1St Contact

If you’re exceptionally talented in the field of science, humanities, engineering, medicine, digital technology or the arts, you could be eligible for a special UK visa.

Attend Travel Talk Tours End of Summer Party and get up to 50% OFF most 2019 tours and selected 2018 tours with only a £10 cash deposit to secure your spot.

In this week's Rand Report: The Rand gained strength on Monday and Tuesday, but volatility thereafter ensured that the Rand traded mixed on Wednesday and then significantly lost against major currencies on Thursday and Friday.

The Tier 5 working holiday visa enables travellers under the age of 30 to live and work in the UK for up to two years and it’s a fantastic way to see the world.

This is what you need to sort out before you can claim back your hard-earned cash.

Tax terminology has a reputation for being complicated, but it’s easy to digest once you speak the language. Our tax refunds team decodes some of the most common jargon.
Think you might qualify for a tax refund? Visit us here https://www.1stcontact.com/tax-refunds

Keeping track of your expenses can be tough and figuring out which are tax-deductible and which aren’t can make your head spin.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a quick guide on tax-deductible expenses for UK contractors. http://bit.ly/2HrjGLW

Everything you need to know before moving to the UK with kids.

Are you energetic, ambitious, amazing and looking to develop your career? Our Cape Town customer service department is looking to add an Admin Assistant to their team.

Finding a place to live in London can seem overwhelming. We put together this quick guide to help you get started.

This visa is often thought to be the best visa for Commonwealth citizens looking to live and work in the UK.

If your time in the UK has come to an end, these three tips will take you safely home with money to spare.

By starting up a limited company, UK-based contractors can save a considerable amount of tax.
Find out more: http://bit.ly/2mP2hA4

Get up to 50% off 2019 tours, and 35% off 2018 tours with our friends at Travel Talk Tours this August. See deals here: http://bit.ly/2LRcwmj

There are hundreds of weird and wonderful ways you could be eligible for British citizenship, as this man found out.

Regional Australia needs international immigrants and local governments have made it easier than ever for you to move to one of these regions in need.

A two-year UK working holiday has been a popular option for Aussie and New Zealand youths for years. Here's why.

What an awesome company to deal with! Had the pleasure of working with Phillipa who assisted me with every step of my application. Would not have been able to do it without her. Thank you so much.

The staff is amazing and lovable. They apply for my NIN interview in a couple of days and booked the interview few days later. Thank You!



Cheers.

The Australian team have been so good! Cannot say a bad thing about these guys, they saved me so much time and stress leading up to moving to the UK.

Ever conferring moving overseas, do yourself a favour and call 1st Contact.

Thank you Phillipa for working so hard on my visa I definitely could not have done it without you. Excellent response to my emails etc. Highly recommend 1st Contact.

Thank you Meghan Mcarthur. You were absolutely amazing. So professional, friendly, helpful & always available. It was such a pleasure dealing with you. You truly are an asset to 1st contact

Thank you 1st contact, you guys have been amazing in assisting us with our ancestral visa applications, Maxine Furlong from the Cape Town office is amazing she has been an absolute star. Highly recommended to anyone interested in using 1st contact. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My partner and myself used 1st contact for our UK ancestry application. The service was absolutely phenomenal. We had the absolute pleasure of our consultant being Meghan McArthur, I would highly recommend her, as she was always willing to assist, was speedy with responses, reassured us and was extremely pleasant. Our Visa's have been granted and we are do to land in London next month

I would like to say this. In the 53 years that I have been alive, I have never experienced better customer service than I got from Meghan McArthur at 1st Contact in Cape Town! As it is, the process of gaining an ancestral visa for the UK is a lengthy and laborious one; and this was not helped by the dire financial situation I found myself in. Meghan was thoroughly professional and she crossed all of the T's, dotted all the I's and held my hand assuredly the whole way. Well done guys. I would recommend you without fail!

I love these guys, they have the best customer service and I'm so happy with the speed of their international payments. Thank you 1st Contact!

