# Applying through a Migration Agent - My Experiences



## Sukhoi (Jun 23, 2012)

I am in the final stages of my 175 PR application processing with the PCC and medicals done. I am eagerly waiting for a response from DIAC. The thought of migrating to Oz cropped up in my mind when I had to visit an overseas education consultant to seek some information. I also discussed about the prospects of my PR application and the agent assured that I meet all the requirements to get a grant. I decided I will go ahead and paid him all the charges in one shot. At that point, I was not really aware that things were so simple and visa application could be lodged online by self. The agent's organization is non-mara and claims to be a member of the body AAERI. 

For the first stage, I had to give them the documents (attested copies) for ACS. After +ve ACS results, I cleared IELTS and applied for 175 Subclass in June. I was assigned to a CO in the last week of August after which I again sent them PCC, Med and my wife's IELTS score. During this entire process, I did not have any major issues in dealing with the agent and they were quite professional in all their interactions with me. But, when I look back at things, I really find it difficult to digest the fact that I spent such a huge sum when the entire process was so simple, especially with the presence of forums like these. Moreover, mine was a straight forward case without any breaks in education or career or any other complications that might have hampered my chances. From what I saw, all that the agent did was send me a set of forms downloaded from the internet and again courier back the filled applications along with supporting documents to the immigration office.

A few things that I feel is not so good when going through an agent, at least based on my experience:

1) The agents take their time to upload or dispatch your documents. For example, when I submitted all the documents for ACS in the agent's Bangalore office, the agent here took about a week to send it to their organization's head office (HO). My documents were idle for 2 weeks at their HO saying they need to be verified and were sent to DIAC in the 3rd week. Faced something similar during 2nd and 3rd stages, i.e. while applying for 175 and sending the CO documents when it was requested. Overall, I would say I had to lose about 45-60 days because of this. If I had applied online myself, I am sure I would not have wasted so much time.

2) They are never transparent when dealing your case with DIAC. I was made to sign a blank visa form which they said will be filled by their people in their HO. When I asked for a copy of the form that was sent to DIAC, they ignored my request.

3) They are not ready to adapt to new technologies/processes which is beneficial for them and the clients both. They still follow the old method of paper based applications. Because of this, I did not have a TRN and when the CO requested for my medicals, she did not send my HAP/HRID. When I pushed the consultant to request for my HAPID from CO (since I did not have TRN), he said it is still possible to get medicals done without TRN / HAPID. Finally, I was refused a medical exam at both Elbit and Fortis saying they need TRN or HAPID. My agent requested for the HAPID only after this experience. I had to waste 10 whole days because of his lethargy in sending a mail to the CO.

4) I would say the most unfortunate thing is, DIAC never includes the applicant in any of it's communication. They always communicate only with the agent. I wonder what the harm is if they enforce the agents to provide the client's email details and include us also in the loop.

5) Any changes in the visa rules, they don't put real efforts to inform you. The introduction of EOI from July 1st was told me by my friend and not by the agent. When I checked with them, they said they were about to inform me about it when it was already end may.

To all those who are planning to approach an agent, please think twice before taking a decision. If you feel your work will be cut-short because of an agent, my experience says it is totally wrong. Also, there is no way they can influence the decision of the Cos. Do not get carried away by any of their claims or statements.


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## cosmos1981 (Jul 23, 2012)

Hi Sukhoi,
what you have said is all correct.
I have also applied through the agent and he is charging around Rs.1 Lacs...it includes his fees, state sponsorship charges and family application charges......
One +ve thing is, my agent has kept all the process very transparent and he is very quick....
He has provided me with my login credentials for skillselect (I heard few cases where agents dont provide this)...
But as you said, the entire process is very simple and straightforward....

Regards


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## prgopala (Jun 18, 2012)

cosmos1981 said:


> Hi Sukhoi,
> what you have said is all correct.
> I have also applied through the agent and he is charging around Rs.1 Lacs...it includes his fees, state sponsorship charges and family application charges......
> One +ve thing is, my agent has kept all the process very transparent and he is very quick....
> ...


