Elizabeth N

Disappointing service - did not deliver value for money

The initial impression we had speaking to them was amazing and we really trusted that we were in good hands. This has not proven to be the case, sadly. The reason we decided to approach an immigration consultant was primarily to ensure that our documents would be in order before making a half a day journey to the embassy in Sweden and then discover that documents are not adequate and thus resulting in us needing to drive all the way back on another day. These pain points were communicated clearly in our first consultation. We sent all the required documentation through via the platform to our allocated consultant and most documents were checked and okayed well in advance of the appointment. The following aspects are things which we were extremely disappointed with as level of service: 1. Our appointment was scheduled for Monday 26th August 2024 @ 9:30am. The document application was only sent to us on the morning of Friday ( 23rd August @ 10:29) – after us having to request this from the consultant as this was not sent when promised- which only gave us that day (during our working hours) to then need to review the application and make sure we understood it and revert with questions during the consultants’ working hours. We could not interface on Monday before the appointment as we were driving, had no access to a computer or printer to sort anything out therefore all issues would have needed to be resolved during that Friday. This as a level of service is not acceptable as all necessary documents were uploading in advance and this application pack could have been sent in advance so we had time after work to review within the week and clarify any uncer*****ies. 2. The form was sent with instructions –print as is, replace specific documents and sign where needed. However, at the embassy we were informed that the printed out filled in form is unacceptable and we then needed to redo the entire thing by hand. In our opinion, as an immigration service this should be a key aspect that is known to you as the consultants. It would require a single phone call to clarify how to submit the form. This again is not the level of service that is acceptable. 3. The other key aspect is whether the proof of marriage is adequate. The entire visa application is based on this relationship and being able to prove that it is so. I would have expected, again, for experienced visa consultants to be able to advise us accordingly, this is not what happened. We found out at the appointment that what we had with us was not acceptable and that there is a commonly used document which is required instead. We had never heard of this before but after some very simple google steps we found this information. Again, if the entire application is based on a key document, we would expect that such document would be thoroughly checked, that a simple google search or call to the embassy on your part would have been sufficient to clarify what we needed to actually submit the form. Instead, we had to now do the exact thing we wanted to avoid – after the appointment we need to go to the Tax office and request the actual acceptable document in order for them to process the visa. For the above reasons, the service provided by IBN consultants did not actually reduce our stress, did not improve the efficiency of the visa application process, demonstrated clearly that there is almost zero knowledge on how the process works here in Sweden and certainly did not ensure that we did not make a half day journey –uninformed- and requiring further work thereafter. The issues I noted are not trivial they are key aspects which any logical person would expect from an immigration consulting service. After our initial conversation this was truly shocking as the picture painted was a false reflection of the service provided. Essentially the work and stress that we had to undergo had we not hired consultants was the same except that we paid for something we did not fully receive. After complaining we received placations with excuses and the generic response of we would like to improve but no offer at all to even partially refund us due to their clear lack of knowledge and delivery in this instance. The company states "people are the essence of their brand" in our case this was not at all true and we have seen clear lack of integrity and accountability.