Great service from 1st Contact so far.



We are due to move to the UK shortly and it's been super easy to sort everything through the online portal - a bank appointment, national insurance number, job assistance etc.



I even received a follow up phone call and email the other day to check whether I have any questions etc before leaving.



Feeling a lot more comfortable about moving to the other side of the world now, knowing all the paperwork and loose ends are taken care of. In my opinion, it's well worth the cost of buying the Kickstart package �

From the start of my application to its final collection. I cannot say a bad thing about 1st contact. They kept checking to see how things were going. Worth every cent spent. Thank you so much. Meghan Mcarthur and Maxine Furlong u ladies were and are gems.

Cape Town Staff are AWESOME Gena and Sheldon were fabulous from getting in touch over the weekends and working well past 6pm at night on our files! Everything went through smoothly and we had our VISA within a week! Partly due to there checking and re checking of all required documents I am sure! Gena was personally recommended by a few friends who had dealings with her before and WE WERE NOT disappointed at all. THANKS for being there to answer ALL my questions as silly as there were and as often as I asked. Sheldon THANKS for all the pre-contract hounding I gave you - you did not drop the level of professional service once and put up with me till we were 150% sure and ready!

AWESOME THANKS

A BIG thank you to Jason Trudgian!!!!!!! Thank you Jason for ALL your help and patience. We really really appreciate everything you did for us and unite us as a family again. I can highly recommend Jason!!!!!!! This emigration would not have been possible without his assistance.

Very poor value for money. I had to do all the admin myself, they charged the monthly fee to collect (and often lose) my statements. When it finally came to preparing the accounts they tried to charge for four months when the company lay dormant without informing me I could bring forward the account reference date. Incorporated the limited company twice with a typo so I got several letters from Companies House fraud department threatening criminal prosecution for failing to file the relevant returns. A thousand pounds well spent.

Totally overpriced for the service provided. The list of documents required are available on the UK Visa website. If you have your docs, you fill in the online form yourself, after all that's all they do complete the online form on your behalf.

The service of the Cape Town office has been non-existent. Three different consultants all promised to email us with information and none of them did so. The consultants mysteriously vanished when we made follow up calls. 1st Contact, you'll have to do better than that.

My husband and I decided to use this company as we both work full time and assumed that having someone to help and advise us would lessen the stress. We were assigned the Cape Town branch for our ancestry visa application. From day one the service was slow and unhelpful - we constantly had to ask for information and clarification, and as their communication was often unclear and their email response time was so poor we ended up calling them half the time. It was clear that our application was not a priority for anyone - whether due to overwork or lack of care was unclear.



Despite multiple complaints to several people in the organisation, we saw little or no improvement in the quality of First Contact's service. In addition to the added stress, the tardy and incomplete information from First Contact resulted in delays that have had a costly and negative impact on our move. Our visa was granted but I struggle to see what First Contact actually contributed to the process that we couldn't have done (and didn't end up having to do) ourselves. We also contacted Sable International to complain and have had no follow up for three weeks - obviously their complaints procedure is placatory nonsense. I would actively recommend against using their visa services.

For settling in the UK, I only used the service because I was desperate for a bank account and unable to start one up with my living situation, but I felt that it was a bit overpriced for someone who ONLY needed a bank account. As for the tax refund service - DO IT YOURSELF. The fees are exorbitant and they aren't upfront with the total you will be charged, no one tells you how much VAT is worth. I ended up paying almost £100 in fees and got £30 back. NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!



Must say though, for international transfers, these guys are excellent - I use them to transfer money back to Australia every month!

Do not use 1st Contact. I was a massive fan of 1st contact when I moved to the UK 14 years ago but the service over the years has changed. The immigration service is sold as a "no visa no fee" service but if you look at the terms of that you are unlikely to get a cent back if you don't get the visa. The points system changes regularly and you are not covered for that. You also get a very sleepy response from your agent in Australia. You have to chase every step of the way. I started this process in 2016 and found out two weeks ago 1st Contact can no longer help me in my application.



