mhhp

I have seen alot of discussion on do it yourself or use a consultant. I dont want to restart discussion, but I thought a Poll might be interesting.

Airseir

I chose a consultant. so far got interveiw waiver - hope rest goes well.

mhhp

Come on 55 views and only 5 votes. It is not so difficult to hit the vote button on the Poll

kenshin78

Consultant, it went well

iaink

My employer used a lawyer for my work permit and later PR application, None of the boxes seem to apply to me!

I think if circumstances had been different I would have at least tried to DIY, partly because my case was as straightforward as they come, and partly because I am cheap!!!

Good luck to you all, whichever way you decided to apply

Iain

mhhp

IAINK, Same here for the same reasons plus it just felt right to start a new life by doing things yourself.

BTW: to all who are still in the process: dont hesitate to vote in the POLL on your experience so far, even if you just sent off your application and have not received anything yet.

ABW

Yeap, I sent my app 11/11/2004 so I can't really tell .
BTW, I did it myself with inputs/suggestions from Mr. Andrew Miller, Mr. Jim Humphries, Mr. James Metcalfe, PMM, et al.

No offense to immigration consultants here but if I could haggle [I did it myself as well] the almighty USCIS all the way from I-688 work permit to citizenship, I think CIC should not be any harder.

I made a mistake last year however by applying for PR via QSC (refused).The company (BBD) in Montreal who supposedly issued a valid job offer and forwarded to SEQ backed down the very last minute due to a workforce reduction.

wensamjam

Used immigration agency, so far happy enough, but not yet completed, waiting for our medical to come through. Don't regret using them, were really helpful getting all paper work together.

orazone

Did it myself and so far everything is going smooth. However, when I move to Canada and settle down there. I will hire the services of some senior member of this forum to file sponsorship cases.
Mr. Andrew Miller & Jim have been quite impressive.

mhhp

So we got 287 views and 27 votes, thats less than 10%, what is so scary about this Poll??

Tiaribbon

LOL!!!

We did it ourselves because all of the leg-work needed to be done by us anyway so didn't see much point in using a consultant.

We had a minor set-back when CHC asked for business documents which were not initially asked for and to be honest I doubt a consultant would have asked us to send these anyway, so the delay was inevitable. The other reason we didn't use one was because the category that we are applying under seemed to be a bit beyond the consultants we spoke to - they were only interested in Skilled Worker applications and not business ones.

Even if we are unsuccessful with our application I doubt whether I would change what we have done and if this happens we will definitely re-apply in a different category and will be doing it ourselves again as most Skilled Worker questions can be answered on this forum, unlike our Self-employed category.

the-smiths

The only thing scary about this poll, is that "every case is different", and as soon as people realise that, and don't assume just because someone did this and that, it's going to work for them too.

Now what am I suppose to do with all these Mince Pie in the office today.....LOL

deepasunil

I applied through a consultant , paid a lot of money for it , but now it makes me think , why did I do that ? I could have done it on my own . 3 years and no news about my PR .

MrBosco

I can see both sides of this issue.

I originally went to an immigration attorney in Canada. He told me I would qualify under skilled worker class, but that since my wife is Canadian, it would be much easier and quicker to submit as family class. His fee would have been $3500 Canadian. We talked about it and we agreed that I could probably do it myself. Really, I would still have to pull all the documents together etc.

In the process of doing it myself, several questions arose. As I'm sure many of you know, the 800 CIC number does not work outside of Canada. I arranged to get medicals for me and my sons while we were on holidays in BC. At that point, I called the 800 number to get my questions answered.

They told me no, not to submit family class. Since I was born in Canada and lost my citizenship as a minor when my parents naturalized elsewhere, I should submit a skilled worker application. My application would not be assessed really as a skilled worker, but there was no specific application for my category, so put my Canadian birth certificate on top with an explanatory cover letter. Basically, I had no point requirement, received family-class medical criteria, and got put at the top of the pile for assessment. I got AOR on April 1st and IA on April 12. Time from sending application to having visa in hand was about 6 1/2 months (7 1/2 if you count the time they mistakenly sent it back to me for wrong fees, when actually I had right fees)

Immigration attorney evidently did not know about this program. So in retrospect, I made the right decision. This way, my wife did not have to financially guarrantee me or my sons (who are from a previous marriage). However, if I had anything unusual (past criminal history, family member with medical problem, etc.) then I would definitely hire consultant.

Alberta_Rose

Not sure how to vote as I don't think your poll covers all the options!
Some people use an immigration lawyer, who accepts responsibilty and acts on their behalf, dealing direct with the visa office.

Others do the whole thing alone.

I feel we don't fit either category really.
We downloaded the forms off the internet, collected the documents, then enlisted the aid an "advisor" with experience in these matters, who answered various queries we had (hadn't found these boards then). Then once we had gathered our documents, he checked our application before we sent it off, to make sure we'd not omitted anything, and that anything that needed explanatory letters etc was in order.

He cost £500 which we felt was good value for the peace of mind it gave us, as several times we rang at funny hours panicking at some odd thought that arose, and he was able to advise and reassure us on several issues. He didn't really have to DO a lot, but it was nice to feel we had that back-up.

We are still at the awaiting-medical-request stage, 1 year after application, so it's too early to say if it worked!

Maybe if I'd researched and found the wealth of info/advice available online before we started, I might have considered going it alone, but mmmm .... its still nice to know someone else has cast an eye over what you send off to make sure its right, even if its just a "prooof-reading" exercise.

Morw