Is Using a Lawyer Advised?

[Matchcapo]

Hey Guys-
My wife and I are about to start our process and its a bit overwhelming. We're now considering using a lawyer. We would like to know:
1. Is this a good choice?
2. Any recommended Immigration Lawyers?

Any responses are welcomed.

 

[owlowl2005]

Hey Guys-
My wife and I are about to start our process and its a bit overwhelming. We're now considering using a lawyer. We would like to know:
1. Is this a good choice?
2. Any recommended Immigration Lawyers?

Any responses are welcomed.

it really depends on how complicated your case is. If your case is straight forward then you can collect all the documents yourself. but then again, with lawyer / agent they will tell you what you need. It will save some time and stress

 

[canadianwoman]

You don't really need a lawyer. If your case is straightforward and your relationship has no 'red flags', then I would not bother with a lawyer. If you feel very overwhelmed, of course, there is no harm in having a lawyer or immigration consultant help you.
I would say hire a lawyer or consultant only if your case has a lot of problems, or your relationship is unusual in some way. For example, if either of you has legal problems, get an immigration lawyer to tell you what to do.

 

[Matchcapo]

You don't really need a lawyer. If your case is straightforward and your relationship has no 'red flags', then I would not bother with a lawyer. If you feel very overwhelmed, of course, there is no harm in having a lawyer or immigration consultant help you.
I would say hire a lawyer or consultant only if your case has a lot of problems, or your relationship is unusual in some way. For example, if either of you has legal problems, get an immigration lawyer to tell you what to do.

I appreciate your response. The thing is with our case is that we met in March got engaged in Aug and married in Dec all in the same year. We just met and fell in love while on vacation so im wondering about all of that...and after the wedding I just stayed (in Canada)
Other than the speed at which our relation occurred everything else is pretty straight forward I guess.

 

[CharlieD10]

Unless you have some kind of history with immigration, or a really complicated family situation, you don't need a lawyer, just a lot of patience and organization skills.

If you feel you need an expert to look things over to make sure you have everything, hire a reputable, registered immigration consultant to review your application and look for holes after you have prepared it. Operative words: reputable and registered.

Edited after your recent post: Depending on where you are from, the speed of your courtship may not be a big deal. If you are from a visa-exempt country with a similar standard of living to Canada's, you may not even need to address that matter.

 

[Bcmom72]

My daughter and son in law hired an immigration lawyer, there are still all the forms to fill out etc, it was just too overwhelming we found to do. He is in Vancouver, let me know if you would like the name.

 

[computergeek]

I used a lawyer for my first application. I do not have the sense I received much value from that - I was responsible for collecting all the documents, completing the forms, etc. I took a completed copy of the application to him for review (he had a few minor comments - not enough to redo anything, just a few minor hand-written notations on the forms). When things got complicated he basically threw up his hands and said "sorry, can't really help you." I ended up hiring another attorney to assist at that point (because now it WAS complicated.) We're completing the application for judicial review this week (even more money...)

But since I now have a Canadian spouse and the original issue is the one inadmissibility issue that is not a concern for spousal sponsorship I'm doing a new application for spousal. This time I have assembled everything myself. I am paying a consultant to look it over (it was an extra $250 on top of some other work I'm having him do so I can carry a TRP application around with me in case I run into problems at the border, so it was worth it.)

My suggestion would be to try and get through everything on your own before you go to an attorney. If you find you don't understand the forms or how to fill them out, then go to her/him. But you'll have to do much of the leg-work anyway (getting marriage certificate, birth certificate, compiling information about your relationship, etc.)

What you may find is that after you gather all the documents and read over the forms a half-dozen times they make sense to you, at which point you've saved yourself several thousand dollars.

But if things DO get complicated, you want an attorney. I would not be comfortable filing for judicial review (and I've represented myself pro se in litigation before.)

Good luck - odds are you'll be fine (the denial rate on spousal sponsorship is quite low, although there are horror stories within this forum.)

 

[toby]

I hired a registered immigration consultant, who I eventually fired. He and I just did not agree on the type of application to be submitted. And on one or two occasions he was simply wrong, ignorant of instructions in the CIC application form. I ended up wastig mroe time with hiom than I spent just doing the application myself.

It is impossible to know how much or little help a consultant will be until you actually work with him/her. So, go with someone you know at least from this site (Rjessome), who has given good advice to many. But ask her if she would be willing to go in small steps:

20% down to start;

20% to help you complete the application (she might complain that this is the bulk of the work, but you'll have given her 40% by this point);

20% upon submitting the application to CIC (this part requires her to help you obtain any tricky documents like divorce certificates you can't find, etc), and by now you've given her 60%;

40% upon being approved as sponsor. This approval is normally pretty straightforward, and so it is reasonable for a consultant to be able to tell you in advance whether you have a good chance of being approved or not, and if not to delay the application until problems have been fixed. Therefore, the consultant should be expected to suffer some of the pain if sponsorship is denied due to problems the consultant should have seen.

From this point on the consultant will have all your money, and that's fair. The applicant's fate will be in the hands of CIC, and there's nothing more the consultant can do.

If the consultant is unwilling to bill in several steps, look for another one.

 

[toby]

I had an additional thought. if your case should have to go to appeal (perish the thought!), an immigration consultant might have to bow out and you would then have to hire a lawyer. This might be more costly than if you had hired that lawyer in the first place (he/she would already be familiar with your case, and so not have to spend time getting familiar). So ask the consultant about this possible problem, and how to fix it in advance. Maybe he/she has a good relationship with a lawyer, and could promise you a smooth and inexpensive handover to the lawyer.

