basmalahh said:
Hi
A consultant/repersentative:
Advantages: he is supposed to be more knowledgeable in filling the forms and in making sure ALL documents are well organized and complete. He is also supposed to be well updated (because it is his job).
Disadvantages: many nowadays only care about money, they're way expensive and worst of all, they might be ignorant of the process and its requirements. I have a dear friend of mine who was in the old processing, waited for 4 years or so, and finally lost it only because her representative told her a wrong requirement for the IELTS.
Finally, it's not that hard filling the applications and all, especially with forums and people like in here (may Allah swt bless them all) and if you have any question, we would be more than willing to help. I know many people who applied without a representative and they're already in Canada now.
One more thing, if -according to what I understood- he told you that having a one year experience in the mentioned category would give you the full score of the work experience, well, that would not be true.
You need a year experience in the listed jobs only to qualify, then anymore years in any job would add to your job experience, then add to your marks..
Hope I have been of help
Good luck
My experience of immigration lawyers and consultants is that they either deliberately mislead you, or they don't know what they are talking about. I've been told, and have heard of other people told, all kinds of things by these lawyers which are just plain wrong:
- Someone on my British expats was advised by a lawyer to apply under FSW1 even though their experience in the NOC was over 10 years previous because each case is taken on its merits. They were rejected before BD was even cashed
- A lawyer (from Goldman Associates) at an Expo last week told us that the FSW1 is a giant lottery, and that 90% of applications will fail. He based this on 200,000 FSW1 being granted last year and a 20,000 cap. Now firstly that's 200,000 immigrants, not principal applications, so we can expect more like 70,000 : 200,000 ratio compared with last year. Secondly, they will stop taking in applications when the first 20,000 eligible applications are sent for processing. The way he said it he implied they'll wait for all 200,000 then pick 20,000 from those. VERY misleading. This is a race, not a lottery! Was he stupid or just wanting everyone to go FSW2 route so he could get fees from employers via his employment agency in addition to the extortionate fee he charges for getting people PR? The same guy when I asked hiim at which point an application would be counted towards the cap, didn't have a clue. It was only when I mentioned to HIM was it after the completeness check or eligibility review did he say eligibility review, he hadn't seemed to have heard of either term!
- Willis Brazolot at the same Expo told us that London office as of 2 weeks ago had not received any post-June-26 applications (which may or may not be true), but he said the delay was due to the new rules and people having to spend several months getting IELTS and other documents together. This is garbage, some people were able to get full post-June-26 applications in only a few days into June, so the delay is at CIC. For sure there were LESS applications in June and August than usual, but still plenty for CIC to assess and send to London had it not been for their delays.
- Someone on this forum had an immigration lawyer advise them to submit an application with only 63 points. Even 66 points is doubtful nowadays, so IMO very irresponsible from the lawyer.
- Someone on this forum had their application returned because their lawyer didn't fill in their duties on the correct form.
And that's just a handful of mistruths and incompetencies I can think of off the top of my head, I am sure there are many many more. And I genuinely believe that having a consultant/lawyer adds further delay. CIC and CHC won't process anything a milliesecond quicker if you have a consultant, but you do get the extra delay between the consultant receiving correspondence from CIC/CHC and them contacting you. If it is a good consultant the delay will be small, a poor consultant the delay will be large, but there will always be a delay.
Willis Brazolot quoted us £6000 (around CAD 10,000) to get us a visa through FSW2 route when we asked 1.5 years ago when our skills weren't on the 29 occupation list. If they completely failed, they still asked for 15% of this (around £1000!).
So guys, my advice is DO NOT hire a consultant or lawyer unless your case is particularly complex. There is virtually no information you cannot find out from forums such as this and CIC's own web site. And any information that you can't find out is probably because NOBODY knows yet (including the lawyers). The difference being most people on here will say "we cannot tell that yet" whereas a consultant or lawyer will likely fob you off with a mistruth rather than admitting their ignorance of the matter.
/Rant over!
Wayne.
