@TwiceasTall A big congrat to you .
I am delighted every advise and recommendations given in this forum works majority of them. These people who have hand-ons experience and that have done their application themselves and got approved.
Also, the atmosphere of love and team work in this forum is awesome. The words of encouragement is what has made it possible for a lot of people not to give up and have hope. This one of the core reason I always like to pop on the forum to read all your comments ,
For those who still see lawyer as a savior of humanity, I urge you to use them with caution. Majority of them are ONLY interested your money. They don't give a rat ass( excuse my french) about your application. Approved or Refused application, you still have to pay them their FULL MONEY( whether you like it or not). So, there is no constraint or pressure on lawyers to do a perfect job since their money is guaranteed.
Ask yourself, what is the special thing a lawyer do that you can't do yourself? The CORE thing lawyer do is to help you organize your document and submit to IRCC... Does this sound like what you should charged thousand of dollars ?.... Keep in mind you are still the person that will need to provide them with evidence, documents tell them your immigration story etc.... Does this sound like something that is worth thousands ?....
The "fear factor" is what I have notice make some people to see lawyers as saviour of humanity or immigration guru.
I use a lawyer for my first application. I paid close to 10,000 dollars. Guess what ? That application was refused ! I wish I can show you all the job the lawyer did. Even a 5 year child will do a better job. In my refusal letter, the IRCC wrote some things that suggest the lawyer did a bad job.... There are numerous people that have experience the same with lawyers. This is why there is an ever growing community against the use of lawyers.
The problem I see with a lot of clients/applicants is that they have this notion that lawyers knows everything about immigration. They believe that just because they have a degree in law means they are smart and have monopoly of knowledge about immigration. .... You can compare them to someone who have first hand experience. Am refering to those who did their application themselves. Those kind of people have way more knowledge than lawyers.
Once very common bad thing about lawyers is that when they make mistakes on your application and it get refused, they have a deceptive way on putting the blame on their clients or gaslight them. You will NEVER see a lawyer that admit to their mistake when they mess up your application.
I ended up doing my application by myself with the advice from immigration gurus / experts ( aka people with hands on experience that did their application themselves and got approved ). These were the people that advice me and guide me in how best to prepare my second application. All of their advice worked and my application was approved within 7month ......
I do hope more people will have the courage to do their application themselves and stop wasting their hard earned money on this lawyers.
Once again, congrats to you. Welcome to the club !
