Two Week'S Of Working Undercover For An Immigration Agency In The Uk

[kobrien]

I have recently had the displeasure of working for this Immigration

agency in the UK.

They go under the name of (name removed),but you would know them better as

They also have an association with xxxxx court chambers and they have

recently been

unregulated for mis-selling.

It was an open joke that the first website was mistaken for the home

office as they had a higher ranking

when you typed in UK Visa,the company played on this,and the customer

sometimes paid them money thinking

they were speaking to the home office.

In my time there,there was no real training,we were given a folder and

told that there would be

a test at the end of the week,this test never arrived and was

forgotten about by the management.

We spent the whole of the second week listening to calls

unsupervised,one day would have

been sufficient,but as one of their websites was banned from taking

new customers

there was a short fall of customers to deal with,this resulted in

EIGHT people being sacked.

Their sales strategy was to play on peoples fears,if a couple had a

notable age gap the advisor

was told to tell the customer that the home office does not like big

age gaps,if there was a visa rejection

the advisor was told to say that unless they used our company there's

a higher chance of this happening again.

The boss of this office,he preferred tell people on

the phone that his name was Michael,(this wasn't his name)

each morning he would come into this office that had not been cleaned

for at least a year and ask people

why they were there,he would ask this, around a dozen times,each time

he asked the response he was looking

for was greed,people responded with 12 different ways to say

greed,lots of money,to buy nice things.....

After we were told we were no longer regulated they then gave us a new

sales speech which

included the line that we use qualified UK Barristers to deal with

your case,the actual reality is less than

straight forward,when I asked of a name of a Barrister we use,they

could not give one,''Just tell them its

(name removed) chambers'', Yes but who,I then got told its complicated.

A few days later we were told that its not barristers that deal with

the case,its actually trainee law students,your

cases are given to non qualified students, who are over looked by a

qualified barrister,who is the barrister, was my question,its

complicated came the response.

If you have spoken to one of the agents,and they tell you that they

are putting you on hold so they can speak to the legal department,this

is so they can chat to their friends,go to the toilet,have a

cigarette,there is no legal

department,and from what I see they do not speak to anyone,after 5

Min's of waiting they then give you

the spiel about the legal department are happy to take on your case.

Most people at this stage want a few fears put aside,knowing that if

they do pay this company a lot of money to

sort out their partners visa,here are a few convincers I heard when

listening to calls...

* If your wife is not worth the £1500 I am asking for then I feel

sorry for your wife,if your wife could hear you

now,I think she would cry,is that what you want ? do you want to make her cry ?

* I feel disgusted and sorry for your partner,If I had someone that

really loved me,I would hope they would prove it

by taking care of the visa.

Most of their customers were in distress,you could hear it in their

voice,a lot of the time,the advisor would

be acting concerned but laughing at them by putting them on hold and

informing the whole office

about their clients downfall.

The managers number two,would constantly tell people that the

customers from any African nation,Indian nation,or anywhere which is

classed as poor that the advisor should put the phone down as they

are no good and we did not need to waste our time on poor people.

Gold customers is a term used by them, when the person who requires a

visa is coming from Thailand,Philippines or anywhere from South east

asia,we were told that even if their partner were not rich, they more

than likely had a

credit card and are good to be sold to,talking of selling,one team

leader mentioned the term...

IF YOU MAKE THEM CRY,THEY WILL BUY, we heard this in action one day

when a man in his 50's

was reminded of what it must feel like to be without his wife and

kids,and how hard it must be for his

kids sake not to see their Dad,this was all said with a smile on the

consultants face.

I don't know if the rumours I heard were true,but before I left,

people were saying that because they had

been busted for mis-selling,hence the reason they changed websites and

names, the company was

struggling financially,I must state this was only rumours,but I would

think twice before handing your

money over to them,if its not for the rumours then at least for their practice.

There is no one legally qualified to really assess your case that

works for them,they cannot give you

legal advice because they do not have legal advice to give,if they

cannot get you to buy one of their

inflated packages they will instead try and push a consultancy date

your way,this ranges from £350 to £600

depending on what mood the advisor is in.

Make yourself aware of the following and stay clear!

Stay clear of these companies mentioned and only use professionals or

those who have been recommended by someone

you know and not a made up on a review stat.

Edited April 7, 2012 by 7by7
Names of companies removed.

[7by7]

Despite the regulation of immigration advisers in the UK, this sort of thing does still happen.

Anyone thinking of using an adviser, whether in the UK or Thailand, should, in my opinion, follow these steps.

1) If at all possible, use one recommended by someone you know and trust.

2) If the above is not possible shop around; compare fees, and the services offered

3) Check any credentials or professional qualifications claimed. If in the UK, check that they are on the OISC list of advisers. If outside the UK, check that they are qualified as claimed, one notorious British agent in Pattaya claims to be a qualified lawyer, but does not appear as such on any UK register of same. He also claims membership of official sounding bodies which do not actually exist outside his imagination.

4) No reputable adviser or agent will have any problems with you doing any of the above. If you are talking to one who tries to persuade you otherwise, or tries to rush you into using them or uses any of the techniques described in the OP in order to get you to use them; run, very fast.

See also Visa Agents, read this before using one.

N.B. To avoid potential problems, I have unfortunately had to remove the names of the companies involved from the OP.

[kobrien]

I did edit the names out of the original post but I had issues posting the story on the site,the company have been top on a lot of internet searches for a long time, so please be aware and like 7by7 says,there are some good visa companies out there,I would use one without doubt,just not the one I had the pleasure

of working for.