What are your costs of immigration advisers/services?

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I'm up to my eyeballs in research on what is involved in the process of getting a fiance or spouse visa. I feel as though I will need to seek professional advise from a certified immigration advisor, but I have no idea what the general costs are (or should be).

Can anyone share their experience on how much they had to spend on advisors/services/legal fees etc?
Did you pay for an 'all-in' package, or a certain number of hours?
How many hours might one typically need? (I appreciate this will vary from case to case)

Any experience or recommendations would be greatly appreciated (I did search for quite some time to see if there was already a dedicated thread on this topic, but couldn't find anything. Please point me in the right direction if this has been covered elsewhere, though recent/updates information would be ideal)

Thanks in advance!

Hello J-bot and welcome to British Filipino.

At first the visa process appears to be a little daunting and complicated, take it from me, it does get easier to understand as you research more into it. If you have a straight forward case for example you are just bringing your wife/Fiancee to the UK and she has never been married before then the application can be done by yourself without the need to employ an advisor. Even if you employ an immigration advisor it will still be you and your loved one who has to chase around for all the required documents. Just take your time and review the threads on the forum, if you require any help at all with the visa process then the good people here on the forum will help you out.

I am sure others here can advise you on a good immigration advisor should you wish to take that route. Take a look at the link below, it explains how to apply for the settlement visa;

http://www.british-filipino.com/ind...r-a-partner-spouse-visa-under-new-rules.5740/

hello J Bot--and welcome--so--which do you want--fiancee--or spouse visa ? its the same forms involved. initial fee for fiancee visa is about £1000...but its going up in april. an immigration lawyer will charge about the same again for filling the forms out for you.

Hi. we used Marriagevisahelp, who were very good. It was a one-off fee of £750 quid!

Before that we used another one, who were not good.

Thank you Timmers, for your welcome and support.

Thanks for your reply bigmac, if there are pros and cons unique to the fiance and spouse visa, then I guess I want the one that is most suitable, cost effective, and/or likely to succeed... though I'm still in the process of trying to figure that out. In fact, that would be one of my burning questions for an 'immigration advisor': I'm in the UK, my girlfriend is still in the Philippines (I was there for almost 4 years, but returned to the UK a few months ago), so would I have to go back there and propose (i.e. acquire evidence there is an engagement), then come back to the UK again, get and hold a job for 6 months, then start the application process; OR go back to the Philippines and actually get married there, then come back to the UK, work for 6 months, then start the process. -------> I don't know if there are pros/cons to either of those scenarios

Thanks Maharg, I just found their website and I'll take a good look into it. May I ask: in hindsight, was the £750 worth it? What were they able to do/advise that you wouldn't have been able to do yourself? How long did the process take?

There is little between the two visa types, the main advantage of the spouse visa would be that your good lady could apply for a NI number on arriving in the UK, with the Fiancée visa you would have to marry within the validity of the visa (6 months) and apply for the FLR before the six months is up, only after gaining the FLR could she apply for the NI number Financially which ever way you look at it there is little difference.

Its all down to personal preference which way around you go about it, marriage in the Philippines of course would be good for the loved one as all her family could attend, like I said, swings and roundabouts.

j-bot--if youre thinking of going over there to propose--it would make sense to get married there on the same trip. it will save you having to get Further Leave to Remain for her if she married you in the UK (saves you £800 odd at the latest rates )

For me it was worth it, although I didn't know about this forum at this time.

We'd already had one previously unsuccessful attempt using Capital Visas, and someone who had used marriagevisahelp successfully recommended them.

They were very strict on what documentation to include, and also booked the appointments and did the application. Also gave good answers to many questions.

For me it was worth 750 quid, but all I wanted was to get the love of my life here. Money didn't come into it.

Overall we spent about 3500 on getting a fiancee visa!! Best 3500 I ever spent.

£3500 ? gonna be double that from now on

That's just the fiancee visa.

2 applications at 1000 each. 2 different visa agencies at 750 each.

Hello @J-bot we used UK Migration Lawyer for Marriage/Civil Partnership Visa, and for the EEA Family Permit after, the fee is 1,200£.
The lawyer do the application online,booking and Cover letter.
If i were to decide i dont need a lawyer, but its fiancee last call so i said fine. there's gov. uk website + British Filipino forum. You're all good. as long as your documents are right and complete.

And my rating to the lawyer is 3! I didnt get what i expected, what is 3x errors of filling up my application
to think he has copies of all our documents.
Goodluck!

This forum , has the best info i've ever read so far..keep it up guys x

Hi Calyn, thanks for your reply. Did you mean your lawyer made 3 mistakes on your original application, and it was still successful, or you spotted three mistakes they made and corrected them before sending the application?

Maharg, if it's not sensitive to you, do you mind sharing what/why your previous attempt was unsuccessful? For example: did you give incorrect information; not enough information; the wrong type of information; forget a document; explain your case to them in an unfavorable way? etc.
I just ask in case there is something I can learn from your experience, and hopefully avoid the same initial mistake. Thanks.

Our first attempt was a complete disaster, as I discovered when using a different agency second time round.

The documentatio we gave was totally inadequate, and even I thought it was but was assured by them it was fine.

For a start, I am self employed and should have sent in 2 years worth of accounts, Tac returns, proof of NI contributions and a letter from my accountant. They told me to just send in a tax statement to prove I pay tax.

Also we didn't do a cover letter writing about our relationship.

Plus I was renting a flat, and there wasn't enough time left on the tenancy agreement. In fact it was about to end and I was about to move, but they assured me it would be fine. It wasn't.

That's why I say be careful who you choose if you use an agency.

Second time round we used an agency that someone she was talking to at the place where you submit documents on their recommendation. We did it properly and were successful.

Thanks for sharing!
So just to confirm, the second agency you used (that you were happy with) was marriagevisahelp.com ?

The second one, that we were recommended and were successful with, was Marriagevisahelp.

The first one, that we were unsuccessful with, was Capital Visas.

If I can manage without an adviser and just depending on this forum for help, I am sure that you can.

I would agree with this. Had I known this forum was here when we first applied we probably wouldn't be stuck on the 5 year route now.

(Edit - just realised how you worded the post! What I mean is I'm sure she can manage without an advisor if she uses this forum!!)

hello! with the added complication of the wedding in PH running alongside the visa stuff, we decided "to heck with this" and paid about 700 (ish) to a company called Medivisa. Absolutely great, helped with every query no matter how lengthy or off the wall, and i found it to be a massive help when organising everything / working out what stuff goes where / who to talk to / what to do etc more so than the form filling in bit which is fairly straightforward.