You are here:

Thank you for understanding that we cannot help you! (well, sort of.) We cannot provide you with legal advice about your immigration application or any individual aspect of immigration policy.

Our assistance for non-agent clients is solely limited to providing business planning advice in the context of the main audience for that work. Our business plans will not suffer from the lack of agent input, but you will need to make sure that your own case preparation is as good as what you could obtain from a professional.

The application should still end up reflecting the combined business knowledge of our client and ourselves, and they will still address normal commercial considerations required by a State Government business development agency.

Using an agent is not compulsory, and in some cases is not even necessary - where the reader is well informed about general immigration requirements, specific business migration policy and State Government interpretation, then there should be no downside to doing it all yourself.

The area for caution are that the information you can readily access in the public domain is mainly limited to information guides and fact sheets. Underneath these non-legally binding documents, there are the PAMs that lay out how the immigration policy is to be decided and the immigration regulations, upon which any legal argument is decided.

If there are any areas of concern with your application, you should consider taking advice from someone who has access to the PAMs and the regulations - either a DIAC official or a skilled migration agent who holds MARA registration. MARA registration is generally limited to Australia residents and English speakers, so there will be many overseas agents who can never gain registration who otherwise would be able to.

Equally, there are several horror stories about overseas agents who are not MARA registered who did a poor job of preparing the application and mislaid the truth to cover their tracks, so you need to choose carefully.

There are many competent non-MARA agents, and if you choose to use one we would suggest that you check out their experience in dealing with these particular business cases. The Migration Institute of Australia is a good starting point, as there is a robust code of conduct and support systems that help members deliver good service.

The latest newsletter from DIAC to migration agents stated “most agents had a very high success rate” and “many agents who lodged large numbers of applications had close to 100% success rate”. the implication is that if you are using an agent, make sure you go to one who can demonstrate a track record of success.

Perhaps ask to see their “happy customer” letter file, some will also show you copies of DIAC letters conforming success for other cases of your visa type. We do not suggest that you instantly go with the cheapest agent you can find, a low price might imply they are trying to build up their volume and are coming off a base of low experience.

Another indication of competence is to see if the agent holds membership of other professional immigration organisations in other countries, such as OISC in the UK, NZAMI in New Zealand etc.

You can also refer to other applicants who have gone down the same path and been successful, or the popular internet forums for migration. Bear in mind that these sources are not in a position of providing an in depth assessment of your situation, what you consider to be the issue and what they answer might not be the real concern in your case.

By now you will be getting the idea that we think you should use an agent. Well, it makes our job easier as we can discuss policy with an agent but not the individual. But we agree that many people can succeed in managing their own case and if that applies to you, then go ahead.

Our opinion about using an agent is that they are like a form of insurance - the risk is all yours if you do not use one, it is not compulsory to use one, you get charged a fee if you use one, but you will kick yourself if your case got declined over an issue that could have been avoided if you had indeed used one!

Click here to download our client questionnaire. Complete it in full and send it back to us, we will reply to you with business suggestions within 2-3 days.

(C) State Sponsorship Services Pty Ltd 2007. This web site does not contain Australian immigration advice. Viewers who need this advice should consult a registered migration agent, refer to Migration Agents Registration Authority. Entry to and use of this web site means that the viewer acknowledges that State Sponsorship Services Pty Ltd does not provide immigration advice and cannot be held responsible for the outcome of any immigration application that is lodged as a result of the viewer accessing this web site.