq

Hi, we used an agent in Berkshire, they did`nt charge for initial assessment and advice, they are very helpful and answer your questions. this service without TRA meds etc cost us £2,400, paid in installements, but have heard now there fee`s have gone up, I think ours was expensive and the price you have been quoted is also very expensive, but what I would say is that you need to go with the agent you feel the most helpful and beneficial to your needs !

Wishing you the very best of luck with whoever you choose :D

DEBBIE

Hi

We used Ian Harrop and Associates. The first consultation was free.

Total invoice to them was £1,000 plus vat. First £500 after TRA lodged, 2nd payment at end of visa application. They are excellent, they are very helpful and didn't want anything up front.

OMG Meds tomorrow!!!!!

julie and Tony

mandy

we used four corners and they charged us £3000 for 5 of us,that was just their fees



mark :rolleyes:

We used George Lombard, fees were $2200 and then we paid seperately for the TRA. All in all a very good service, we didn't have a straightforward application, they were very good at answering Q's very promptly. The fes were paid in 2 instalments ;)

Dawn ;)

Hi

We paid £1000 to Visa Bureau and £500 for TRA, then another £1000 once TRA came back positive and a further £700 for DIMIA. Still not had meds requested. Agent has been good although quite expensive in comparison to everyone else. Trying not to think about it because we could probably have done it ourselves but we wanted peace of mind and she has picked up on a few things that we would have done wrong. Didn't know about this website when we started this adventure. Would probably not go with an agent now.

Carrie :sigh:

Hi Mandy,
Suppose it's horses for courses really, whatever you pay, it's worth if they get that visa for you?
We paid a lot less for our agent (The Emigration Group) than you've been quoted but they did knock off quite a bit as we had all the info for the Skills Assessment before we had initial consultation. This turned out to be the hardest part of the visa process (probably is for most people?) & to be honest, if we'd found AB before we paid the agents fees we probably wouldn't have bothered, there's so much useful info on here & so many helpful people (just the odd one or two hiding under bridges! ;) ).
The visa application form 47sk looks daunting but if you sit & read it & take your time there's loads of pages that can just be skipped.
Some agents will also just do part of the process e.g the skills assessment.
Best of luck whatever you decide :sign03:

We already had our TRA, and used Ozmigrate (Ray Terry)in Hobart for SIR application.

Paid a very reasonable flat fee in Aus $, split into two payments. First installment equal to 1/4 of the total was a preparation fee paid on return of signed contract. The second installment was paid when an offer of sposorship was received from the S.A government and the main application could go off to DIMIA.

Free assessment and they offered a money back guarantee.

No money changed hands until we had checked over and signed the contracts.

Can highly recommend this agent if you feel the need to use one - very professional and meticulous. Really don't think he would assist an application unless he was 99.9% sure it would succeed. I've put the link below in case you want to check them out.

http://www.ozmigrate.com/

HTH
Desiree
:D :D

ditto.

faultless :cool shake:

We aren’t using an agent either – I feel like a self taught DIMIA expert now, but in fairness to the DIMIA site it is actually very clearly structured. I just couldn’t justify the money for an agent to follow rules which I can freely follow myself, especially when the agent can’t do any added extra in actually getting the visa.
I could see no added service for an agent getting my skills assessed – I simply used Vetassess online and followed the steps – easy.
Next stage is using the SA Gov on-line form for SIR – again easy to follow the steps on the screen and then finally the DIMIA online application.
We saw no reason why an agent could help – and those fees are shocking really aren’t they !!!!
Who uses a holiday agent these days to organise their trips – not many I bet. We simply log on to the nearest online flight shop and away we go. I my opinion agents days are numbered, especially if DIMIA get the online e-service into an idiots guide.
I hope the value was worth the peace of mind.

Graham (who’s now hoping he hasn’t fated himself)

Hi

A big thanks to everyone who has replied. We now have a good choice of agents to choose from.

Our application is not straightforward so we will definately use an agent, or we may end up going completely mad :68:

Thanks again
Mandy :D

Hi Mandy,

I am using ASA consultants based in Perth, they charged a total of £2500 this includes TRA fee, and priority processing and also a form filling service to save you the time and effort. they have an excellant website.

Good luck

Graham

We used the services of Go matilda. Unsure of exactly what we paid but the fees were very very good for the service that we got.

As our visa application and skills assessment were not straight forward, i would highly recommend Go Matilda to anyone who is seeking the services of an agent.

