cost help??

[KatandRob]

Hello everyone,

We had our consultation with agents today - very exciting. We're in two minds whether to fill in the application ourselves or have the agents do this. The cost would be an extra £3000 if we ask the agents to do it.

We've decided to have the agents complete the skills assessment forms as we feel safer this way, but we've had a look at the form and it doesn't look too bad. Please can anyone advise on their route, whether they filled in the form themselves and how it went. Our options are paying the agents to do the whole thing (including certifying docs, police checks, medicals, skills assessment and the actual application form ) = £5,210 or having them do the skills assess, certify docs - we do the application = £3,210 (approx) - these prices include everything including actual visa appl.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Kat

[kaz101]

Hi Kat,

We got our agents to do everything since we didn't want to mess anything up.
I remember asking them lots of questions but it's too long ago to remember what they were.

My husband had to fill out an Trade assessment (TRA) and the only bit we had to change there was that my husband originally wrote it instructional, so in the third person and they said that wouldn't have been passed since he needed to write it in the first person.

Regards,
Karen

[KatandRob]

Hi Karen

Thanks for the advice, we're definitely getting the agents to prepare our application to the TRA, but the actual application we're thinking of doing ourselves and then paying for the agents to check over it before we send it...I'm sure it will involve a lot of hard work on our part, but just can't justify handing over an extra 2,500 bringing the total for migration to 5,000+ when we may get a "no" from them at final stages.....ahhhhhh stress.

Does anyone actually know what is involved in the application process (specifically the actual application forms) that is very difficult?

Thanks

Kat

[Irish Sparks]

Hey Kat,
My wife and I filled out our own application forms last September.
It's not so bad when you get started.
The best advice I can give you is to do it in stages.
Dont try and sit down and knock it out in one go.
I would also sugest that you keep going back over the form to read and re-read it because, as you go along through it there are some questions that repeat themselves with different phraseings and you really dont want to give conflicting information as you go.
The TRA was a real pain in the backside because as an electrician I had to get references from all my previous employers (I stuck in a few statutory declarations) but once I had the information to hand the bulk of the work was done, and I had a result back in two weeks.
If I were you I would do it myself,because you're going to have to do all the leg work yourself anyway.
Lastly I would say, KEEP CPOIES OF EVERYTHING. When you go to fill out your visa application form you may ned to refer back to your TRA application for reference.
Having said all that, we are still in the middle of the process and are getting itchy feet.
If there is anything I can do to help dont hesitate to ask.
Best of luck.
And always remember...If you dont stick your neck out,,you'll never get it broken.
Sparky.

[Jules]

Hi Kat

That sounds very expensive to me. Have you spoken to more than 1 agent?
We are using an agent and its costing around £1800 plus TRA (£130 approx)and visa fee (£800 approx) and certifying the docs usually costs around £5 each unless you have a friendly solicitor who will do a job lot for you. Also we are able to pay over 6 months so it doesn't hurt quite so much!!

Good luck

Julie

[Normid Nomad]

Originally Posted by Jules

Hi Kat

That sounds very expensive to me. Have you spoken to more than 1 agent?
We are using an agent and its costing around £1800 plus TRA (£130 approx)and visa fee (£800 approx) and certifying the docs usually costs around £5 each unless you have a friendly solicitor who will do a job lot for you. Also we are able to pay over 6 months so it doesn't hurt quite so much!!

Good luck

Julie

Hi Jules

Could you tell me who are using or is that not allowed on here?

Best Regards

Normid

[Jules]

Hi

Yes, we are using Global Visas.

Very good so far!

Regards

Julie

[Normid Nomad]

Thanks very Much Julie

Will get in touch with them

Good luck with your application

Cheers

howie

[Dolly]

Crikey Kat,

That all sounds incredibly expensive!!! I think we paid around the £3.5K for help with the skills assessment and main visa application.

If you feel happy with your agent then carry on with them, othewise I'd definitely shop around and get more quotes. Now when you say they will do medicals/police checks etc, what exactly do you mean? That the agent fills out the forms for you? If so, then don't bother. They're just a form...it's no biggie and I definitely wouldn't pay an agent to do it. We used an agent for the skills assessment and the main application but we still filled in the medical forms that were necessary and also sent off for police checks. Although one of the options is an all-in package, how much of that is being charged for the certifying of documents?

The more difficult bit of the whole process is just making sure you've got the skills assessment right. The main application is a doddle really in comparison, and in hindsight we'd have done that bit ourselves.

Dolly