Tamarin wrote:PS: I wasn't looking for an agent to buy my way past the rules, jump the queue, get into another lane, try to bend the rules, or commit any form of fraud. I was asking if anyone knew of, or could recommend an agent that could save me all the hassle of finding out what was possible within the rules. The friend I referred to, I believe, simply did the same. I'll write to him and get the full story.
I can't quite understand why asking a simple question on whether anyone could recommend a good agent resulted in the type of replies I received.
I think the thing here is that the rules and forms are pretty clear. The state's intention is you DIY it, and there's pretty good anecdotal evidence that using an agent is positively held against you. An agent has no 'special knowledge'. In fact I'd vouch no agent understands the rules better, or provides 'advantage' vs the collective knowledge on this forum and using a DIY approach. If I were ICA and I received a visa application from a long-time PR, that came via an agent, I'd be asking what's so complicated, why the agent, what in the application might be being 'burnished' (aka 'polished up')?
Think about it that way. Agents charge a fortune, they can only go on info you give them, and we've seen instances where they've made a right ball's up of the subsequent application. So asking here for recommendations on an agent is rather akin to asking which tree is best to hang yourself from
Tamarin wrote:My GF comes and goes at the moment on a tourist visa. She never stays more than 30 days anyway, but the more often she does it, the more often she gets questioned. I, on the other hand, go back and forth to Oz with no questions and no probs* - so you can see where that's going to lead and where I don't particularly want to go.
I was in the same shoes as your GF, but repeat travelling from London to be with my then GF, now wife, in New York. I was travelling under the Visa Waiver Scheme. After quite some while, maybe 8 months, the occasional question from USCBP turned suddenly into being taken away for '2ndary inspection', which I'd liken to an occasionally polite interrogation. At which point I was allowed in but told 'Get a visa or you're not coming back'. That is what I did, and I look back on it now as the US having a way to vet all my credentials at their leisure, rather than me requiring them to make an on-the-spot decision each time I tuned up at JFK/EWR. That of course requires that you have the credentials to get a visa. And as has been discussed before here, Singapore has no effective 'Multiple entry GF/BF visa'. She's either a tourist, (who in aggregate spend 2.5 days here on an average visit), or she is at the least your
de facto spouse.
Tamarin wrote:Thanks however for putting me squarely in the picture - I was thinking of taking a trip down to Lavender to enquire personally, but that also now seems will be a waste of time.
ICA are not going to tell you anything that is not on their website, or application forms. I.e. they're not going to help you make your application more likely to be approved.
Have you tried printing off the application forms and guidance, and boiling down any outstanding concerns?
* You have a multiple entry tourist visa for Australia, and when she visits here she's relying on SVP-visas on arrival?