If you are serious about immigrating I would not advise using this service.

What an awesome company to deal with! Had the pleasure of working with Phillipa who assisted me with every step of my application. Would not have been able to do it without her. Thank you so much.

The staff is amazing and lovable. They apply for my NIN interview in a couple of days and booked the interview few days later. Thank You!



Cheers.

The Australian team have been so good! Cannot say a bad thing about these guys, they saved me so much time and stress leading up to moving to the UK.

Ever conferring moving overseas, do yourself a favour and call 1st Contact.

Thank you Phillipa for working so hard on my visa I definitely could not have done it without you. Excellent response to my emails etc. Highly recommend 1st Contact.

Thank you Meghan Mcarthur. You were absolutely amazing. So professional, friendly, helpful & always available. It was such a pleasure dealing with you. You truly are an asset to 1st contact

Thank you 1st contact, you guys have been amazing in assisting us with our ancestral visa applications, Maxine Furlong from the Cape Town office is amazing she has been an absolute star. Highly recommended to anyone interested in using 1st contact. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My partner and myself used 1st contact for our UK ancestry application. The service was absolutely phenomenal. We had the absolute pleasure of our consultant being Meghan McArthur, I would highly recommend her, as she was always willing to assist, was speedy with responses, reassured us and was extremely pleasant. Our Visa's have been granted and we are do to land in London next month

I would like to say this. In the 53 years that I have been alive, I have never experienced better customer service than I got from Meghan McArthur at 1st Contact in Cape Town! As it is, the process of gaining an ancestral visa for the UK is a lengthy and laborious one; and this was not helped by the dire financial situation I found myself in. Meghan was thoroughly professional and she crossed all of the T's, dotted all the I's and held my hand assuredly the whole way. Well done guys. I would recommend you without fail!

I love these guys, they have the best customer service and I'm so happy with the speed of their international payments. Thank you 1st Contact!

Great service from 1st Contact so far.



We are due to move to the UK shortly and it's been super easy to sort everything through the online portal - a bank appointment, national insurance number, job assistance etc.



I even received a follow up phone call and email the other day to check whether I have any questions etc before leaving.



Feeling a lot more comfortable about moving to the other side of the world now, knowing all the paperwork and loose ends are taken care of. In my opinion, it's well worth the cost of buying the Kickstart package �

From the start of my application to its final collection. I cannot say a bad thing about 1st contact. They kept checking to see how things were going. Worth every cent spent. Thank you so much. Meghan Mcarthur and Maxine Furlong u ladies were and are gems.

Cape Town Staff are AWESOME Gena and Sheldon were fabulous from getting in touch over the weekends and working well past 6pm at night on our files! Everything went through smoothly and we had our VISA within a week! Partly due to there checking and re checking of all required documents I am sure! Gena was personally recommended by a few friends who had dealings with her before and WE WERE NOT disappointed at all. THANKS for being there to answer ALL my questions as silly as there were and as often as I asked. Sheldon THANKS for all the pre-contract hounding I gave you - you did not drop the level of professional service once and put up with me till we were 150% sure and ready!

AWESOME THANKS

A BIG thank you to Jason Trudgian!!!!!!! Thank you Jason for ALL your help and patience. We really really appreciate everything you did for us and unite us as a family again. I can highly recommend Jason!!!!!!! This emigration would not have been possible without his assistance.

Very poor value for money. I had to do all the admin myself, they charged the monthly fee to collect (and often lose) my statements. When it finally came to preparing the accounts they tried to charge for four months when the company lay dormant without informing me I could bring forward the account reference date. Incorporated the limited company twice with a typo so I got several letters from Companies House fraud department threatening criminal prosecution for failing to file the relevant returns. A thousand pounds well spent.

Totally overpriced for the service provided. The list of documents required are available on the UK Visa website. If you have your docs, you fill in the online form yourself, after all that's all they do complete the online form on your behalf.

