Flashback to a few days before we started the actual visa application process…. I am reminded of mine and my partner’s hunt for a “reliable” consultant to help us with the visa application process. We had consultant recommended by our friends in Sydney, with the help of whom they had completed their application. But, like a typical North Indian CA that I am, I had to look for other options too which could be cheaper and still did a good job (In other words “Sasta, Sundar aur tikaoo” or as they would say in English, “cheap and best”).
Here, I need to introduce my dear partner’s pearls of wisdom (these will keep appearing as we go ahead in the process). Whenever I suggest any such proposal of finding a “cheaper option” to any available “good” options as per her understanding, all I get from her is....
“Huh… you never listen to me…. You will end up losing money again, listen to your wife…….. She knows best for you… so go with what I am saying”!!!
Unfortunately, in the past whenever we had faced such a situation, I had ended up losing money……….. so this time I decided to gain some brownie points with her by listening to her in the first place and started looking for alternatives which were not “the cheaper” alternatives, but as I put it across to her….. “Something to compare with”.
PS: please note, my North Indian CA mind had still not stopped working!!!! J
So, after a lot of Google search and reading reviews of the available consultants, we narrowed it down to 2 more consultants in Pune old city area out of which one of them was supposed to be in the business of “exporting” people to Australia for years (he actually had that tagline!!!). We choose the upcoming weekend to visit both of them together and decided to visit the people exporter first (I don’t remember exactly why we made that decision, but we did regret it later….).
The “people exporter’s” office took us nearly half hour to locate in the busy city area. It seemed he had found the most deserted street in old Pune city to open his office. And what an office it was……. A double story old rickety building with the ground floor dedicated to coaching classes for IELTS and PTE exam (mandatory English tests to be cleared as a pre requisite for visa applications……. I will be touching upon the same in my upcoming post on my experience with the exam) which was empty at the time we reached there and a first floor office reserved for the owner. We were asked to wait at the reception… or so they called it and fill up an “appointment form” with some basic details. After a wait of 15 min (not sure for what reason, as we were the only ones sitting there, accompanied by a peon and a cleaning maid who had filled the area with the fragrance of floor cleanser), we were ushered into the first floor area to meet “Sir ji”, as they called the owner.
The first floor looked nothing like the rickety looking building from outside or the “government school” like class room of the ground floor. The whole floor was dedicated to “Sir ji’s” chamber which was well endowed with everything wooden you could think of. Our first impression of “Sir ji” was…… if he is going to look after our applications, we will surely never reach Australia!!!!.
The whole office was full of piles of paper. Behind a very full table was a 1958 look alike model of something that resembled a PC. “Sir ji” had pictures of all the gods you could think of on a panel behind him. Maybe he wanted to look secular to his clients. We had just made ourselves comfortable on the visitor’s chairs when his first question stumped us. He started off by asking us…
“Are you from Punjab??????”.
Now I know I am from North India and Punjab is one of the states in North India from where lot of immigration happens to countries like Australia and Canada but, there was nothing indicative on our face or clothes that could have induced this question…. Or maybe it was his “ice breaker” with all his clients to check if they were from Punjab, then the fees could be higher, since people from Punjab are hell bent to get to these countries, at any cost. We replied…
“No, what makes you think we would be from Punjab??”
He said…
“No, I thought if you were from Punjab I can offer you my “special package” and we can get this application going ASAP without any delay. I am a specialist in “Punjab region” and can get you to Australia in no time sir… I have lot of contacts!”
Well….. Our expressions were saying something else but our minds were already aligned and thinking the same thing….. “Lets get the hell out of here!!”.
He ordered some tea for us and took the conversation further than Punjab. What followed was a game of questions and answers about our background, our work, where we were from, why did we choose Australia blah blah blah….. Though we could not get the logic behind it we kept on with the conversation to see where it led. Till now there was no discussion on his consulting fee, the visa process and its fee and the documents required.
After 15 minutes of grilling us on our details (which felt more like the immigration folks of some country grilling us), he took the rabbit out of the hat.. the real thing... the deal!! We were offered three packages i.e. Silver, Gold and Platinum and I thought “now comes the real thing!”
The silver package was the stripped off of any “benefits” as “Sir ji” stressed on that word. It was a plain vanilla immigration consulting with documentation and application filing and “rest is your headache”.. in his words. The Gold package was with benefits like help in post arrival services like airport transfer to your location, local sim card and information on the city etc. The real thing as per “Sir ji” was the platinum package, which not only included all of this but also “guaranteed” job and “guaranteed” rental apartment once onsite. And “Sir ji” would personally look into the whole thing if we took this package. This was his most expensive package (though not expensive as compared to the cost told to us by our friends… I had done a good job there… grin on the face!!)
Now, we had done our research too and we knew that you could not get a job sitting in India for sure but it was not at all easy even after you landed in Australia. It took a while to land your first job.
“Sir ji” really stressed that we take the platinum package as it was the best as per his experience in whole industry. We somehow didn’t like the sound of that. Our immediate question was..
“If we take the silver or gold package, who will look after our application”
“Sir ji” replied very proudly,
“Oh that is taken care of by Manoj, my junior. He handles all other cases. I only handle platinum member’s cases.”
The picture became clear to us. If this was the plight of “Sir ji”, his junior would be a even worse. We looked at each other and it was like our minds were communicating. We immediately said in unison..
“Sure, we would think about it and let you know very soon!!”
And with that we did some more small talk and then asked for his leave. “Sir ji” was kind enough to escort us to the door of his chamber (remember it was a big chamber so required some walking) and again said…
“Think about it, I have been doing this for 15 years and have exported lot of people to Australia. I am the best you can get in this cost!!”
We didn’t know what to say and gave a smile and nodded gently.
“Sir ji” had got the best out of us! We left his office like our arse was on fire.
Once we reached outside, second proud moment of the day happened to us……. We both looked at each other and as if reading each other’s mind said in unison…
“Let’s not push our luck further by visiting the second shortlisted consultant in this area, let’s work with the consultant who our friends used to complete their application!!”
Simultaneously I also got the same pearls of wisdom from my partner as she always gives with an “I told you so” look on the face i.e. “Cheap is not the best!!!!” and as usual I had the “you are so right!!” look on my face... refer the first picture above for a reminder on this ;-))))))).
We thanked “Sir ji” once again for giving us this clarity of thought and bringing both of us together on this decision. We walked out of the deserted lane and headed to the nearest snacks shop to catch a quick bite (can’t leave the city area without having its famous samosas – an Indian deep fried savory dish which is my partner's favorite) and left for home. The following weekend we booked our appointment to visit the chosen consultant to start with our visa application.
Though we were happy we had clarity of thought on how we were proceeding with our visa application, we were unaware of the upcoming challenges with the application process and the goddam “English” exam….. more on that in the upcoming posts!!
Read on…….