Why did you pay him SS charges when you know that all SS are free except NSW.


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## Sukhoi (Jun 23, 2012)

I was charged an amount of Rs.55,000 which was his fees alone.





cosmos1981 said:


> Hi Sukhoi,
> what you have said is all correct.
> I have also applied through the agent and he is charging around Rs.1 Lacs...it includes his fees, state sponsorship charges and family application charges......
> One +ve thing is, my agent has kept all the process very transparent and he is very quick....
> ...


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## footinmouth (Jun 10, 2012)

my Personal Experience with an Agent was excellent.

I had selected a MARA registered agent based in Sydney even though I am not in Australia. All our exchanges were over email.
Since I was staying abroad during the time of Visa Application, I had expected it to be very complicated. Add to it I required an RPL for my skillsInte assessment. and given the fact that I am a lazy bum who can easily get confused with multiple feedback on forums I trusted my Agent completely.

My Experience though was very good as all I had to do was to submit the documents the way my agent asked me to. With this at all steps of skills assessment and visa application there were never any queries and was approved on first attempt.

Bottomline I'd say an Agent is good if you have multiple documentation requirements either to assess your skills, career gaps, educational qualifications etc. If you have a straight forward case of skills assessment and application then I do not feel that an Agent will add much value.

btw in this age of internet I am surprised how many of us insist on having an agent whom we can personally interact with Face to face and therefore restrict our agent search to the geographic boundaries. My experience of having an agent across continents shows that if your agent is good, it does not matter where they are located. If they are not then a Face to Face involvement would never improve your experience.

my 2 cents worth.

Footinmouth


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## footinmouth (Jun 10, 2012)

just to add it did cost me 3000 AU $ for the Agent Fees. It was definitely not the cheapest option.


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## Sukhoi (Jun 23, 2012)

footinmouth said:


> just to add it did cost me 3000 AU $ for the Agent Fees. It was definitely not the cheapest option.



A$ 3000 translates to more than Rs.160000/-  That is a huge amount for anyone earning an Indian Salary


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## Pradiprn (Jul 21, 2011)

Sukhoi said:


> I am in the final stages of my 175 PR application processing with the PCC and medicals done. I am eagerly waiting for a response from DIAC. The thought of migrating to Oz cropped up in my mind when I had to visit an overseas education consultant to seek some information. I also discussed about the prospects of my PR application and the agent assured that I meet all the requirements to get a grant. I decided I will go ahead and paid him all the charges in one shot. At that point, I was not really aware that things were so simple and visa application could be lodged online by self. The agent's organization is non-mara and claims to be a member of the body AAERI.
> 
> For the first stage, I had to give them the documents (attested copies) for ACS. After +ve ACS results, I cleared IELTS and applied for 175 Subclass in June. I was assigned to a CO in the last week of August after which I again sent them PCC, Med and my wife's IELTS score. During this entire process, I did not have any major issues in dealing with the agent and they were quite professional in all their interactions with me. But, when I look back at things, I really find it difficult to digest the fact that I spent such a huge sum when the entire process was so simple, especially with the presence of forums like these. Moreover, mine was a straight forward case without any breaks in education or career or any other complications that might have hampered my chances. From what I saw, all that the agent did was send me a set of forms downloaded from the internet and again courier back the filled applications along with supporting documents to the immigration office.
> 
> ...


Hi

The fact that you chose to go with a Non MARA registered agent itself was not a great decision

I went through a MARA registered agent and it worked out absolutely fine. I had none of the issues that you mention

Fees were clear right at the time of agreement with a clear schedule of how much will be paid and when.

There was always a clear communication on the status and we had no unnecessary costs to incur. all costs mentioned were above board and there were no hidden charges like what you mentioned about SS et al

we were always provided with a copy of the form that was to be submitted and we knew what was filled. infact we did the first draft of application ourselves and then fine tuned it with the agent which made it a very rigorous process

We had a great relationship with the agent and though we paid approximately 1.2 lacs it was worth every penny

So generalizing the service based on the experience with the agent that you worked with is not really doing justice to those agents who are doing a good job.