The service of the Cape Town office has been non-existent. Three different consultants all promised to email us with information and none of them did so. The consultants mysteriously vanished when we made follow up calls. 1st Contact, you'll have to do better than that.

My husband and I decided to use this company as we both work full time and assumed that having someone to help and advise us would lessen the stress. We were assigned the Cape Town branch for our ancestry visa application. From day one the service was slow and unhelpful - we constantly had to ask for information and clarification, and as their communication was often unclear and their email response time was so poor we ended up calling them half the time. It was clear that our application was not a priority for anyone - whether due to overwork or lack of care was unclear.



Despite multiple complaints to several people in the organisation, we saw little or no improvement in the quality of First Contact's service. In addition to the added stress, the tardy and incomplete information from First Contact resulted in delays that have had a costly and negative impact on our move. Our visa was granted but I struggle to see what First Contact actually contributed to the process that we couldn't have done (and didn't end up having to do) ourselves. We also contacted Sable International to complain and have had no follow up for three weeks - obviously their complaints procedure is placatory nonsense. I would actively recommend against using their visa services.

For settling in the UK, I only used the service because I was desperate for a bank account and unable to start one up with my living situation, but I felt that it was a bit overpriced for someone who ONLY needed a bank account. As for the tax refund service - DO IT YOURSELF. The fees are exorbitant and they aren't upfront with the total you will be charged, no one tells you how much VAT is worth. I ended up paying almost £100 in fees and got £30 back. NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!



Must say though, for international transfers, these guys are excellent - I use them to transfer money back to Australia every month!

Do not use 1st Contact. I was a massive fan of 1st contact when I moved to the UK 14 years ago but the service over the years has changed. The immigration service is sold as a "no visa no fee" service but if you look at the terms of that you are unlikely to get a cent back if you don't get the visa. The points system changes regularly and you are not covered for that. You also get a very sleepy response from your agent in Australia. You have to chase every step of the way. I started this process in 2016 and found out two weeks ago 1st Contact can no longer help me in my application.



If you are serious about immigrating I would not advise using this service.

What an awesome company to deal with! Had the pleasure of working with Phillipa who assisted me with every step of my application. Would not have been able to do it without her. Thank you so much.

The staff is amazing and lovable. They apply for my NIN interview in a couple of days and booked the interview few days later. Thank You!



Cheers.

The Australian team have been so good! Cannot say a bad thing about these guys, they saved me so much time and stress leading up to moving to the UK.

Ever conferring moving overseas, do yourself a favour and call 1st Contact.

Thank you Phillipa for working so hard on my visa I definitely could not have done it without you. Excellent response to my emails etc. Highly recommend 1st Contact.

Thank you Meghan Mcarthur. You were absolutely amazing. So professional, friendly, helpful & always available. It was such a pleasure dealing with you. You truly are an asset to 1st contact

Thank you 1st contact, you guys have been amazing in assisting us with our ancestral visa applications, Maxine Furlong from the Cape Town office is amazing she has been an absolute star. Highly recommended to anyone interested in using 1st contact. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My partner and myself used 1st contact for our UK ancestry application. The service was absolutely phenomenal. We had the absolute pleasure of our consultant being Meghan McArthur, I would highly recommend her, as she was always willing to assist, was speedy with responses, reassured us and was extremely pleasant. Our Visa's have been granted and we are do to land in London next month

I would like to say this. In the 53 years that I have been alive, I have never experienced better customer service than I got from Meghan McArthur at 1st Contact in Cape Town! As it is, the process of gaining an ancestral visa for the UK is a lengthy and laborious one; and this was not helped by the dire financial situation I found myself in. Meghan was thoroughly professional and she crossed all of the T's, dotted all the I's and held my hand assuredly the whole way. Well done guys. I would recommend you without fail!

I love these guys, they have the best customer service and I'm so happy with the speed of their international payments. Thank you 1st Contact!

Great service from 1st Contact so far.



We are due to move to the UK shortly and it's been super easy to sort everything through the online portal - a bank appointment, national insurance number, job assistance etc.