 

[pelipeli]

if it is just about organizing and getting the docs together, yes it is overwhelming at first but once u get the hang of it you will realize you could do it all by yourself. I think majority here did it by themselves myself included and yes, as Charlie said, it takes a hell lot of patience and some organizational skills. If you would like some tips on how to organize yours, here is how I did it and shared here, hope it helps: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/how-i-organized-our-applcation-and-a-summary-of-all-helpful-tips-i-have-learned-t92449.0.html

 

[rjessome]

I hired a registered immigration consultant, who I eventually fired. He and I just did not agree on the type of application to be submitted. And on one or two occasions he was simply wrong, ignorant of instructions in the CIC application form. I ended up wastig mroe time with hiom than I spent just doing the application myself.

It is impossible to know how much or little help a consultant will be until you actually work with him/her. So, go with someone you know at least from this site (Rjessome), who has given good advice to many. But ask her if she would be willing to go in small steps:

20% down to start;

20% to help you complete the application (she might complain that this is the bulk of the work, but you'll have given her 40% by this point);

20% upon submitting the application to CIC (this part requires her to help you obtain any tricky documents like divorce certificates you can't find, etc), and by now you've given her 60%;

40% upon being approved as sponsor. This approval is normally pretty straightforward, and so it is reasonable for a consultant to be able to tell you in advance whether you have a good chance of being approved or not, and if not to delay the application until problems have been fixed. Therefore, the consultant should be expected to suffer some of the pain if sponsorship is denied due to problems the consultant should have seen.

From this point on the consultant will have all your money, and that's fair. The applicant's fate will be in the hands of CIC, and there's nothing more the consultant can do.

If the consultant is unwilling to bill in several steps, look for another one.

LOL! While I appreciate your kind words toby, it would be extremely difficult to find any immigration consultant or lawyer who would accept your suggested billing scenario. Part of the reason why is that once the application is submitted, all the work has been done and if a person wanted to run out on the remainder of the bill, they could (and many do). However, that being said, I do work "with" people to suit their financial situation but by the time an application is completed and ready to submit, the fee is paid in full.

Actually, what I was going to suggest to the OP was to pay for a consultation first. After that is complete, if they still want to hire the consultant or lawyer, most will deduct the consultation fee from the fees for representation. Or the OP may want a file review. For a fee, a consultant will provide a legal opinion on your completed application to advise of mistakes and where information/evidence should be added, etc. It doesn't always have to be all or nothing.

As a side note, I hate lawyers and consultants who have applicants fill out their own forms. When I teach practice management I always stress that this is an awful practice and should NOT be done. But I know it happens a lot.

 

[rjessome]

I had an additional thought. if your case should have to go to appeal (perish the thought!), an immigration consultant might have to bow out and you would then have to hire a lawyer. This might be more costly than if you had hired that lawyer in the first place (he/she would already be familiar with your case, and so not have to spend time getting familiar). So ask the consultant about this possible problem, and how to fix it in advance. Maybe he/she has a good relationship with a lawyer, and could promise you a smooth and inexpensive handover to the lawyer.

Immigration consultants are authorized to do appeals at the IAD. But not Judicial Reviews to the Federal Court.

 

[JimM]

My wife and I decided to use a lawyer, (the one who runs this site actually), because we had a couple of potential red flags, age and education. It's been worth it to us just to have somebody double checking our paperwork, giving a definitive answer when we're not sure about something, (yes you can get great advice in this forum but I've often seen a question get contradictory answers too) to prepare the actual package the best way possible, etc.

And the payment schedule is actually fairly close to what Toby suggested 25% down, 50% on submission and the remaining 25% on approval of sponsorship.

But ultimately it comes down to the person and their comfort level with paperwork, legalese, etc.

 

[absentgodot]

I appreciate your response. The thing is with our case is that we met in March got engaged in Aug and married in Dec all in the same year. We just met and fell in love while on vacation so im wondering about all of that...and after the wedding I just stayed (in Canada)
Other than the speed at which our relation occurred everything else is pretty straight forward I guess.

I don't know if this helps, but my husband and I met in February, got engaged in July, and married in December all in the same year too (2010). We had a ton of proof of our relationship though, things like my parents flying out for the civil ceremony wedding, my parents paying for the second "big" wedding, lots of photos, and letters from our local RCMP, Fire Chief (hubby's a fireman), etc etc.
I have my landing date tomorrow, so they can tell that our relationship is very legitimate and lasting.
So what I'm saying is don't worry about that timeline, as long as there are no other complications and you send in TONS of proof of your relationship's genuiness.
Good Luck!

 

[Victorfoxtrot]

Before you start looking at immigration lawyers, I would advise you print off the application forms and read through everything, plus the accompanying guides. I didn't use one. It felt overwhelming at first, but once I'd gone through things several times, and got myself organised it was fine. This forum is great - I also used BritishExpats.com too: another great source of help.

Others are right, the speed of your relationship shouldn't be an issue if you are from a visa exempt country such as the UK - you don't say though. So long as you can provide proof that your relationship is genuine then it shoudln't be an issue. I included so much proof - we applied as common-law - that in the end I think I probably sent too much; emails, cards, photos, travel details, receipts etc.

Not all immigration lawyers are great, and a lot will get you to fill out the forms yourself, whcih I think kind of defeats the purpose. I know of another person on this forum, who's immigration lawyer forgot (or didn't know) that they could pay the RPRF (Right of Permanent Residency Fee) up front with the initial fees, and so this delayed their application by another few weeks. Frustrating when you have employed someone who you would think should know about this.

The other thing to note is that you have said you have stayed in Canada after the wedding - is this on a visitor visa? Are you aware that you will need to extend this before it runs out. Again I am assuming you are from a visa exempt country. It can be simply done on-line for $75, but you should ensure that this is all in order as it could have a negative impact on your application if you have over-stayed.