What to look for in the best partner visa agents in Australia

Securing a migration visa in Australia can be a complicated and time-consuming process. Not only are the laws constantly in flux, but it can be impossible to get a straight answer from the Department of Home Affairs about what documents and level of detail you need to provide in your application.

That’s why many applicants choose to work with a registered migration agent. Working with a migration agent offers invaluable piece of mind and improved chances of success, ensuring your application covers all the right information and is in the best position possible to secure approval. Plus, a migration agent can save hours of preparation time by simplifying this complex process, guiding you through the journey and ensuring support is on-call whenever you need it. 

But not all migration agents are created equal– success rates, price, and customer service vary wildly. In fact, ‘dodgy migration agents’ are concerningly common, with  33% of migration agents in Australia navigating official complaints. 

We want to help you weigh up your options and make an informed decision about whether a migration agent is right for you—as well as how to sort the good from the not-so-good. In this practical guide, we’re sharing the key criteria you can use to compare agents and what to look for in the best migration visa agents in Australia.

In this blog, we’ll cover:

• Your migration visa agent checklist: 6 factors to considersome text
  • Factor 1. Track record
  • Factor 2. Price
  • Factor 3. Workload
  • Factor 4. Quality of service
  • Factor 5. Legal support
  • Factor 6. Rapport
• Your guide to the best migration agency in Australia

Your migration visa agent checklist: 6 factors to consider

The quality, service and experience offered by registered migration agents in Australia varies wildly. But by understanding what level of support you should expect from the best migration visa agents, you can put yourself in the best position to find a migration agent that suits your unique application’s needs.

1. Track record

Every migration agent has their own unique MARN (Migration Agent Registration Authority) number. By searching on the OMARA database, you can check if any agent has any complaints lodged against them.

Keep it mind that not all complaints are legitimate. In some instances, there may be unwarranted complaints lodged against agents so don’t take this as an immediate red flag.

The key here is to look for the number of complaints made against the agent (if any). If you’re seeing 10+ complaints every year for the same agent, chances are this is a red flag. In contrast, one to two complaints per year are worth investigating but more of an ‘amber’ than a red flag. 

Instead, a better metric for tracking the expertise of an agent is to ask for how many successful visas the agent has lodged in the past 12-24 months. Be specific and ask about the exact visa subclass you’re planning to apply for (such as an onshore partner visa subclass 820/801 or an offshore partner visa subclass 309/100).

💡 Matilda Tip: The best migration agents will have more than 10+ successful visa applicants under their belt in the past 12-24 months.

Plus, look for the agent’s customer reviews on third-party platforms like Google Reviews or Trustpilot. These reviews can’t be edited by the agent, giving you a more accurate insight into past applicants’ experiences with this particular migration agent.

When reading reviews, keep in mind:

• The average review rating and how many reviews this is based on: the higher the volume of reviews, the more data you’ll have to draw on.
  
• The number of 1-star reviews they’ve received: while a couple of bad reviews are fine, a large volume of bad reviews can signal a more systemic problem.
• ‍How has the company responded to bad reviews? Did they respond and seek to learn from the feedback, or did they ignore the negative reviews altogether?

2. Price

Applying for a visa is expensive (upwards of AUD$9,000 for partner visa applications), even before you add on the agent’s fees. 

Plus, the costs of working with a migration agent vary wildly—while most will charge around $4,000 to $5,000, some charge as much as $9,000+ or even as little as $3,000 if they’re short on work. 

Unfortunately, many agents don’t offer transparent pricing on their website. While many will say it’s because their pricing varies depending on the complexity of your application, this is also a common sales tactic to prompt you into an initial consult where they are more likely to persuade you into becoming a client.

When comparing agents, get clear on their migration agency fees first. This will allow you to get a feel for what most agents charge, allowing you to reduce your shortlist by cutting out really expensive options. 

Next, it’s worth looking for agents that offer a money-back guarantee on their migration agency fees. While your visa application fee with Home Affairs isn’t refundable, the best migration agencies will offer a money-back guarantee on their agent fees in the event that your visa is not successful.  

Be aware that some agents will use fear-based tactics over the phone to push you into signing up for their services on the spot, whether you really need to work with an agent or not. Always take your time and never feel rushed or pressured into making an on-the-spot decision.

3. Workload

One of the main reasons to engage a migration agent is to reduce the time and hassle of preparing your visa application. However, our conversations with past applicants reveal that the standard practice in the industry is to assign the lion’s share of work to the applicant.

“My agent just sent me a generic, cookie-cutter checklist. The sequencing of tasks wasn’t even right. I still had to spend >200hrs doing my own research and pulling the application together.” - Past migration visa applicant.

To put this into more practical terms, DIY applicants have been shown to spend 100-200+ hours preparing their applications. While traditional migration agents cut this down to ~30-70 hours, you’ll still spend plenty of time on painful tasks, like chasing up your friends and family for supporting statements and reformatting up to 100 documents to meet highly specific Home Affairs requirements.

But with a modern migration agency, applicants only need to spend around 15-30 hours on their application as they’ll do the heavy lifting on your behalf.

When comparing agents, find out what they’re doing for you to fast-track the application process. For example, the best agents will draft your 3-5 page relationship statement on your behalf, saving up to 15 hours of work on your end, plus ensuring it includes all the essential information that Home Affairs wants to see. 

