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DIY or Migration Agency?


marra

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Good Morning, I am new to the forum and must say it is extremely informative.

I have done some reading up on the process and it seems very complicated. I have also contacted a few migration agencies in Pretoria and Johannesburg. All the migration agencies requires that their fees are paid upfront between R40,000 and R50,000.

That is even before starting the process. (What if I pay an agency R50,000 and then we do not get a visa..... money in the water...)

I need advice.

1. will it be easy to do the entire process yourself ?

2. will it be best to make use of a immigration agency?

3. if yes to question 2, can someone please recommend a trusted migration agent who is actually willing to assist us through the whole process and not only demand R50,000 before even looking at our application.

Thank you in advance for the assistance.

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Please do yourself a favour and contact Reuven from Migrate2Oz. He was referred to me by a friend who left SA for Auz and not once have I ever regretted using him. He doesn't ask for the money upfront - it is paid in different instalments as you go through each process. HE works so hard for his clients, even after we lodged and had paid all the fees owing, he still kept in touch and kept us updated until the very end when we got our Visas this week! (Keep in mind he already had all the money so he didn't have to)

He truly did everything he could for us and I would recommend him anyday!

His number is 011 453 1229

Best of luck!!!

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Hi Marra,

I did our application myself after an initial assessment with Stephen from MOA. If your case is relatively straight forward it is totally doable on your own. Most of the agents mentioned on the forum do a free initial assessment to see if you might qualify for a VISA (I am not 100% on this as I only contacted MOA but if memory serves from reading other posts this is the case), so speak to one of them to get an idea of our chances.

In my opinion I would stay away from any agent that require all the cash upfront. Like Migrat2Oz (as NiniJ mentioned above), MOA also has an incremental payment system (they did when I contacted them).

If you decide to go with an agent I would highly recommend you use one of the agents mentioned on the site (Migrate2Oz, Migration Outcomes Australia or Taylor Made Immigration). They have a long record on the site, with a lot of the people on the forum. At the very least, please only use some one who is registered with MARA (the Aus Migration Agent Registration Agency). There are some real chancers out there...

Anyway, good luck with the process. Don't be afraid to ask questions, there are a helluva lot of very helpful people on the forum.

Cheers

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Marra, welcome to the forum, I do hope that you get your answers to all those questions! We have great forum members that are extremely helpful!

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Hi there, I would say it depends how complicated your case/situation is. We applied ourselves for a 175 PR visa, and it was a lot of paperwork, but not hard at all. The hardest part was getting our unabridged paperwork from home affairs, so start that asap. Ours took months.

A friend of mine did not have enough points, and had to take a harder route - starting a business in Australia. This meant two separate visa applications and it was very complicated. She said many times that she could not have done it without her agent.

Best of luck, :)

Edited by Mel-B
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Hi Marra

There is a 3rd option (which was the option I went for):

Migrate2oz (Andrew Heathcote) offers a "Review service" for $800. You handle the entire process yourself, then before lodging he will review your application and give you advice as to what is incorrect and what is missing from your application.

Totally worth it to just "double check" everything.

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Hello Marra,

The Visa app in itself (although worth it) is very expensive so if you know that your case might have special circumstances it is best not to waste your time and money, by going through agents. Also if you know that you won't have the time read the government site on the proper processes to follow it is safer to go through an agent.

We found lots of help on this forum as well as the government site but decided to avoid making mistakes by going through an agency. We went through an agency due to the fact that my partner and I aren't married and I didn't want to get left behind. We used Migrate2Oz and would definitely recommend Reuven and his team. They set milestones and once a milestone is reached you pay over their fees in order to proceed. The bulk of their payment occurred when we lodged the skills assessment. I'm sure each case is different but we spent nowhere near R40,000.00 on agents fees.

Having the agents assist us made things easier as they assisted with the certification of documents, reviewing and requesting of documentation, monitoring Visa regulations during the application process and giving sound advice in order to have you make up your mind on which way to move forward (if there are choices to make).

At the end of the day, using a migration agent is a case of preference. We found them helpful in that our case had a lot of twists and turns (skill not on a state list but being on the government's list being one of them) and we needed serious advice regarding migrating as a De Facto partner and how to prove the relationship.

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All depends on your situation - if you have plenty of cash and wont miss the R50k - use the agent.

If you don't mind a bit of research and asking questions here - then you could probably go it solo - you should be able to get through 95% of the situations on your own. If your situation is complicated - you might want to try the Review Service mentioned earlier above.

My case was not straight forward, but I managed just fine on my own - just don't lie about any of your application details from start to finish - especially on the EOI (if you are going GSM route) - and you should be able to do it on your own.

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We are doing it ourselves, not that bad just need to do alot of research and ask any questions here and you will be fine. All the best with everything

We are doing it ourselves, not that bad just need to do alot of research and ask any questions here and you will be fine. All the best with everything

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I know that I have given this answer any times; the Migration Agents Registration Authority of Australia has some good answers to your question.

https://www.mara.gov.au/using-an-agent/

Have a particular look at the section, "What a registered migration agent can do for you"

It's good to know what an agent does exactly for his R50 000.

You might also want to consider a MARA registered agent. Any agent operating in Aussie must be registered with the MARA. There is even a code of conduct that the MARA enforces with its agents.

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Hello All,

All the advice above is good. At the end of the day it is a personal decision - everybodies needs are different.

I am interested to see the quotes of ZAR 50K - it sounds like I should increase my fees!

Regards

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We used Migrate2Oz this year and highly recommend them, free initial review of your CV to see if you have a chance and then the fees are paid in installments through the process, total was just over R30k if I remember correctly

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Hi there, thank you everyone for the valuable information. We will probably use the agency M2O, seeing that we have both demanding and busy jobs. I will contact them soon. In the meantime I did some reading and done the following:

1. Renewed our Passports - we received mine and the kids today! Yeah... still waiting for my husbands

2. I have applied for an unabridged birth certificates for my kids, according to Home Affairs it takes up to 3 months to issue.

3. I have applied for an unabridged marriage certificate, according to Home Affairs it takes up to 6 months to issue.

4. I have booked my ITELS exam, and I am writing on 21 Nov 2015, hopefully I get good scores.

I have some more general questions:

  • I am a ICT Project Manager with 10 years experience in this position and see that the ICT Project Manager is on the skills shortage list of Victoria, what Visa should I apply for?
  • My husband has his own business in South Africa therefore I will have to be the main visa applicant, is that correct?
  • The long term plan will be for me to get a job in OZ to cater for a sustainable income and then the aim is for my husband to see if he can start a business in OZ, he will probably take 6 - 12 months to investigate? Will that we possible if I am the main applicant and he is on my visa?
  • We want to take our pets (3 small dogs) with, do any of you know what is the process and the cost?

Thanks a mil for all the assistance, much appreciated.

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Hi, there are two threads on the subject of importing pets, that were very active about two months ago, you can probably find them if you search the forums.

If you get a 189 visa for you and your husband, then as far as I know he can do whatever he wants, in fact you too, you don't even have to do the job you applied under. I think they just bargain on it that if you have one of the skills on the list it is probably what will get you the best income.

And courage and patience with the DHA, people are needing it of late.

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