Agreed it not rocket science but the sort of people who look over these forms in CIC are shall we say analy retentive and any slight problem or missing info means your forms are sent back and hence an even longer wait than simply having a lawyer help you fill them in, for some I think its worth the money to make sure all is in order before hand but then best to take over your self for chasing info/med requests etc. However that said personally if I had to do it over again I would not get a lawyer.

All depends on your situation too - for me I applied before the points system changed, I had heard about its impending drop to 67 and knew I needed to get my application in correctly asap to beat the rush of people who would cleary apply when the points were lowered from 75 to 67 (as they were currently in the 67-74 points range and coundnt get in) so for me it was worth that. I applied and got my SW visa in 13 months, my friend applied 10 months after my AOR and he has had to wait 3 years.

This question gets asked fairly frequently and with the same predictable responses. You'll get a mix or yes!, no! maybe?......

The thread usually gets a bit heated especially if people don't respect other people's experiences/opinions, and then you'll end up as confused as you ever were.

Do what feels right for you, is my helpful advice.

That may have had more to do with the ten months difference than using an agent or going DIY.

We sent in our application about 2 months after the points drop, DIY, and it took 18 months. People 2 months after us took over 2 years and so on .....

Thanks for the replies everyone. We have decided to do it ourselves and just annoy everyone with our questions!! Sorry didnt realise that this would be a bad question to ask

My 10c worth, do a draft of the forms, gather the information, put your package together as if it were a presentation, get a third party to look it over and make any comments. Fill in final form if changes needed and get it rechecked. Then decide if you feel confident enough with and it make your final decision then.

My application took longer to put together and get checked than it took CIC to process it.

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean it'd be a bad question to ask .... just that there is no definitive answer really. Everyone has their own opinion, usually based on valid experiences, but in the end so much depends on yourselves and your own case.

And as for bad tempered posts .... well almost any thread these days seems to engender those.

Quite.

Any thread about immigration experts is like to elicit the following responses:

1. We did it ourselves, it all worked out fine, and we were delighted to save the money for other things.
   
   
2. We did it ourselves and, oh boy, do we ever wish we'd hired a professional. They could have saved us from [fill in the blank], which was a very bad mistake. (These comments sometimes come from people who failed on the first go round, and re-submit an application with the assistance of a consultant.)
   
   
3. We hired an immigration consultant, and we're so glad we did. He/she assisted us in putting together a more thorough package than we could have assembled ourselves.
   
   
4. We hired a consultant, and what a mistake that was. He/she was incompetent. We had to undo his/her mistakes. Adding insult to injury, we paid him/her a lot of money.

It's hard to judge from the anecdotal reports. However, a poll done in January 2008 on this forum provided us with some more solid statistics (well at least more solid than reading through scores of old threads containing anecdotal reports). Of the people who responded, about 25% had hired professionals, and about 75% had submitted their own applications.

Hope that helps.
x

Pardon me if I seem harsh. Consider though that if you'd offered yourself as a Used Car Professional based in Canada I would have been no harsher. You may be the lawyer in Canada one can trust but, as a veteran of using lawyers in Canada, I'm not about to believe you exist.

Im a nurse on my way to BC. Easiest way i have found to do it ( same as many others) is to go over on TWP - paperwork is easy and hospital helps ( as they do it alot) Then apply for PNP once we are there - again hospital helps alot so Im going to give it a go on my own.

Going over on a TWP and applying for PNP once landed has worked out alot quicker in my case

We applied a few years ago and found that most agencies were charging upwards of £1000. The process and forms are really quite simple - you just need to spend some time accumulating the info and fill in the paperwork. Agencies will ask you for the same info and fill in the same forms and charge yuo for the privilege of it.

We did ourselves and had our visas granted wihtin two years. if you have employment already approved, it'll be even shorter.

Best of luck!