cyasoon

Has anyone here used an immigration consultant?

Ideas on cost? Do they charge one fee or do they operate like
solicitors and charge per hour/phone call/letter?

any help appreciated.

We are so inundated with things to do, am thinking maybe we should just give the work to someone else to 'handle' for us.

I am moving back home as a Canadian but am sponsoring my partner and its rather daunting.

thanks

SchnookoLoly

All they will do is check the forms for you, they won't fill them in for you - they don't know enough about you to do that. they'll just check for errors and completeness and you'll pay a load for it. It doesn't sound like you have an overly complex case so you probably could do it all yourself.

cyasoon

Hi. That's good to know! I am learning more and more here on this forum.

I dont want to waste money if i don't have to.

thanks for the help.

MillieF

Cyasoon, I think that you are just at the beginning of the spousal paper chase? At your stage, I thought about passing it all over to someone else too, it would have seemed much simpler. Print off all the forms, and familiarise yourself with them. As SchnookoLoly says, the consultant won't fill them in for you. We just printed a 'rough' set of forms off and then left them on the kitchen table for some weeks, we'd fill in a bunch of the forms when the spirit moved us, and checked each others. It is a doable, it just seems initially daunting! Best of luck.

scribe123

Download the forms and have a go yourself first.

There are plenty of people here who have been through the process and can answer questions.

If after some time you still feel you need a consultant go ahead, but you may find it's not that difficult and you've saved yourself thousands of pounds.

james.mc

mmm..... Not how it worked for us.

Our agents were far more than simply a document checking service that you hint at. As such I would recommend them to anyone that has an overly complicated application to submit. Ours was a bit unique in a few ways.

We both work overseas (offshore) a lot, so often would not be home to respond to requests for information from CIC, especially those sent by post. They would have timed out. Game over!

We supplied a lot of information to our immigration people in Victoria. We often sent it to them by email when we were not at home. They completed many of the forms on our behalf and emailed them to us to add signatures when needed. We added extra information and made corrections and signed when required. Some documents were sent by post as original signatures were required. They reviewed changes and sent further emails to us for approval before submitting the completed package. They did a few case specific inquires throughout our three year ordeal and filled out extra information required as and when needed by CIC.
However.....

I agree with that 100%

SchnookoLoly

If you have a complex case, then lawyers can be very helpful. However, it sends like champion's case is mostly straight forward so the immigration lawyers week be of limited value... I didn't mean to imply that they're only a document checking service, but for straight forward cases I think the extra value they offer is limited!

james.mc

I agree.

Aviator

Spousal sponsorship was complicated and did it myself with no problem. Spousal sponsorship application, approval, med forms, done in 2 hours. PR permit a few weeks while all the legal complications went on to be able to provide CIC the required order to remove. This was in the day you could call CIC and talk to an immigration officer and actually call in and see them.

exenglishman

I had a consultation at a firm in downtown Toronto and was quoted around $5000 + application fees (in 2011) for a spousal sponsorship application.

Did it myself and only cost me the fees.

christmasoompa

The majority of consultants will fill forms in, as well as ordering police certs, booking IELTS/medicals etc.

A lot of people use them to take away the hassle factor, so the form filling is part of that - I've only ever heard of one consultant that doesn't do it for some reason.

SchnookoLoly

They may be filling it in, but if I'm not mistaken you still have to sit with them and relay the information... I think I over-generalised that point.

christmasoompa

No need to sit with them - just as well as most people hire consultants in Canada so that would be a bit if a trip just to do that.

Most consultants will have a fairly simple questionnaire for new clients to fill in and they'll get the info from there. Lots of the forms duplicate info so that means they have only to fill it in once, and other info can be got from documents provided (I.e. date and place of birth from birth cert, etc). So it's a lot quicker and easier than filling in numerous forms.

Having said all that, I agree the OP shouldn't need a consultant, unless the benefit fraud causes any issues? But they should be able to do it themselves.

cyasoon

Actually no - no benefit fraud. My 'boyfriend' at at that time (as opposed to my now common law partner) had his own house and stayed with me 2 days sometimes less, per week. We have been together 4 years so we don't have to worry about that part of our relationship now as we exceed the time required to be together. I looked into what constitutes (UK) living together and there is a certain amount of days/hours a person has to actually live with someone in their house. This is good to know for others out there too. We didn't share anything at that time, so really just conjugal partners from an immigration point of view, even though we were and continue to be committed to each other.