Good Advice - What It’s Worth

I have been asked more than once this week, by prospective clients, why paying for advice might be a good idea…of course, I can only offer a semi-biased answer, because I do what I do for a living, but you dont do what I do for this long, without actually being able to add some significant value. So whether you use me or someone else, getting advice to assist with the New Zealand visa process, is a good idea.

Yes, good advice will cost you money, but it might also stop you from spending a whole lot more on trying to fix a mistake or worse, missing out on a visa (and your chance at a new life) entirely. The process of moving from one country to another is very different to deciding on which vacuum cleaner to buy and arguably relocating with your family is more of an investment, than a purchase. We tend to see it this way, investing our skills in to securing a new life for a family or individual and we place a tremendous amount of value on the importance of that process.

However not all advice out there is created equally and like most things in life, you do indeed get what you pay for. One of the main reasons, I have been asked this question of late, is because people have paid less for the advice than they should and received very little of it…leading them in to some difficult situations.

So how do you know if the advice you are getting is good advice? Why can’t you simply do this process on your own and what should you be looking out for in terms of that so called “free advice”? These are all questions we aim to try and tackle in this weeks article.

Why You Need It

Visa policy is complex…believe me I know, as I have been involved in a minor way, in developing some of it. What might sound like a good idea or even a simple one, becomes incredibly complex when you start to factor in all the different elements. For the average applicant, this can be a complete minefield, usually because they aren’t familiar with the actual rules that sit behind the website chatter or the application forms.

Visas Are Complex

Whilst the Government has tried to simplify the process, the fact remains, visa rules are complicated.

If you are considering a move to New Zealand, which is likely to be a permanent one, and you are packing the family up (kitchen sink and all) you need to make sure you a) know that you qualify and b) be prepared for potential changes along the way.

You would be surprised how many applicants make significant assumptions as to how the process might unfold, and don’t really give much though to the end goal, beyond securing a job offer and a work visa. In fact just this afternoon, I was contacted by someone who is here on a work visa, has been “advised” they can apply for residence, but in fact cannot and unless the rules change (which they might). This is pretty common, particularly at the moment, given so many people arrived on work visas, in the post-covid era, but very few of them had any regard (or sought out good advice) as to what happens at the end of the work visa.

If you wanted to build a house, you employ an architect, if you wanted to find out what might be ailing you, you see a doctor and equally if you want to sell up, pack up the family and move to another country, securing the advice of someone with the expertise to make that happen is fairly logical.

Yet, we do see a lot of people trying this on their own and yes some are successful, in that process, not without putting in potentially more time and effort than they prepared for. Even if plenty of people might get through the first part of the process (temporary visas), the residence application is an entirely different beast to try and manage.

What You Pay For It

You get what you pay for and arguably if you don’t pay for anything, you wont get much. For some people the move is a very costly exercise in it’s own right and so there is a tendency to want to save as much money as you can along the way. This includes trying to navigate the visa process on their own. However what invariably happens, is that most people end up spending more than they might have outlaid on a good adviser - not necessarily in terms of dollars, but in terms of stress, anxiety and the risk of a failed application.

You Get What You Pay For

Moving to another country is a big deal and you need to have the right tools and advice on board to make it work.

I used to tell people that what I do is not “rocket science” but instead, I offer a sort of insurance against things going wrong. However with the recent speed of changes to our system, the built in complexity in terms of how applications are assessed (just trying working out which median wage applies to you) and the quality of decision making coming out of INZ, I think it might be easier to send a rocket in to space.

People also assume that INZ is there to help you along the process and that once you lodge an application, if there are issues they will work with you to sort it out. This is very rarely true and in fact INZ case officers make a point of telling applicants that they cannot give “immigration advice” - technically true as they are not licensed, however hardly helpful if your application might be going off the rails.

What INZ expect is an application that is “decision ready” which means what you submit, should tick all the right boxes and prove that you qualify for the visa you have applied for. If it doesn’t then they don’t go through a process of trying to fix it, they simply tell you where you went wrong, expect you to sort it out, before they make a decision.

Getting this right from the outset, and spending some time and money on good advice, will mean your hard-earned dollars spent on application fees with INZ wont be wasted. Essentially you pay for good advice to make sure that what you pay to INZ is money well spent. A good adviser will explain where your application might be weak, advise you if you should hold off on applying and if you are eligible, present INZ with an application that has only one outcome - approve.

The Danger Of Bad Advice

For those looking to do this on a bit of a budget, one very tempting place to look is social media, and usually in forum groups dedicated to the process of migrating. These are often run by people who have made the move beforehand and therefore think they know how it applies to everyone else or by those who offer advice for a fee (licensed advisers usually).

A Free Lunch

Plenty of people claim to know how this process works, but in reality they only know how their situation worked…

Whilst these forums can provide some limited information in terms of the logistics of the move, they are more often than not filled with people attempting to promote themselves, giving out very general advice or worse, giving out completely incorrect advice.

Whilst all of this might be well-intentioned, the issue is that unless you speak to someone about your specific set of circumstances, all you are doing is comparing what you think you know with what others know about their own situation - never a good mix and often completely irrelevant to your situation.

If you are going to do this properly, then it pays to speak to someone with experience, who values their time and therefore will charge you for it, and who can give you a realistic and practical explanation of your options. That may not be exactly what you want to hear, but it will be what you need to know.

Moving your family out of their comfort zone and then taking them and yourself through the visa process is not for the faint of heart and often its the stuff that is hard to hear, that is the most important information to know. We take great pride in being direct and upfront with our clients, so that they are armed and ready to go, challenges and all.

Seeking out advice that tells you only what you want to hear or taking advice that is offered by someone with no experience in this process, but dished out for free is dangerous and if it doesn’t make the process more costly and difficult, it could potentially lead to failure.

Over twenty years in this industry and I could tell you far too many horror stories of people who have relied on social media to manage their move, many of them having to pack up and head home, when it inevitably goes wrong.

Need Some Help?

Our process is pretty simple, we like to offer people a very basic, preliminary assessment of their options, at no charge. We gather the information through our online assessment form, and then we provide a response on whether we think it might work, won’t work at all, or we need to know a bit more.

If we believe it might work, then we invite you to either a free, but brief discussion on the options (usually 15 minutes) or a more detailed, full discussion lasting an hour or more to go through the details (cost applies). We charge for that second process because the advice we have to offer is valuable and comes off the back of decades of experience in this industry.

From there, if we can identify a pathway for you and you are clear on the options, we can provide you with a quote of costs to make that process happen, usually by offering a fixed fee, with payments staggered throughout the process (as you achieve certain steps). Are we the cheapest in the industry - not at all, but then I make no apology for that, given the investment we make into managing the process for our clients.

If you are interested, then get in touch or fill out our online form today and let us work out what your options might be, with advice that will not only be worthwhile, but will potentially change your life.

Until next week…