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Roberta Hill, Wander After 70's avatar

Let me give you another tip.

The e-visa you get are tied to your passport. We traveled from New Zealand Australia, quite often. At one point we had our passports renewed.

We showed up at the airport to find that our Visas were no longer valid. Fortunately, we gad arrived to the airport quite early and I had time on my phone to get new ones online. They were validated within the hour.

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Kiera Jessica M's avatar

That’s super interesting - thanks for the additional tip! Glad your visas were validated within the hour 💜

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Melbourne Snap (Sam Shedden)'s avatar

This gets a lot of people. They're perfectly legal because they're "helping" you do the admin for the visa, but in reality, they prey on people's uncertainty.

We once used a migration service to get a residency permit sorted. Complete waste of money. They charge hundreds and then basically just fill in the online forms for you. You still have to do all the annoying stuff like find relevant documents, proof of relationship and so on.

I'd only ever suggest someone uses special migration services if it's something complex like an overstay appeal, refugee status or another very specific case.

My wife and I have probably spent north of £15,000 over the years on UK and Australian visas, residency permits and citizenship. 🥲

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Kiera Jessica M's avatar

It’s so messed up and sly how they work around being legal because they’re helping you. I mean they did do my visa, but more stress than it was worth defo!

That’s super interesting - I may request your expertise and some advice in the future regarding immigrating to Australia it seems like there’s so many different avenues and forms etc. My husband was on the phone to an immigration specialist the other day and they made everything sound so easy and wanted to rush things and we were like woah, we’re only enquiring at the moment for the distant future. Very sketchy. I’ll take your advice for sure!

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fialka 🌸's avatar

Oh my god, I am fully aware these scam sites exist and still almost got scammed on my visa to Canada. The only reason I didn't proceed with the application was because I had gotten the visa before and roughly remembered it being cheaper. Such a shame! Glad everything worked out for you in the end though.

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Kiera Jessica M's avatar

Glad you didn’t get scammed for your trip to Canada! ❤️

Ah yes it was a lovely trip, it’s made me want to move there 🤣

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Capt. Dallas's avatar

Great read! I have researched sailing into Australia.. it’s one of the most difficult and complicated countries to check into on a boat. That’s what I’ve read anyway.

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Kiera Jessica M's avatar

Thank you! ☺️ oh yeah I can imagine that for sure, but wow it would be so beautiful. You should check out YBS Youngbloods channel on YouTube he has a boat and often sails around all the islands off the coast of Australia and finds his own food for him, his dog and his family. It’s super interesting.

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Tay Cook's avatar

This is my actual nightmare! When I fly to China I have a 10-year visa in an old passport, so I have to carry both. It's always a dice-roll if I get an agent who has no clue what to do with 2 passports and needs assistance or just waves me through without checking anything at all.

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