[nixomon]

Hi there on this awesome forum,

There is tons of useful information here however I feel I would need some closer assistance regarding my case. I come from Eastern EU and thus it seems my work experience, university degree, medicals etc are not directly recognizable by NZ authorities.

Probably I should talk to some immigration consultants to facilitate the process? Could you recommend some? I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

Nick

[tigerlily]

I would talk to the NZ Immigration people directly. They are much less expensive!

[Hayden1002]

Totally agree with Tigerlily, ask on here, email NZIS, only go to a consultant as a last resort as it will cost you a lot of money. I bet most of the answers will be found from members on here.

[Jamie Smith]

I would be reluctant to accept advice outright from a forum unless the members know your circumstances intimately and have a breadth of experience. I suggest you add the forum to your information resources rather than rely on it exclusively - with all due respect to the contributors :)

NZIS/INZ are often the WORST place to go for information, especially the call centre staff when talking about anything other than the most popular visa.

Several agents offer a free assessment, some charge a small fee. For my money, a fee paid assessment has a greater commitment to it from the agent, as it initiates a commercial contract and if you have problems with their advice then you have further means for recovery.

But each to his own.

This forum can indeed prove very useful, but please bear in mind that many of the contributors will have different circumstances to your own, several will not yet be visa holders so might actually be giving incorrect advice(!) and taking one or two questions out of the context of the whole visa situation adds further risks.

Ask questions for free here but double check the answers :)

[Andy-Dee]

Nixomon
I agree with Tigerlily - only go with an agency as a last resort.

I don't know who Jamie Smith is but I don't agree with his advice. Agencies cost a lot of money and its easy enough to do it yourself. As for the advice to not speak to NZIS - thats so ridiculous!

[IanW99]

For a 'normal' application, then I agree with everything already posted. I really don't see any added value that an agent can provide, you would still need to provide them with all the information required for immigration so you may as well do it yourself.

There is one group of people where an agent may actually be useful and that is for those that need their information translated to English.

As the OP said that they come from Eastern Europe, then an immigration consultant may actually be the best way forward in their case. So, as they originally asked, does anyone have any recommendation for them?

[Jamie Smith]

Nixomon
I agree with Tigerlily - only go with an agency as a last resort.

I don't know who Jamie Smith is but I don't agree with his advice. Agencies cost a lot of money and its easy enough to do it yourself. As for the advice to not speak to NZIS - thats so ridiculous!

Hi Andy-Dee
I've been in the migration industry for 9 years, but am not a migration agent - we work with migrants directly and agents on business cases and now job search work. I guess I have been involved in about 800 cases.

I stand by my comments about INZ/NZIS being a less than reliable source of info.

In particular, should you ever need to ask questions about employment definitions and whether one job or another is deemed to be skilled, you will find the help desk to often provide inaccurate and ill thought through advice, albeit from a group of hard working enthusiastic and willing people - they just have very mediocre training and inadequate knowledge of more intricate issues.

I have also been to migration expos where INZ/NZIS staff have sent visitors over to a migration agent's stand to have their questions answered...

And help desk people usually graduate to become case officers, which is backwards I think.

Their other consistent errors in policy knowledge are refusing (often UK) people visitors visas on arrival at the airport where they are here to look for work, refusing people visitors visas requested as research for business migration ("well, as you intend to migrate you can't be a genuine visitor!"), and the list goes on - what is regional employment, what is full time, what is employment etc.

I agree that a straight forward case can be handled by the applicant, unless they are time poor or have other issues such as settlement needs, schooling concerns, specific employment requirements, suitable areas to settle, pensions transfers etc - all things a good agent can sort out or introduce to appropriate others more than an individual who usually only has an experience of one.

I guess if several dozen people were to offer opinions the quality of information would be more reliable overall, but my point is - don't only rely on forum contributions. I'm not saying ignore them/you, just add the opinion here to the mix and make sure you get a general consensus in the advice before making a decision.

[nixomon]

Hi all,

Thank you for your broad and engaged answers.

What I need to figure out at first place is whether it will be appropriate for me to apply for SMC. For that I have to find a reputable source to advise me on the recognition of my work experience and education since my country and university are not on the official NZQA lists.

