Do it yourself or use an agent Sender: blieble

I have to say that I thought it all looked relatively straight-forward myself too, but decided to use an agent for peace of mind - mainly around the ACS RPL skills buttessment.

I had to pay å£425 up front and no more until I submit the visa application (another å£425). I thought that it would be worth it to get someone in the know to completely check over my forms and documents for the skills buttessment. Since I wrote 25,000+ words, this still seems like a wise idea!

My agent checked the documents over for me, made a few suggestions as to improvements, and crucially, gave me an indication as to the likelihood of me pbutting - apparently a pretty good chance, touch wood.

They've given me a list of exactly which documents I need (including full birth certificates, which surprised me) and are completing the application form for me. They have also answered all of my questions (big or small) within a few hours - regardless of when I sent them. I'm not sure they sleep!

Anyway, the forms can be done yourself - it looks easier than a tax form btw! - but it just comes down to how good you are at filling forms in, whether you want someone to ask questions (or spend hours on here!), cash- flow, peace of mind, etc.

Personally, I think there would be nothing worse than failing on something minor that you've missed, although my biggest fear is that I'd fail on something major because I'm clearly not good enough! That's when peace of mind helps me sleep!

Best of luck with it to all of you.

Dazz

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