Rob

Hi all,

We also used Ian Harrop and he was excellent. We came on a skilled independent visa so £1000+ VAT in 2 installments, visa fees to Oz govt, police checks and medicals were extra. Very professional, knowledgeable and took all the worry away.

I would recommend him to anyone with no hesitation whatsoever.

Claire

In hindsight i wish i'd done the same, to be honest with both of us working and three kids to look after it was the easy option to get an agent, but when i think about all the work me and my wife put in anyhow i'd have been as well doing it myself. In saying that our agent has been very good, OE immigration (Richard Gregan) he charged us £2000 all in.

Hi

We used Go Matilda and paid just over £900 (got visa back in April). I would say that your quote is very over priced. And as for paying all up front- sounds a bit strange. With Go Matilda you pay at each stage, so it splits the cost. We had an excellent service from them. They were very prompt at replying to any e mail that we sent and as they have offices in Aus as well, you get info quickly.

Good luck

Lesley

hi all we used ian harrop as well and are waiting for results at moment.
about £1075 paid in 2 instalments he also garaunteed us that if he could not get us out on what we told him he would give us our money back cant say better than that.
very good indeed.

Four Corners were who we used.

I agree that the fees are high. In their defence, they won't take you on unless they feel they have a better than average chance of getting you in. (Although, there is another thread entitled has anyone heard of anyone failing? :D )

If you fail they will either refund half the fees or help you with another submission.

I have to admit that if it were not for the excellent service they(Dave Roberts in particular) provided us, we would not be going Australia at all, let alone Adelaide.

My circumstances may be different to many folks.

Having left the RAF in 1996, I worked for over half a dozen different employers. Getting TRA letters sorted was a nightmare for me. We knew we were 5 points short becuase of my age but were prepared to do the $100K to get them back. Then in April my mate Amanda Vanstone <_< moved the goalposts and jacked the points up again. That left us out of the running as far as we knew. I got an email from a site we had subscribed to on the friday evening. So had to stew all weekend before we heard from Four Corners.

Dave came up with the STNI and we then set our sights on Victoria. Got turned down for that about the time that the SIR/SA drive started, so finally we got one at the end of November.

I don't think that I would have carried on after April, had it not been for using Four Corners. So I feel justified in recommending them.

If you have been in the same job since school, then maybe you would be ok filling in all the forms yourself. I think the TRA assessment is the most important bit to get through. The rest is mainly filling in data which isn't over complicated.


My 2p.

Gavin

Hi,

It seems so many more of you all paid for help and have been left (most likely by their agents) with the feeling that ‘your’ applications were complicated or, difficult circumstances.
This surprises me in so much as I don’t really see why people have been told their situation is difficult – in the most brutal context we either have the required number of points or we don’t. The most important selection stage is working out which route to take to gain successful entry, so in short it’s just a numbers game. Look at each route and see which one (the luckier ones aren’t limited to just one route) is the most advantageous or, the simplest to achieve. For most people that means ‘Book 6 from DIMIA – general skilled migration’. The rest are either family assisted and probably a few via business sponsor.
There’s nothing unique or special about any one of these applications as in the end every one falls into a known and freely informed route. Once you know which route to follow (and that’s no harder than simply doing some reading) it is clearly laid out step by step. What to do and what is required is all made available.
After that the next most important element (mainly because it gives the single largest chunk of points) is getting skills or recognised trade / career approved. Again there are a plethora of help texts and guidance, not least because again that process is clearly defined and can’t be subjective.
Our application was decided by us after reading each route very carefully and realising that we could only fit into one based on very simple maths. After that it has been as simple as following the requirements. I’m not saying it’s as easy as writing a check but it’s certainly easier than some of the work we had to do to actually gain the qualifications / trade skills we state we’ve all got in order to be suitable in the first place.
General Skilled Migration – but we’re not skilled enough to work out how to do it – irony, or simply giving money away.

Graham – not aiming to offend anyone, just puzzled why so many need to be helped.

I see your point Graham - but sometimes some of those points may be a little dodgy to obtain, or skills assessment if your skills are borderline for acceptance. Some on here have gone the DIY route, been turned down, then engaged an agent and with the help of a few tricks of the trade, been able to get through in the end.

We came spouse visa route which must be about the easiest of all in a long standing marriage with a couple of kids. We spoke to 2 agents at the Migration Show - one would have happily taken large sums of money to do it for us, the other was upfront enough to tell us it really was totally straightforward and wouldn't even consider doing it on our behalf. Can't remember who the two were now though! Needless to say we then went ahead and did it ourselves....

DITTO! DITTO! DITTO!

They are excellent!!!!


lorraine