About
Built around one disagreement with this industry
Almost nobody in this market will tell you the total cost, or your real chances, before you have committed money. Skillvelop is built the other way round.
Every price is published, every exclusion is listed, and the assessment that starts the work is free and ends in writing, including when it says no.
In the founder's words
Why this company exists
I spent a long time watching people I know spend money they had saved carefully, without ever being told the full number first. A cousin paid a well known consultancy a large fee, and then kept paying: application fees, a credential evaluation, translations, a second language test. Nobody had lied to him. Nobody had added it all up for him either.
By the time he understood what the year would actually cost, he was too far in to stop. He went, it did not work, and he came back. What stayed with me was not the outcome. It was that the total had been knowable on day one, and nobody had put it in front of him.
So Skillvelop starts from the number. Every price is on the website, the same for everyone. Every package lists what the price does not cover, because the exclusions are where people actually get hurt. The scope is written down before you pay, and nothing gets added to it later.
And the assessment is free and ends in writing, including when what it says is that you should wait a year, or spend the money on a language course instead. Those are the ones that cost us a fee and are worth more to you than anything we could sell.
Judge us on the free assessment. It costs you nothing, it arrives in writing, and you can take it to anyone else for a second opinion.
The model
Four decisions that shaped the company
Every price published
What it costs us
It means we cannot price to what somebody can afford, and any competitor can read exactly what we charge and undercut it on the day.
We say no in writing
What it costs us
The free assessment often ends by telling somebody to wait a year, or to spend the money on a language course instead. Those are fees we do not earn.
No guarantees, stated above the fold
What it costs us
It means we lose people to whoever is willing to say the thing we will not say. Some of those people come back afterwards.
Small batches and two review passes
What it costs us
It means we can take far fewer clients than a volume consultancy, and we are slower.
Every Skillvelop price is published on this website, the same for everyone. The scope is agreed in writing before you pay, and every fee block lists what the price does not cover.
What we will not do, ever
- Quote you a different price from the one published on this website.
- Guarantee an admission, a job, a visa or a test score.
- Publish a testimonial, review, success rate or student count that is not real and verifiable.
- Write your statement of purpose, or prepare a document that is not accurate.
- Submit an application in our name on your behalf.
- Sell you a service you do not need because you are already on a call with us.
What happens when we get it wrong
We will get things wrong. A new company with new processes always does, and pretending otherwise on an about page would be the first example.
If a refusal is caused by an error in documentation we prepared, we redo the work at no charge, and if that is not sensible you get a full refund of our fee. That is written into the refund and scope policy rather than promised on a call.
If we change how we operate, including how our pricing works, it gets a dated line in the changelog on the how our pricing works page.
What happens next
Judge us on the part that costs you nothing
The free assessment ends in a written document you keep and can take to any competitor for a second opinion. That is the most honest test of whether we are worth paying.
- 01Free assessment
- Thirty minutes on video with the person who would actually handle your file. Education, work history, language levels, savings, timeline. We tell you which routes are open to you and which are not.
- 30 minutes, no cost
- 02Written plan with your realistic odds
- Your profile scored against the published criteria, the routes worth pursuing, the total cost including every fee that does not come to us, and our honest read on your chances. Some of these plans say the answer is no.
- Within 2 working days
No obligation to buy anything, and we will not call you repeatedly afterwards.