The key takeaway anyways is to go with a MARA registered agent and also research on the agent and see how is performance is. there is a website where the reviews of various MARA agents are posted and that is a good place to start to research if you want to go with a particular agent.


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## Sukhoi (Jun 23, 2012)

Pradiprn said:


> Hi
> 
> The fact that you chose to go with a Non MARA registered agent itself was not a great decision
> 
> ...




Here, my intention was not to generalize all migration agents even though some parts of my post give such an impression. It is purely sharing of my experiences as indicated in my subject.

Even I too have a very good relationship with my agent, he was really professional and cordial. He was very clear in the financial break-ups. Of course, there were a few irritants as I have listed in my post. 

Yes, you paid 1.2 lacs for a MARA agent and got a good service. It is possible that someone who has paid 2 lacs might narrate an even better experience than yours. My point here is people should think if it is really required to go through any migration agent especially if their case is simple having all required documentation as evidence. From what I understand, majority of the people trying to relocate to Oz are working class people who would have to spend their hard earned and saved money for something which they can possibly do it themselves.

In cases where people should have to go through an agent, I agree it is always safer and sensible to go through a MARA registered agent.


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## footinmouth (Jun 10, 2012)

Sukhoi said:


> A$ 3000 translates to more than Rs.160000/-  That is a huge amount for anyone earning an Indian Salary


hi Sukhoi,
I agree with you that getting a good agent is never going to be cheap. So if you have a straight forward assessment and application case I'd never spend for an agent. I would have saved some money for the actual move.

however since I had a complicated assessment (RPL) OR Application because of missing documents etc I had 2 options:
1) Seek a good agent who can take off a lot of your pain and guide you very well. 
2) Spend time researching over net and forums to see if there is someone in your similar situation and take it forward from there. This may require multiple iterations to reach the end goal of the visa.

I chose the first one because i preferred the certainty of knowing that an expert was guiding me at every step to ensure that I was successful in my visa application.

The experience of an agent also would be very different from one individual to another. So all one can do is provide our experience and let each individual make their own decision on which one suits them better.


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## ajay_walia (Mar 14, 2012)

Hello Pradiprn , Can you please share the agent name you took help from !


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## ahmed84 (Apr 3, 2013)

There is a third option: fill your own application and submit it to a MARA agent to review before you submit it officially. 

I prepared my documents & forms and sent them to a registered agent who reviewed them and gave very helpful feedback on weak areas I need to improve and answered all my questions. I only paid AUD450 for that service and it was really a good value for money.


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## ajay_walia (Mar 14, 2012)

Ahmed can you please advise the Agent !


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## ahmed84 (Apr 3, 2013)

ajay_walia said:


> Ahmed can you please advise the Agent !


I used Mark Northam (mnvisa.com). Highly recommended fella.


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## ajay_walia (Mar 14, 2012)

Thanks Ahmed ~


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## jayptl (Dec 13, 2012)

Where is gud and reliable agent ??????/


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## shubham.maksi (Sep 10, 2013)

*New Bee*

Hi, I am quite new to all these stuff but finally i decided to apply for SC190... My case is complicated and want very less scrutiny. I choose to go with MARA agent, please help which consultancy should i choose. Y Axis (got MARA agent in Oz Charging 1.6Lac) or WWICS (Got MARA agent in India, charging 1.2 Lac). Please help


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## Matmarine (Oct 1, 2013)

Hi Everybody.

I'm new here .

Yesterday my husband received a positive results from Vetassess as a Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages ANZSCO Code 249311 . We had problems with a lawyer who was preparing documents for Vetassess. I have a question - can you recommend a good lawyer around Sydney for Expression of Interest as so far South Australia is still showing a Low Availability for state sponsorship for this occupation.

We are totally inexperienced, we don't know even where we should start with EOI and time is ticking .
We contacted today with 3 different agents and first is on holiday, second send us an information that they do not complete the state sponsorship forms, and the last one said that we don't have a chance for State Sponsorship in South Australia if we don't live and work there. He said that we have to move there and work full time at least 3 month to be able to send EOI. At that moment we allowed to work only 20 hours per week and until 3 month they will definitely close TESOL on the list .

