We were in the fortunate position of both being able to apply independently as 136 ers - the wife's a nurse and I'm an accountant.
Went to the Emigration event at the SECC in Glasgow with this specific question in mind - what can affect the speed of the application? After all, in a perfect world, I'd like to be putting the house on the market whilst there are still leaves on the trees.
The appointment of a CO seems to be an alphabetical one - with some CO's have a poor reputation for speed. One emigration lawyer suggested the CO's often cherry picked from their case load in terms of clearing away the 'easier' applications, before looking at more complex cases. He then suggested that employing an emigration agent-lawyer could 'in theory' therefore result in a quicker buttessment as the CO could look on those application's as having been more professional filled in and therefore less likely to be 'difficult'. I honestly took this as a significant amount of sales patter, but you never know.
Another agent said there were no preferences other than being on the SoL, although he suggested healthcare workers we sought after.
As the wife's skills buttessment arrived first (I'm still waiting on the NIA for mine) we've taken her as the main applicant.
Hope this helps
David
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