the application is pretty straight forward... its all on their gov website... just need to spend (A LOT OF) time to read carefully and understand...

agent can't guarantee whether your application will or can be successful... they basically just runners...

they dont change oil, but perform "minor service" where they ensure that the vehicle is road worthy, hence the $150 price tag

if you know those owner operated mechanic, they can change oil - $30 for labour and dispose oil, supply own oil. No receipt as they dont want liability if you accident and car not reliable and they will be responsible if car is not safe because they "serviced" it, blah blah blah....

High income and trained qualifed mechanics ma.

those that guarantee ones (no visa, no fees) will only take your case if they are confidence you will get it as they are experience registered migration agency and got lawyers....
but you can say you know better cause you can read, ask forums and google, and you save a lot of money. there are also unregistered agents/runners and their cost will be lower.

Agents know loopholes they can exploit, you dont. They know which skill and subclass to park you under, what path, how to get extra points, etc.

As I mention before, I know people who think its pretty straight forward and screw up their process and got rejected.
Price of migration agents have gone up significantly or RM gone down significantly so that are a lot of savings if you are confident you can do it yourself.


This guy wrote some things to watch out for....


https://kclau.com/blogging/migrate-to-austr...comment-page-1/


1. Migration Agents Registration:
For most people who are seriously considering their prospect of migrating to Australia, they would go to a migration agent (based in Malaysia or Singapore). Before you even visit them, make sure you find out first if their name and company is being registered with the Australian Government Office of Migration Agent Registration Authority.

Visit their web site, and click on Find An Agent, type in their business name, Migration Agents Registration Number and the agent’s name and find out what is their current status. If the record says they are registered, that’s good. But if it says deregistered, it means they have failed to comply with certain standards required by the relevant authority.

Usually, if their record is clean, they will proudly tell you that they are registered with the Office of Migration Agent Registration and encourage you to visit www.mara.gov.au. Regardless they tell you or not, you should always go find out from that web site. But it does not follow that if they are legally compliant, they are ethically sound. You will have to find that out yourself.

2. Australian Immigration
This is the website that contains all the necessary information for anyone who wants to migrate to Australia. Even if you have appointed an agent to handle your Permanent Resident Visa application for you, you will be much better off to familiarise yourself with the overall Australian Migration Programme.

When you have an overall big picture view of the Australian Migration Programme, you will find it easier to discuss matters and possible options with your migration agent. For example, if you want to apply this year, you should know what plans the Australian Government have for their 2014-2015 period.

For example, in the web site, you will click on ‘media’ and then go to ‘fact sheets’ and get some very useful information as presented below:

With information as shown above, at least you will know which category you belong to and how many such visas will be given out the following year. You agent will also be less inclined to charge you a higher than necessary price because he knows you have done your homework yourself!

Understand that the migration agent is also constantly reading this government web site to keep themselves up-to-date with the latest legislative changes and all things related to Australia’s Migration Programme.

3. Buying Businesses
When buying a business in Australia, watch out for small businesses that are just slightly more than three to five years old. This is because the law here requires business sellers to show the past three years’ book keeping and financial statement records to potential buyers so that they can then make a more informed decision as to whether the asking price is justifiable or not.

The problem is that there are many small and medium business operators whose main income comes not from their daily business operations. For example, a café operator would start his café from scratch and then run it for three and a half year and then try to sell off his business to some cash rich and unsuspecting new migrant from China, Malaysia or Singapore – especially those who business migrants.

As you would have guessed by now, surely they will make sure their accounting books look as attractive as possible. How would they do it? They will make expenses as low as possible and make their profit as high as possible so that they will be able to sell for a higher price than would otherwise have been impossible.

4. Caution with the developer.
Fourth, be very careful with developers who mainly sell to the new migrant population and foreign buyers whose children are attending colleges and universities in Australia.

These property developers mainly employ staff with Asian backgrounds and have booths in shopping malls with a lot of Asian customers. Usually these apartments or condominiums are near university campuses and train stations. Local buyers would not normally buy such properties.

Would you buy an apartment next to a college campus in Malaysia or Singapore? Usually the answer is no unless you are interested in renting out to student tenants. Locals in Australia would not like that because they prefer working tenants (especially medical staff) rather than student tenants.

