[findlays]

Hello All,

I'm sorry in anticipation of all the questions I am bound to load on to the forum over the next few days, but your help is really appreciated.

We have contacted an agency called the Visa Centre, and would like to know if anyone has used them or got any recommendations of a good/bad imm agencym before we commit ourselves.

Thanks in advance. :D

[gil]

Findlays,

Hi, I think if you do a search on here you'll find that the majority of people have not used agencies and that some who have unfortunately had rather bad experiences. Not sure if you're now looking at straightforward (if anything is!) PR, 'cos if you are, DIY is very straightforward process and there are loads of threads on here about it.

http://www.emigratenz.org/regulation-immigration-agents.html is a recent thing about regulating immigration agents.

My personal preference would be for DIY as I can't see what agents actually do for their (usually) enormous fees. My brother-in-law and has family have used one for emigrating to the US and quite frankly, they didn't add mcuh to the process, mark's had to chase them so often, he might as well have been chasing US Immigration.

Anyway, good luck with your journey, and please feel free to keep asking those questions,
All the best

Gil

[Trigirl]

money to an immigration agncy to do an NZ visa application = money down the drain. completely pointless when its so straightforward to do it yourself.

[jess]

If you do handle the process yourself (which I also recommend), you might like to see this thread (http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6142) that has a great overview of what's involved under the skilled migrant category.

[StevieD]

Advice - DON'T TOUCH THEM!!!!!!!!!!

Depending on which route you are looking to go down, there really isn't any need. If you have the skills necessary to go down the Skilled migrant route, or if you are a tradesman who want to work on a visa, check the imimigration website. If you want to peruse a good book instead, go to the bookshop, get a good book on New Zealand called Living and Working in New Zealand by Mark Hempshell. That is like the "bible" of emigration in my estimation.

You are obviously on the web, so go to the www.immigration.govt.nz website and read through. Do the points test, which should tell you if you have enough to go for it. Or any other path, it isn't that difficult to fill in, you don't need some guy in a suit telling you a load of twaddle when you are more than capable of filling in a few forms and reading yourself. And, they do cost an arm and a leg too.

Good luck whatever path you take, but again, my advice would be to go it alone.
Any advice and guidance can be found on here - just search, if you can't find, ask, you'll be amazed how good this forum really is.

Steve