What you suggest guys ?
Best regards
Matmarine


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## theanalyst (Feb 19, 2017)

*MARA Agent asking for more*

I am using a Sydney based MARA agent to process my 190 visa. So far so good. We are at the stage of lodging visa. I have some immigration history in another country which I wanted to sort out with the agent before filing the forms. Now they are asking me for more money (about AU $1300) since they have to look into immigration rules of the third country which, according to them, is not covered by their standard fees (AU $4000). Mind it that I have already paid them in full (AUD 4000). Now I need to pay AUD 1300 more for them to look sort out my past immigration history so that we can proceed with visa lodgement. Is this a standard practice ?


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## FFacs (Jul 6, 2016)

theanalyst said:


> I am using a Sydney based MARA agent to process my 190 visa. So far so good. We are at the stage of lodging visa. I have some immigration history in another country which I wanted to sort out with the agent before filing the forms. Now they are asking me for more money (about AU $1300) since they have to look into immigration rules of the third country which, according to them, is not covered by their standard fees (AU $4000). Mind it that I have already paid them in full (AUD 4000). Now I need to pay AUD 1300 more for them to look sort out my past immigration history so that we can proceed with visa lodgement. Is this a standard practice ?


Is it normal? That depends. When you started using the agent they should have provided you with a very clear overview of what you were paying for, and what those services covered. If you raised the requirement for this other country, they should have been clear if this was included in the charge. If they gave you a clear view of what the service included, and didn't deceive you should you have raised the matter of the other country, then I guess it's an additional service. Sounds like a lot of money though, I paid 3500 AUD all-in, with coverage for my native land and that of my wife.


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## theanalyst (Feb 19, 2017)

FFacs said:


> Is it normal? That depends. When you started using the agent they should have provided you with a very clear overview of what you were paying for, and what those services covered. If you raised the requirement for this other country, they should have been clear if this was included in the charge. If they gave you a clear view of what the service included, and didn't deceive you should you have raised the matter of the other country, then I guess it's an additional service. Sounds like a lot of money though, I paid 3500 AUD all-in, with coverage for my native land and that of my wife.


It is a lot of money, by any standard, and they are asking for more citing they need to do further research regarding new information. What I am asking is since they are immigration agent shouldn't they take such possibilities into consideration and include them well within their service description. Why in the world would I pay so much money for just filing and submitting the forms ? I have already paid their service charges (AUD 4000) and waiting on their judgement before lodging the visa. Being offshore is making this process even harder !!!


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## evangelist (Oct 5, 2014)

theanalyst said:


> It is a lot of money, by any standard, and they are asking for more citing they need to do further research regarding new information. What I am asking is since they are immigration agent shouldn't they take such possibilities into consideration and include them well within their service description. Why in the world would I pay so much money for just filing and submitting the forms ? I have already paid their service charges (AUD 4000) and waiting on their judgement before lodging the visa. Being offshore is making this process even harder !!!


1) Please inform them formally (by email) that this addition fees is a shocker to you and likely to put your budget off the track, and not acceptable as it was not informed earlier

2) Talk to them on the phone and suggest that you will raise it with DIBP, ( MARA agents have to go by the code of conduct and can't afford to lose their license)

I believe the above strategy should work. Reason: an agent is supposed to study the applicant's profile before taking up the assignment/case. That is why they have questionaires to be filled by applicants


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

Guys,

I had appointed a Sydney based MARA agent with so called offices spread in about 5-6 locations in India. It is a catch here. They just show random addresses in their website to fool people. They generally operate from 1 or 2 places.

I have had a horrible time dealing with these scums. They made the process cumbersome. Entire residency program is based on the strength of the documents. They never tell at once, details of documents required. I can very well understand that not all document list required can be provided in one go. However, just to make it a very complicated process, tens of mails are exchanged to just complete the documentation part. I remember we spent more than couple of months to cover the basic documenting part. Our case was with EA. The CO was rigid in a lot of ways as per MARA. 