Another very common way these developers market themselves is through some educational seminar on how to invest in the Australian property market. Instead of training you and helping you learn about property investment, they will try to sell you their new developments.

I have a student who bought an apartment unit from one such agent at an above-average price and was greatly disappointed when he moved in four months later when the project is finally completed. Material used was substandard, space was limited and the possibility of making a profit will very minimal.

He even told me the only people he could sell to next time is to look for new migrants who do not know the market conditions here and preferably he or she does not much English as well. What a sad case. There is a big industry of business operators that prey mainly on new migrants and property developers are among them. Do not forget the café operators mentioned above as well.

5. Watch out for student agents:
If you come here on a student visa but your main objective is to eventually become a permanent resident, you might need to consult an agent on how to extend your student visa when it expires. Many students will have to change from one college to another if they want to continue staying in Australia.

So they seek help from student agents who supposedly will suggest they attend the right school to get the right qualification that will eventually help them get their permanent resident visa. But do not forget that such student agents do not really care if in the end you will get the PR or not.

All they focus on is get you enrol in the colleges or universities they represent so that they get their commission from them. It helps if they can also charge you a fee for giving you their advice.

This will help cover their business overheads such as their office rental and electricity bills. Do your own research. Do not rely on student agents to decide which college or universities you should attend.

6. Choose your business carefully:
I have a friend who bought a news agent business. He worked in that business for three years before he gave it up by selling it at a price that barely breaks even. In Malaysia he was a lawyer.

In this business he had to be at the premises every morning at 4am to collect the newspapers and had to stay till seven to complete his daily round of stock take and paper work. Very tedious, it is worse than working for someone. Now, he works for someone as an insurance underwriter. What is the moral of the story? Stick to your knitting.

That was the very reason why we had decided to not get involved with restaurant business in Australia. We have not done restaurant business before and do not want to risk our capital in unchartered waters. Of course, you call your shots. Nothing venture nothing gain. But I believe after a certain age, we have more to lose and less to gain if we do not have a realistic view of what our limitations are.

Meanwhile, there is a Singaporean man with a strong educational and journalistic background with the leading English paper in Singapore. He had observed that the English writing standards of student in Australian schools is appalling. So, he started a tuition centre mainly helping students improve their English writing skills and he is doing very well.

If you are already in the area of education in Malaysia or Singapore, I strongly recommend you to explore the tuition business in Australia. More and more parents are pushing their children to do well in school and government examinations.

They also want their kids to study in prestigious private schools and Ivy League Universities. So they need to prepare their kids to take the select school examinations in the hope that their kids will get full scholarship. In order to do well in select school exams, they will have to turn to tuition centres which specialise in grooming students to score in such exams and you will be surprised to know that these parents are very willing to pay for your services if they know you can do a good job.

Vir, you become migration agent already ah?....

no la...

just pro and cons of using agent or DIY

kawan regret didnt use agent cause screw up... no 2nd chance. now a slumlord in KL.

slum lord also ok what....lol

why no 2nd chance?...

those with straight forward cases going for 189/190 can easily do diy lah....it's those with borderline cases, not enough points etc, that may be helped by agents who can find other visa categories that may improve chances...

whether one is using an agent or not, for those who are applying for skilled migration (usually 189/190)... i personally will still strongly suggest him/her to do sufficient homework first, if he/she doesn't even know what subclass he/she can apply for... that's a huge red flag
you don't need an agent to tell you that you can claim partner points, take a NAATI cert, get state sponsorship or get a high score via PTE... its all over the internet

once you sort that out, you can get an agent to reconfirm your understanding and points... the first consultation is free anyway as far as i remember... they can tell you up front whether you can or cannot apply... and what kind of time lines to expect (together with the quotation of their services)

i know someone who got screwed up by an agent with plenty of promises in the end got blamed for delaying the application because he cannot get all 8.0 in IELTS... base on my conversation with the poor guy, its a miracle that he can even get near 6.0

This post has been edited by kenji1903: Apr 27 2018, 07:17 AM

he went agent after that, but agent say his chance is very slim due to previous application and didn't want to take his case...

last I heard he was planning to try NZ then maybe backdoor back to OZ....

