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Do we really need an immigration lawyer?

Jalinr93 said:
My husband is from the states, and has lived in the same house all his life, no criminal record, or nothing that would stop him from being able to immigrate here. I have also lived in the same area all my life with no criminal record and good financial situation to sponsor him here. A relative wants to pay for an immigration lawyer for us, to make sure he gets up here smoothly. But we do not feel we need it as we have researched and think we can gather all the information required. When would it be an advantage to have a layer and when would it be a disadvantage?
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For me I say "NO" but at the same time it depends on individual. If you can read up and research well there's nothing an immigration lawyer will do that you yourself can not do. I have seen cases where immigration lawyers even messed up applicant applications and all they will do is complete the application form for you and ensure information are completed accurately with all relevant evidences to back up your application. As I said earlier, these are all you can effectively do yourself provided you follow guidelines for each of the application.
 
We have a lawyer because we wanted legal advice, someone objective to go over the application and point out any red flags, etc and did not want to be dealing with CIC. Looking back, I could have done it by myself but at the time the whole processed just scared me. I also read the appeals thread and sometimes I think if a lawyer had reviewed their application, things could have been smoother. A *straight* forward case for us may not be so for CIC, seeing as they rejected a lady's husband this week eventhough they have a 3 yr old child and the sponsor has lived with her husband for several months at a time.

For those simply worried about the process and want peace of mind, there is a cheaper option - pay for the lawyer to review the application package and point out any red flags or areas to improve upon, before you submit.
 
When I had a working holiday visa and lived in Canada I had a friend from the UK who was applying for a permanent residence, this was before I got married and me and my (now) husband had only just briefly looked over the application process. Since she was in the middle of it I obviously asked her for advice and she SCARED ME SO BAD! lol. I don't think she ment to but she was talking about how extremely complicated the paperwork is and how it's absolutly impossible to get through it on your own and without an immigration lawyer, It's also worth mentioning that from what I understood she had a straight forward application.

But now when the time actually came to apply for my own PR can you imagine how much anxiety I had because of this? lol I was terrified! But I'm proud to say me and my husband did it completely on our own. I can understand people who may have a complicated application and possible red flags hire a lawyer. But if you have such a straight forward application there is no need for a lawyer, save your relatives money or maybe spend them on a nice vaccation instead, lol :)

Good Luck!
 
jaxxon said:
When I had a working holiday visa and lived in Canada I had a friend from the UK who was applying for a permanent residence, this was before I got married and me and my (now) husband had only just briefly looked over the application process. Since she was in the middle of it I obviously asked her for advice and she SCARED ME SO BAD! lol. I don't think she ment to but she was talking about how extremely complicated the paperwork is and how it's absolutly impossible to get through it on your own and without an immigration lawyer, It's also worth mentioning that from what I understood she had a straight forward application.

But now when the time actually came to apply for my own PR can you imagine how much anxiety I had because of this? lol I was terrified! But I'm proud to say me and my husband did it completely on our own. I can understand people who may have a complicated application and possible red flags hire a lawyer. But if you have such a straight forward application there is no need for a lawyer, save your relatives money or maybe spend them on a nice vaccation instead, lol :)

Good Luck!
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I love it when you said 'save your relatives money or maybe spend them on a nice vacation instead'
A word is enough for the wise!
 
What worked for us was we filled out the application ourselves and had a lawyer look over everything. He showed us areas that we missed information and small details we overlooked for documentation etc. He charged us $200 for this which i think is quite fair.
 
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