[terrytiler]

Hi guys
We are all set to emigrate to NZ in January 2011. Visiting for a reckie in Dec/Jan 2009/10. A bit confused as to which emigration company to use to help us on our way. Any experience or pointers would be greatly appreciated! Also, have been told by one company that we should start the visa application in December 2008 ready for activation during our reckie - however Terry won't have a job offer then ... is this harmful?
Look forward to hearing from any experienced people out there please!!!
Terry and Julie

[liamnrach]

Terry and Julie

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your journey....I cannot provide any 'expertise' as we are just beginning the process ourselves. You will find lots of good advice on here, some people will advise against using an agency, others will advise that they are good. It all depends on your personal circumstances. There are lots of posts on here that detail such information as many people have been through the same process as you are about to start. Just have a good mooch (is that a word?!) around and you will find some excellent advice. Use the search facility too, it is great for finding specific posts....

Good Luck...

Liam n Rach:p

[StevieD]

Welcome Terry and Julie.

As stated before on this forum, these companies are very expensive, and if you can fill out a form and use a phone (which is all that you have to do really) you are able to do it yourself and save yourselves thousands in the process. Thousands that will be much better in your pocket for other things, believe me! You can always ask questions on here if you get stuck, because it sometimes does get a bit much. But with a bit of perseverance and effort, you will be as well doing it yourself. It isn't too difficult. Try to find a local meet up with others in your situation, that makes the world of difference.

But it is your choice at the end of the day. Good luck whichever path you choose to take.

[Leanne]

Just wanted to say hello and welcome to the forum!

[JandM]

Hello, and good luck!:)

[icemaiden]

Hi there,

Like you, we are relative newcomers to this and hope to make the move at the end of December 2009. We initially decided to use an emigration company but after seeing the extent of the information and advice on this forum have decided to go ahead and go through the process ourselves. Our first stage has been to gather all the information together for the NZQA certification and once that comes back we will submit our EOI. Good luck with everything. Where are you thinking of moving to in NZ?

[JayBee]

Hi there and good luck with your plans.....(just check out whether you really do need a company, the process is not too difficult, especially with all the help on here. It's the waiting for results that is the hardest bit!!! )

[Carey]

As above, the process in not hard, just long and drawn out but plenty of help on here. If you use an agent you still have to locate all the documents yourself; can't quite see what you'd be paying for but obviously some people feel safer using an agent. Good luck!

[L00pback]

Hi

You essentially use an agent if you don't have the time to do it yourself. As we have found (having just had our second baby 19 days ago) we have very little time on your hands so we have decided to use an agent.

Yes they are very expensive but we feel that they will help in our quest to NZ so consider it to be a worth while expense (try not to think about how much it is costing as it does still hurt).

What they will be doing for us is filling out all the paperwork and applying at the appropriate time. They are also arranging for interviews (via a job agency) which will hopefully mean a job offer which is what I need for the PR. As well as this, when we move over to NZ they (again another company associated with them) will have setup a rented house, arranged a mobile phone, car etc to help us settle - essentialy removing some of the stress.

This might sound like we've taken some of the adventure out of the whole process but its still a daunting task and the end goal is what we are focusing on.

Something that doesn't get mentioned much is that we are also paying for their advise and experiance.

Our time scale will be for Jan next year and are currently getting all the paperwork together to give to the agent.

Hope this helps in some small way.

Must say though that this forum is an excellent source of help, advise and comfort.

All the very best in your quest and please keep us informed!

Cheers

Alan and Emma

[Dan_UK]

May I ask what agent is arranging your visa? Could you please pm me the name of the company?

[Kerry and David]

Welcome to the Forum. We were going to use a consultant but didn't choose wisely - after he took £700 just for meeting us we decided to go alone. However as others have mentioned everyones circumstances are different.
Good Luck.

K

[willow]

Hi
we are using an agent that i can highly recommend. it is a large organisation and not a one man band. we had them highly recommended and so far i can't fault the person looking after us. i am using my nurse quals and experience to apply and the process of gathering all of my experience evidence was driving me mad. our agent just kept coming up with other ideas when i hit a brick wall eg if a hospital only kept records of employment for 7 years. the agent is used to this type of thing and has options that i would never have even thought of. we are only at the start of the process compared to some others, maybe further down the line i will be cursing using an agent! like the people who have a 19 day old baby, we currently haven't the time to complete the assessment on our own. it would be down to me, my husband hates forms

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Hello and welcome.




Suzanne.

[Silverwing86]

Hi Terry and Julie and welcome to the forum !

As others have said, if your circumstances are not unusual it's very doable to go throug the process on your own. This forum is indeed a goldmine of information, there's always someone here with helpful hints and tips and the support is heartwarming :clap.

If you do choose to go with an agent (as we did and were glad of when we ran into some health issues on my part; their support was invaluable to us especially when the going got tough, they helped keep us positive), consider using a NZ based one as they're usually far cheaper. Also, we were very happy with their No cure - No pay policy so that we wouldn't lose out completely if for some reason PR didn't happen. That way we paid half up front and the other half only upon achieving PR.

Good luck with the process and don't forget to enjoy the ride !

Cheers,
Silver

[dylan]

As everyone else seems to have said the whole process is doable on your own. Saying that everyones situation is different and it is horses for courses. We are of the opinion to go through this process by ourselvs. This forum is fantastic, the people on here have either been through every possible senario you can imagine or know where you can go to get the answers you are looking for and the depth of knowledge is unbelivable. :D

A great bunch of people trying to help each other, and its all free. HOW GOOD IS THAT:D

Just do your reserch and take advice before you part with your hard earned cash for someone else to do a job for you that you can do youreslf.

Good luck.:nice1

[joeandsacha]

I would agree with the other posters on this one. Do it yourself and save the money.

There is a heap of information not just here but also on the Immigration New Zealand website. You should easily be able to find the forms you need and guides to filling them in etc.

If you can be organised and write a good plan of what you need to do and when, it becomes quite easy just breaking the process down into bitesize chunks.

I think people are scared of INZ thinking that if there is a mistake on their form they will be automatically rejected. But that's just not true. I've dealt with INZ directly and found them to be extremely approachable. Remember, NZ is seeking immigrants like ourselves and it's in their interests to help us through the process.

Of course it's up to you at the end of the day, but after going through the process ourselves, I'm very glad we didn't pay someone to do it for us. We've saved a small fortune and learnt a hell of a lot along the way.