badmojo

Hi
Just starting to apply for a visa, do you suggest using one of the many immigration agencies who charge £2000 or do it ourself.
If so who do you suggest?
thanks Sonya

Butch Cassidy

The choice is yours

We used an agent\lawyer based in Toronto, what a waste of money!!

Piff Poff

We are using an agency for the peace of mind - however, we have also done most of the work ourselves and the agency doesn't seem to know much about anything and are not very helpful and have given us duff advice - wish we had gone alone and saved a bundle.

buzz365

Just like what has already been said .........the choice is yours. We did it all ourselves. If you use an agency your still going to have to do it all yourselves. We were going to use one but realized early on that all they were going to do was sit back and let us collect all the data they needed. Using one isnt going to make you wait any shorter.

Just my 2 pence

good luck

dozzzzy

I produced my application pack my self, along with the help of members of this and the Immigration forum and it experts PMM, Andrew Miller, My Humprhies? and others. I am not into bashing the experts, unlike some members of this and other forums, they provide a service and many appear to get good advice and service from many of them you just need to be careful and choose your agent with care, and make sure that you follow the advise on the CIC web site as to who can represent you.

In the end a good agent will make sure that your application is presented in the best possible light and is complete with as little open for interpretation by the immigration officers at the mission you submit too. The being said it will still be down to you to collect all the documentation together and submit it to your agent for collation and eventual submission to CIC. For some it is that peace of mind that people are paying for.

CIC say that using an agent will not give you any leverage with the application process, and they do provide all the applicable forms and guides you would need to produce your application yourself with a little patience and attention to detail.

Good Luck

Dozzzzy

sijamie

I came to Canada in August 2004. My Canadian girlfriend and I had already enlisted the services of an immigration lawyer during a previous short visit back in the January of 2004. Suffice it to say we were completely sent down the wrong road with my application. We were advised to use conjugal sponsorship, even though that cannot be used as an in-Canada application and the Lawyer knew I was planning to stay in Canada until my PR had come through. Suffice it to say we were eventually told that we should either get married, or I go home and apply through Conjugal back in the UK. In the end we did get married, but this mistake cost us a lot of time and money.

If you do use a Lawyer make sure they are reputable and know what they are talking about. They can save you time as far as getting all the application together (assuming they know which application you should be using!) but as others have said, you need to do the groundwork.

Tidge

I used Access Migration (partly due to laziness, partly due to not wanting to screw anything up!) Very helpful throughout, kept us informed and basically told as what to get and when to go for meds etc.

MrGreen

As daunting as it seems at first, I think there's absolutely no need to pay someone else to help you whatsoever with doing an application. There's not a lot to it at all once you step back and tackle it in the right way.

We did our family class application and I now have my visa and PR status confirmed with not one hitch - we're due to leave in june/july.

We did our application ourselves by breaking it down into manageable pieces and slowly and calmly reading it through. All the information to do it is freely available on sites like this and you get a comprehensive guide explaining what to do with the forms too. We filled out rough forms first and just read everything 10 times over before moving on to make sure it's correct and basically double-checking everything along the way. Save your money. If you do it properly you won't have any probs and given exchange rates, you'll need all the money you can get!

Almost Canadian

I would echo all that has been said above except to state that some of the organisations out there do have vast numbers of people that they have settled with the added bonus that this has in respect of contacts.

Most expats do not visit sites such as this so it is very unlikely that if you have a work specific enquiry etc the answer you will need will be found here.

Completing forms etc is not rocket science and you should be able to do this to satisfactory standard yourself.

Good luck

Griff

Greenbwoy, I con cure with you. We engaged the services of an agent who failed to tell us that my wife's occupation would enable us to get out to Canada quickly with a work permit and then go for PNP. We paid them £800 for an A4 ring binder with various bits of iinformationin it. We have learnt far more from the net via the CIC web site and this forum. All the information is out there, you just have to be cconscientious with the paperwork you complete yourself.

badmojo

Thankyou very much for all your comments.
I have done a lot of research and will carry on to do so.

We are coming out to Red Deer on the 5th to have a good look around and see about a job. (any one living in Red Deer?)

If my husband gets his job, i think we will apply for a work permit and move across on this and the apply for PR.

Has any one done this route?

Sonya

Piff Poff

hi,we live very happily in red deer,let us know if we can be of any help,pm us

SivoxII

We considered using an Agent/Lawyer for the package, as we knew how intense the paperwork would be. After a lot of consideration & research, we decided to do it ourselves. Now i can tell you, we are no legal buffs, but with giving the package the respect it's due, a few phone calls to query certain areas in the questionnaire & giving as much support paperwork & details as possible, we got through it all successfully!

The only thing that tripped me up (causing a longer delay) ... was the requirement of fingerprints. I was specifically told by the UK side of things, that i should not be asked for fingerprints as part of the process, but checking later on here in Canada, i WAS required to submit fingerprints, as i had been resident in Canada for more than 6 months. At this point, we were worried about the Medical checks running out, as they are only good for 1 year, but thankfully everything clicked into place at the right time, so with an extra few months delay, i became a landed PR in 13 months (from start to finish)

or4ngecrush

This thread is interesting I was going to ask this question also.

We are currently arranged to meet a company called Willis & Brazolot a week on Friday in Scotland and was wondering if anyone had used this company? Or had and good/bad experiences with them it would be appreciated?

I don't know if I feel confident enough to do it all on my own and wanted to use the Canadian lawyers in case I missed anything important out of the application process, and for them to help us settle in Canada.

:scared:

eli

Hi

We've used Workpermit.com. They were extremely helpful and they gave us a real peace of mind. The whole process took just under two years and now we have PR visa. I found them particularly useful in the part regarding getting enough points for your work history. It can make difference for your total score (depending how you describe your duties in that particular job).

They've answered all our queries and gave us a free assessment. Only when they were sure that we have enough points to qualify for visa, they've accepted our application and money. Another good thing it was that we were able to pay by monthly installments, which made the whole service more affordable.