Intro here:
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/289751

Stories here:
http://www.thestar.com/immigration

It still makes me mad with myself that I didn't question the laziness / incompetence of our immigration lawyer soon.

I discussed our case(skilled worker application) with an immigration consultant after taking the online evaluation quiz (scoring 76 this was when you needed 75 to enter). He was sceptical that we could prove 76 points without his help and therefore needed to retain him for 2,800 GBP to compile our application and track it through the system.

I was sure we were right and there was nothing on the CIC that showed we needed some expert to help us. I am not saying some people may need the support of a consultant but generally a person can pull together the information with a methodical approach.

I catalogued all our education and training recording the number of hours of education backed up with copies of certificates and diplomas. I wrote to all my previous employers and asked for letters of reference. This file included all the reference letters from previous employers.

With the police checks and the completed forms we sent in a letter explaining why we should be exempted from an English test and a supporting letter explaining the education and training hours (I took the number of weeks training and divided it by the academic weeks(30) in a year to back up my number of years education).

We then planned our research visit and on its completion wrote to the High Commission telling them to update our application with details of our visit and the information interviews I had held with several companies. ... Later I passed a North American PM Certificate and also wrote to the HC to update our file.

etc etc... the rest is history

and you would still have needed to do all of the leg work of contacting former employers and edicational institutions yourself even if you had hired the consultant

So you pay for their amazing ability to fill in the forms?

And to check that you have gotten all the forms needed and all the supporting documents needed.

I think that unless your case is a very complicated one you should not need a consultant and if you do - use an immigration lawyer. They are not that much more expensive than the consultants and they can help with appeals if needed.

Sounds like good advice.

I am reading this thread with a smile. None of the immigration people would take us on as we did not have enough points. We had enough to get an interview.

So did exactly as Dave and Jules, took our time, got all the information and filled in the forms......I know this was back in 2001 but we got in within 3 months and didn't need the interview

I do remember though that you can pay for a post office clerk to check your passport application

There does seem to be a lack of some education somewhere when a form says name and people can not put their name there. Date of birth, male/female

There is a role for immigration lawyers for complicated cases, or you are just useless filling in a form. Don't blame the immigration lawyers etc if you use them and then realise you could have done it yourself.

This is the great thing about this forum as you can do the research and make an informed decision.