Otherwise I would go for LTBV and will have to explore this further as well.

Jamie, you gave me the idea to visit a migration expo. I found one at http://www.migrantexpo.co.nz nevertheless the dates in 2007 and 2008 seem mixed up. Do you think it's worth it?

Best regards,
Nick

[dugdug]

Hi there on this awesome forum,

There is tons of useful information here however I feel I would need some closer assistance regarding my case. I come from Eastern EU and thus it seems my work experience, university degree, medicals etc are not directly recognizable by NZ authorities.

Probably I should talk to some immigration consultants to facilitate the process? Could you recommend some? I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

Nick

Can you give us more details about your work experience, university degree and medicals.

You would do well if you apply for a P.A.R (Pre-assessment Report) with NZQA. This typically serves the purpose of your degree being evaluated favorably in the future by NZQA. (provided you furnish proper documents).

Check out this link :
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/for-international/qual-eval/preassessment-result/index.html

Sameer

[Jamie Smith]

Hi Nick

It's not so much where you go for the info but who you get it from.

If there are exhibitors at the show who have wide ranging migration experience then yes it could be helpful.

Sameer has made an offer to help with assessment, and providing your circumstances would be identical to his/hers, or he/she has very wide ranging immigration experience then the offer could also be useful.

(Sorry Sameer, not sure of gender)

Otherwise I suggest talking to a range of migration agents (both fee for consultation and free ones) , NZIS drop in centres, fellow migrants and visiting other online forums and build up a consensus of opinion so you get a firm picture of where you stand and what your options are.

People in these forums need to be enthusiastic and persistent, as migration has its challenges and is not for the faint hearted, but sometimes enthusiasm is misplaced by assuming everyone has the same issues.

[Moorf]

Hi Jamie - how goes it! :)

Jamie's an old and generous forum member who has been nothing but helpful, he's worth listening too :nice1

[Silverwing86]

Hi Nick,

Might I suggest that if you do decide to go with a consultant, to choose one based in NZ ? Often their prices are far better and the good ones work on a 'no cure - no pay' basis, which means you only pay the full fee if and when you obtain PR.

We went with a (highly recommended) consultant who works with a fixed price (also important, so that there'll be no hidden costs down the line), charges half up front and the final half only after PR has been achieved.

We visited them during our recce trip in 2005 and immediately knew we wanted to work with them, such lovely people !

Again, what most people here say is true, most cases can be done without a consultant, which we were aware of when we started, but we felt comfortable having their support and felt it was worth the price for us.

In the end we were very grateful we had chosen to go with them as we ran into some (unexpected) medical problems and they were invaluable to us with both their knowledge and, more especially, the support they gave us when things got tough. Believe me, we definitely got our money's worth :yes !

Let me know by PM if you would like to have their details.

Perhaps others here have direct experience with consultants as well and are willing to share so that Nick can make some comparisons (always a good idea to do some 'market research') ?

Silver

[nixomon]

Hi there,

Silver, thank you for sharing your experience and advice. I would certainly appreciate your recommendation about these guys because at the end of the days what I need is to end up with a list of appropriate sources to check.

Jamie, thank you for sharing your throughout approach -- that's my view as well and what I'm trying to do here is to fill in the blanks with concrete data.

Ok, I've found some forums, NZQA PAR is certainly an option (thank you Sameer!), contacting NZQA call center sounds fine, a migration expo is an idea because there I could meet different agents, people selling businesses, NZQA and NZIS, job agents etc; however next migration expo seems to take place in spring 2008. But I miss any reputable agents still. There are a number of them on the web but what I hope to find here are some recommendations too.

Silver, it seems I cannot PM you. Could you please try to PM me?

Nick

[Jamie Smith]

Hi Jamie - how goes it! :)

Jamie's an old.....

Is that how you treat your valued contributors????

Doing well actually, looking at setting up NZ office for job search service next year, recently started it in Aus and getting plenty of interest, and maintaining the business plan services - haven't had biz plan refused on either side of the Tasman for well over a year now.

Planning a NZ visit in Feb/March to see family, remember what grass, trees and nice beaches look like (Melbourne has not much of any of these).