I even received a follow up phone call and email the other day to check whether I have any questions etc before leaving.



Feeling a lot more comfortable about moving to the other side of the world now, knowing all the paperwork and loose ends are taken care of. In my opinion, it's well worth the cost of buying the Kickstart package �

From the start of my application to its final collection. I cannot say a bad thing about 1st contact. They kept checking to see how things were going. Worth every cent spent. Thank you so much. Meghan Mcarthur and Maxine Furlong u ladies were and are gems.

Cape Town Staff are AWESOME Gena and Sheldon were fabulous from getting in touch over the weekends and working well past 6pm at night on our files! Everything went through smoothly and we had our VISA within a week! Partly due to there checking and re checking of all required documents I am sure! Gena was personally recommended by a few friends who had dealings with her before and WE WERE NOT disappointed at all. THANKS for being there to answer ALL my questions as silly as there were and as often as I asked. Sheldon THANKS for all the pre-contract hounding I gave you - you did not drop the level of professional service once and put up with me till we were 150% sure and ready!

AWESOME THANKS

A BIG thank you to Jason Trudgian!!!!!!! Thank you Jason for ALL your help and patience. We really really appreciate everything you did for us and unite us as a family again. I can highly recommend Jason!!!!!!! This emigration would not have been possible without his assistance.

Very poor value for money. I had to do all the admin myself, they charged the monthly fee to collect (and often lose) my statements. When it finally came to preparing the accounts they tried to charge for four months when the company lay dormant without informing me I could bring forward the account reference date. Incorporated the limited company twice with a typo so I got several letters from Companies House fraud department threatening criminal prosecution for failing to file the relevant returns. A thousand pounds well spent.

Totally overpriced for the service provided. The list of documents required are available on the UK Visa website. If you have your docs, you fill in the online form yourself, after all that's all they do complete the online form on your behalf.

The service of the Cape Town office has been non-existent. Three different consultants all promised to email us with information and none of them did so. The consultants mysteriously vanished when we made follow up calls. 1st Contact, you'll have to do better than that.

My husband and I decided to use this company as we both work full time and assumed that having someone to help and advise us would lessen the stress. We were assigned the Cape Town branch for our ancestry visa application. From day one the service was slow and unhelpful - we constantly had to ask for information and clarification, and as their communication was often unclear and their email response time was so poor we ended up calling them half the time. It was clear that our application was not a priority for anyone - whether due to overwork or lack of care was unclear.



Despite multiple complaints to several people in the organisation, we saw little or no improvement in the quality of First Contact's service. In addition to the added stress, the tardy and incomplete information from First Contact resulted in delays that have had a costly and negative impact on our move. Our visa was granted but I struggle to see what First Contact actually contributed to the process that we couldn't have done (and didn't end up having to do) ourselves. We also contacted Sable International to complain and have had no follow up for three weeks - obviously their complaints procedure is placatory nonsense. I would actively recommend against using their visa services.

For settling in the UK, I only used the service because I was desperate for a bank account and unable to start one up with my living situation, but I felt that it was a bit overpriced for someone who ONLY needed a bank account. As for the tax refund service - DO IT YOURSELF. The fees are exorbitant and they aren't upfront with the total you will be charged, no one tells you how much VAT is worth. I ended up paying almost £100 in fees and got £30 back. NOT WORTH IT!!!!!!!



Must say though, for international transfers, these guys are excellent - I use them to transfer money back to Australia every month!

Do not use 1st Contact. I was a massive fan of 1st contact when I moved to the UK 14 years ago but the service over the years has changed. The immigration service is sold as a "no visa no fee" service but if you look at the terms of that you are unlikely to get a cent back if you don't get the visa. The points system changes regularly and you are not covered for that. You also get a very sleepy response from your agent in Australia. You have to chase every step of the way. I started this process in 2016 and found out two weeks ago 1st Contact can no longer help me in my application.



If you are serious about immigrating I would not advise using this service.