Our MARA pointed it out in so many different ways that we need to charge extra for handling EA cases, that they are contemplating to stop accepting EA cases. We were like, "Whats our connection with this?" Due to their incompetency, our EA assessment got delayed by many months. 

On most of the occasions we got delayed response. There were many delays in between collection of documents, uploading, etc. It was a real nightmare since the last one year. I could write at least 3 pages with proof. They were practically non accessible. Again time difference is currently 5:30 plus all weekends they would not be available. 

Now they have filed submitted our EOI. At this point for no reason they want to end the contract. We are still trying to figure out what went wrong. In spite of their poor service, we never complained just to get on with it. Besides, they have kept our one state EOI on hold for no reason. They have not yet filed in spite of us telling them almost a month back. They made it look like they were processing and in between we got a mail from them. We phoned to check the reason for delaying. The person got annoyed and sent us a termination mail. 

Whoever tells us that go with MARA is not aware of the pitfalls. I am not using this as a platform to vent out our frustration. However, to guide innocent people to not fall in their trap. Our hard earned money can be put to best use!

At this stage, we are really worried. I am contemplating all options.


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## zaback21 (Jan 18, 2017)

shets said:


> Guys,
> 
> I had appointed a Sydney based MARA agent with so called offices in spread in about 5-6 locations. It is a catch here. They just show random addresses in their website to fool people.
> 
> ...


I know. I know 2 people who lost Visa invite due to Mara agents competency. One agent vanished for 2 months and the guy could barely submit 20 mins before 60 days is over.

If you have got the MSA Letter and PTE/IELTS result, submit your own EOI in case things don't go well.


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

zaback21 said:


> I know. I know 2 people who lost Visa invite due to Mara agents competency. One agent vanished for 2 months and the guy could barely submit 20 mins before 60 days is over.
> 
> If you have got the MSA Letter and PTE/IELTS result, submit your own EOI in case things don't go well.




I know for sure you are concerned especially after my PM. :thumb:

The thing is we might anytime receive our first state invite (NSW). At least we are expecting. Out of nowhere they brought up this drama to terminate our agreement. We are worried that we will never come to know of the invite (in case if we receive).

After the 457 episode, all aspirants are hoping that they are in queue to receive state invite. 

I am currently feeling disgusted to have wasted a year, spent precious dollars, and now have to face these scums for no apparently no fault of ours. Nope our EA came positive long back. OUR EOI 189 & 190 is updated in the system. Other state EOI they have kept on hold!


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## zaback21 (Jan 18, 2017)

shets said:


> I know for sure you are concerned especially after my PM. :thumb:
> 
> The thing is we might anytime receive our first state invite (NSW). At least we are expecting. Out of nowhere they brought up this drama to terminate our agreement. We are worried that we will never come to know of the invite (in case if we receive).
> 
> ...


Write to MARA and tell them the whole thing and how they are blackmailing you.


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## shets (May 18, 2016)

zaback21 said:


> Write to MARA and tell them the whole thing and how they are blackmailing you.





Just hope our hard work & aspirations are not killed in the bargain! We have a lot at stake for us like others. :fingerscrossed:

Just want to get on with it for now. Of course I am contemplating all options if things don't work out.


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## theanalyst (Feb 19, 2017)

evangelist said:


> theanalyst said:
> 
> 
> > It is a lot of money, by any standard, and they are asking for more citing they need to do further research regarding new information. What I am asking is since they are immigration agent shouldn't they take such possibilities into consideration and include them well within their service description. Why in the world would I pay so much money for just filing and submitting the forms ? I have already paid their service charges (AUD 4000) and waiting on their judgement before lodging the visa. Being offshore is making this process even harder !!!
> ...


I don't want to come off too offensive. Like I said so far so good. I knew they were charging premium fees but I wanted professional consultation. But demanding extra fees doesn't seem too professional. Like you said they should have made a complete assessment before taking my case. I will talk to them first thing Monday. I just wanted to know the standard practice and maybe seek some help to make my argument stronger when I talk to them. After all I'm paying for overall consultation not in packets.


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