Personal choice whether to use a lawyer or not. I'm wary of making sweeping statements such as "if you don't have a criminal past or prior immigration infractions you don't need a lawyer" as it's not always as simple as that and it's not for us to say who needs a lawyer and who doesn't. That said, the vast majority get through this process without one. We went through the U.K. immigration process for my husband as our first choice was to live in the U.K. but we were denied. That is far more complex than the process we went through for me to move here. The forms are in English and they don't ask you any questions to which you don't know the answers. It's not an advanced calculus exam - more like a cross between a passport application and a job application and full of the usual questions (name, date and place of birth, father's name, work history, etc).