My husband and myself have just spent almost 4 months collecting together all of the evidence needed to apply as skilled workers and bring our 3 children.

We are now a bit concerned that it will have been a waste of time if some minor thing is not perfect with our application and are considering using a representative.

Has anyone out there used one? Is it worth the money or are we just going to pay someone to do the same thing we are going to pay the embassy to do?

Any advice, thoughts or experiences would be of great value to us because we really just want to get on with it and go to Canada. Thanks!

Hi Dianneteacher

My husband and I are at the same stage as you. We;ve just collected all our paperwork. We have chosen to use an agency though, i know it won't speed the process up overall, but they do know how to present the paperwork and know exactly what is required. We sent our stuff to the agency last week and they'll be in touch soon to let us know whether everything is ok. I personally think it is worth the money, I know a lot of people don't, but had we not chosen to use them my application may have been rejected on a technicality (to do with job description and title) and I wouldn't have had a clue. So far the staff have been very helpful and are available to help with any queries. They'll also help with settlement info, job searches etc once you have received AOR. If you want more info PM me and I'll send you details

I'd recommend hireing a consultant. It's a very important thing to do in your life, you dont want to mess it up or delay it by years for having bad paperwork.
It's also really useful to have a representative on the phone who can talk you through any grey areas. You only have to look at the number of "Mr Miller and Mr Humpheries, please help......" messages on the Immigration forum to see how things can become complicated.
It's really up to you though, you can get a lot of help from this site (or others) and it really is something you can do yourself, you only have to look at all the people on here who have successfully gone down that route and saved thousands. Good luck.

Hi

We are also in the same position pending one reference, the police check and holding back in case of the remote chance of a job offer in Feb which means I would go for Provincial Nomination instead.
I have heard of no bad experiences with the agencies, for us it just comes down to cost- we are prepared to go that little bit further to ensure our application is bullet proof, in order to save the money of an agency.

Best of Luck

Darren

Sorry forgot to mention one deciding factor,
If your application circumstances could be complicated, examples may be dependant children and custody OR criminal record etc. go for an agency. My life hasn't been eventful enough for this to apply to me!

Darren

I would agree with all that has been said. We started assembling documents in about October, and have very recently forwarded them to Consultant for checking before passing to London CHC.

Although ours seems like a simple application, we decided to use a consultant just for additional security and advise really. Having said that nothing that has been provided or said by the consultant could not have been found online - but I found it useful to have answers to my questions from a source that seems to be reputable. Like many he offers a "money back guarentee" if the application is not successful - So it would seem we are quite an easy case. Having someone else review the paperwork before submission felt like a good (but expensive) idea.

Ok

The CIC web site say's it all...you don't need one.

Unless you have a difficult case with complexities you’re just wasting money you'll probably need when you get here.

huge sarcastic chunk edited out

Hi Dianneteacher

We would absolutely reccommend using a representative for your application

Ours is in the business class (entrepeneur type) and was quite detailed and complicated to put together. Like you, we spent several months getting together all the required information....by the time it was complete we had an unbelievable quantity of paperwork.

The representative we used was able to give us a 'one stop shop' for all advice and information to present our application in the best possible way. They were on hand to answer all our questions no matter how trivial or daft they seemed. Even with all of their help in compiling the application, once they received the actual paperwork from us, we still spent several weeks with them 'tweeking' and improving before finally submitting the stuff to the embassy in London.

Our application has now been lodged with the embassy and should, if all the timescale guidelines are accurate, come through by the end of summer 2005

We feel really confident that the application has been presented as well as it possibly could have been thanks to the advice and help given. Without this, I'm pretty sure there would have been at least one or two minor problems with our paperwork that would have extended an already lengthy process....like you, we just want to get to Canada asap

best of luck.......steve

i would definetly recommend it we have had our application thoroughly examined and got lots of things wrong that would have been sent if doing it by ourselves.

although it costs money i think it was worth while and will save any hassle later on.

They have also sent us info on jobs houses financial ways of gettin set up schools etc etc

mine gave me a money back guarantee also as they are 100% confident i will get in if not i get my money back.

only thing is do your research on consultants 1st and dont get ripped off!

We thought all this too when we hired our lawyer and found out we couldn't have got it more wrong. Please, please do a search in here and look back at people's experiences (and read them . It'll take a long time but at least you'll have a slightly more balanced view but if you can't be bothered then the one piece of advice is to get a lawyer whose language is the same as your's. I'm not kidding....it can be a nightmare....

Business skilled is inherently more complex than general skilled.

And to anyone contemplating hiring a representative, read this:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/departm...nts/index.html


Jeremy

When I first applied for the temporary work permit (skilled worker) I thought it was pretty damn hard. But I also thought: hey, this can't be rocket science cause thousands of people have done it before successfully.
So, when I applied for work permit, I did not mention any study permits for the kids cause I wanted to keep the process simple and do that when in Canada. Well, believe it or not, CIC in London came back with a letter saying that if I would just send $300 they would issue the study permits straight away ... which I did. I thought this was quite unusual (being used to German bureaucracy, worst in the world ... after the French, I believe) and I was encouraged in thinking that maybe Canada wants you!

I was not prepared to put myself in a position where I would have to trust a consultant not knowing what the whole process looked like. And as I know now, a consultant doesn't accelerate the process in generell, you still have to go through getting all papers sorted yourself and the consultant does not guarantee success or that you have enough points (as this at the DISCRETION of the immigration officer, if in doubt ... I believe). However, on some you get your money back if the application fails.

To cut a long a story short: the guidelines are christal clear there are no hidden barriers, just follow the instructions on the forms meticulously and download the specifics for your High Commission. So, based on my experience with CIC being responsive if they feel the application is incomplete, I decided to apply for PR without using a consultant. It is of course everybody's own choice.

BUT: if you use a consultant because you have no time, no desire or too much money on your hand, at least study the process so that you have an idea how things are working. It is for your own good. Once you've landed in (Canada), the rest is really easy and straight forward: read on here www.stephenbottcher.net/imm.htm

I think, going through the whole process with all its ups and downs as an individual or a family is a perfect start for your new life. It certainly made me feel better cause it was MY success.

Just my 2p.

Stephen in Ontario

Status today:
PR Application sent 11/2004 to CIC London
AOR (Acknowledgement of Receipt) 12/2004
Start of process 08-12-2004
at least 17 more months to go ... worst case