Iianm, they don't blacklist you unless you have made a false declaration in the past....

That is why if your realise your eoi is incorrect and they invite you, it best to let the invite lapse and resubmit the eoi, than attempt to claim points without proof....

But this is common sense lah....

Didn't know got NZ backdoor....kiwi pr no right to stay in Oz....

IIRC... i think it was a 2 year reapplication ban if someone accepts an EOI but unable to prove the points

I know of a few ex-Malaysian who have taken up Kiwi citizenship more than 20 years ago and are now living and working in Aust while still using Kiwi citizenship. There was a bilateral Agreement which allows Aust and Kiwi to work in either country. I don't know whether that Agreement is still around. In Bondi, there were a lot of Kiwis there before but a lot of them have returned to NZ probably because it is easier to get a job in NZ nowadays. We get a lot of Torres Straits Islanders in Sydney who gets into trouble stealing cars and 'break and enter' and they are deported back to NZ. Nowadays if we see Torres Straits Islanders, we avoid them as they are commiting all kinds of crime and are people best to avoid. They look a bit like Aboriginals and usually huge in size with plenty of tatoos on their bodies.

Oh, yes, kiwis including those who naturalised, can have right of abode in Oz....but will still need to apply for a pr if they want to be eligible for welfare benefits....a special 189 (NZ) visa....

But it means you will need to naturalise into a kiwi....which often means losing your Msian citizenship....

In the 80/90s, Aust was a lot easier to land a job (with better promotion propects) so a lot of Msians in NZ took up NZ citizenship just so that they can work in Aust. However, I don't think there are many Msians in Aust who would take up citizenship just to work in NZ. Most Kiwis end up in Sydney because we are the nearest port to NZ.
On the subject on naturalisation, I notice that couples with children (from people i know in Sydney) would be more likely to take up Aust citizenship because they feel that their children is their future and they want to be closer to their kids when they get old and is highly unlikely to return to Msia to live.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 29 2018, 05:59 AM

I know ppl with NZ PR, not even NZ citizenship come to AU, then after stay 2 years apply PR and another few years apply AU citizenship.

Maybe they change and now this cannot jalan already... this I dunno. Thoas who are interested, then sendiri find out more, dun quote me.

Kiwi prs have no right of abode in Oz ever, but can of course use other visa to live and work.... usually the now defunct (as of this month) 457....

I know a bunch of ex-Chung Ling students who graduated from UNSW working in NZ in 1984 with NZ prs. We students who came in that era had to leave the country (Aust) for 2 years before we can apply for Aussie pr as there was an agreement between Aust and Msia to prevent the brain drain from Msia. Most of them applied for Aust pr after 2 years working in NZ (Auckland) and all were granted Aust pr. Some came back to Aust while a few others didn't want to come back as they were already in good positions. In those days, there were not many Uni graduates and you can easily land yourself a job with a Uni degree not like today where everyone seems to be a graduate.

Australia's immigration rules keeps on changing...so what you do and what eventually happens depends on your era....

In the 70s and 80s, it was easy to stay on....then the rule changed from mid 80s...and people had to leave....but it was still relatively simple and easy to apply for pr....

By end of the millineum migration because a "business" and an active policy to take in "high quality immigrants" that brings in much money was in official place....the numbers just vary depending on the political climate....

I have relatives and friends who migrated in all the eras....the vast majority are happy with their decision....although some had it tough initially....

I don't know of any that failed and return....but I know one who gave up the pr without going at all...

Among my group from Syd Uni, there was only one who failed and went back to KL. He was a mechanical enginner from Ipoh who was retrenched in 1992 (there was a mild recession in 1991-1993 in Aust). He had a wife and a young baby and he couldn't land himself another engineering job after being retrenched. I remembered vividly he was so down having to sell all his furniture and household stuff in Fairfield when he had to go back. He did quite well in KL after that helping his brother who was in the process of listing his construction company. Now that friend is a Datuk and lives in MK so sometimes if you can't make it in Aust, it may just be the start of something good.

I don’t think Malaysia ever enforce one citizenship like Singapore. I am talking from experienced, never had issues with Malaysia immigration.