“It would have been great to have received more guidance on the evidence to provide for each requirement. For example, does travel history for the family unit mean all my family members or just family members that are on the application? For the bills, is every single page needed or just the front page?” - Past migration visa applicant.

These agents will also handle one of the most painful parts of preparing your partner visa application: preparing evidence in the form of a family book or photo album. Simply share relevant photos and screenshots with us and they’ll produce an album that’s designed, formatted and captioned in line with what Home Affairs is looking for. 

Plus, they’ll even be able to pre-fill 10 years’ of travel history based on information from Government databases, rather than asking you to dig up this information on your own. 

If an agent is promoting their own ‘application portal’, it’s important to really dig into the quality of these tools. By asking the agent to share screenshots of the platforms they’re using, you’ll be able to assess whether it’s going to make your life easier (or if it’s a clunky, outdated system that will cause more stress than it is worth). 

It’s also worth interrogating the task instructions provided by agents. How clear are their instructions, and is it easy to understand what you need to do? Many forms and tasks can be complex, which means its essential your RMA can guide you through the steps with specific, detailed instructions. 

💡 Matilda Tip: Make sure to scrutinise the resources offered by potential migration agents. While many will offer checklists, many past applicants we’ve spoken with found these resources to be incredibly generic, poor quality and often useless. Our tip? Ask any potential agents to provide copies or examples of these resources so you can understand how useful they’re going to be. 

“I found it more helpful looking at my friend’s old statement than using the template provided by my migration agent.” Past migration visa applicant.

4. Quality of service 

When we talk about the quality of service, this covers everything from responsiveness to communication skills. Successful visa applications are prepared and written in English, meaning having your application prepared by a fluent English speaker is integral to your success (something that isn’t always guaranteed at migration agencies). 

As we’ve discussed, many migration agents win business by advertising that they offer unlimited calls, meetings or on-demand support.

In reality, many agents are too busy to live up to this promise, meaning they might not be available to meet for weeks when you need an answer within a matter of days or even hours.

“It was advertised that they could have unlimited catch ups, but the agent was so hard to pin down. They only ended up meeting with us 3 times for 15 minutes.” - Past migration visa applicant.

That’s why it’s crucial to dig below the sales pitch and find out exactly what level of support you’ll receive from a prospective migration agent.

A good migration agent will make it easy to book a consult or meeting at any point during your visa application process and won’t leave you waiting weeks to receive a response.

5. Legal credentials

When comparing agents and agencies, it’s helpful to look for teams with legal expertise. Ideally, you want to find a team of registered agents who also have lawyers on staff. This allows you to access the expertise of a lawyer and agent under one roof rather than only working with an immigration lawyer.

Typically, immigration lawyers tend to be seen as more credible than migration agents. That’s why many migration agencies will position themselves as lawyers—giving them the ability to charge more for a service that isn’t necessarily more comprehensive.

In our view, we recommend opting for an agent that has extensive experience in your particular visa category to ensure you’re working with a specialist.

In practical terms, working with an immigration lawyer costs upwards of $9,000 for a simple partner visa application, while you can secure the same service from an agent from an average of $4,000 to $5,000. Your primary concern is to secure your visa successfully and ensure that the process is as easy and stress-free as possible rather than paying the highest fee to make that happen. 

6. Rapport

Applying for a visa (particularly a partner visa or prospective marriage visa) is a deeply personal experience. Not only will you be preparing and sharing evidence about your partnership (whether you’re engaged, married or in a de facto relationship), but you’ll need to gather and create supporting statements that showcase your relationship is genuine, continuing and to the exclusion of all others.

So, it’s important that you find an agent that you can communicate openly and honestly with—the more comfortable you are, the easier it will be to prepare your application.

Your agent shouldn’t push or pressure you into signing up for their services. For example, good agents won’t use aggressive sales tactics such as telling you, “Your application will be unsuccessful unless you work with us,” or demand an immediate answer by the end of a meeting or call.

Instead, they should offer a free initial consultation to help you assess your eligibility and give you a chance to assess their skills, expertise and communication style.

Looking for the best migration agency in Australia?

We get it: finding a reputable migration agent is tough. It’s why we’ve spent hours doing the hard work for you to curate your definitive guide to the best migration agents for partner visas in Australia. 

We know we're a little biased, but at Matilda, we think we do a pretty good job. Our mission is to redefine the industry standard when it comes to migration agencies. 

As a modern migration agency, we use tech to simplify an incredibly complex, stressful process: preparing a visa application. This allows us to provide a lawyer-quality service, at the price of a migration agent. We even offer a money-back guarantee* that ensures you’ll receive a refund if you won’t secure your visa.

In practical terms, that means we’ll never ask you to do something we could complete on your behalf and will never ask you to use clunky, archaic tools that feel like they’ve come straight from the 90s. We’ll always treat you like a human (not a paycheck) and most importantly, we’ll work with you to ensure the best chance of successfully securing a visa. 

We’re so confident that we can deliver that we’ll even offer a money-back guarantee on our fees if you don’t secure your visa*. 

If your circumstances are relatively straightforward, you might opt to prepare your application on your own. Find out more about the DIY vs Matilda Visa approach to see what’s right for your situation.

If you’re thinking about working with a migration agent, find out how Matilda compares to a traditional migration agent.