To hire an Immigration Lawyer... is it worth it?

[jeans22]

Hi guys,

My soon-to-be spouse and sponsor suggested for us to use an Immigration Lawyer. Has any of you hired one to help you out with a Permanent Residence application? If so do you think it's worth it? I have full confidence in our application because our relationship is true and genuine. We have tons of evidence (photos, cards, letter, emails, phone records, etc) to prove that it is so. What do you guys think? This application is monumental to say the least and I honestly think that hiring legal help will be a huge asset. But will it be worth it?

Looking forward to your thoughts and insights.

 

[wilson]

I never contacted any lawyer for our immigration. My opinion is that it is not essential for a lawyer or consultant to deal with CIC. All the forms are self explanatory and there are guides/instructions to supplort the applicant. More over you can get any querry answered through this forum, in case you need any help and guidance.

 

[bobshynoswife]

No, it won't be worth it.

The majority of the work is compiling the evidence and answering some questions in depth. These are things that a lawyer cannot do for you. He will just put together the paperwork in order and ensure everything is there. CIC makes it very easy for normal people with average intelligence and alright English/French skills to put together a great applications. You just fill out the forms, follow the guidelines and checklists.

Unless you have complications (criminal record etc.), you will be fine on your own. And trust me, this is your life on the line, and you will do a much more thorough and complete job on your application than a lawyer who has 40 other apps to put together at the same time.

Don't get me wrong, lawyers and consultants have their place in immigration, but not for an uncomplicated spousal application.

 

[minna]

I had some questions about my particular situation that I couldn't find answers to online, and I decided that in our case it was very useful to consult an immigration lawyer about those issues, just so I would have peace of mind that we were doing things properly. And so I clearly understood my options. I asked my questions, and have had a phone conversation with the lawyer (about 30 minutes) and have subsequently sent her an email (am still waiting for a response on that) - altogether it cost me about $300.00, but I would not have been able to find this information out anywhere else, because it is specific to our case, and only someone who knew all the details and really understands the immigration process could give me an answer.

However, I truly don't think that you will need a lawyer to complete the application for you. The lawyer I spoke with told me that the difference between us submitting the application on our own, and them submitting the application on our behalf was likely a day or two's worth of work - you still need to come up with all the proof and evidence, and information to include, as well as the supporting evidence. That is what truly takes the longest. I mean, no lawyer, no matter how good, can sort through your photographs and decide which ones to submit and give them meaningful captions.

If you are comfortable reading and writing english, and you are willing to put in the time to organize the application, you can save yourself thousands of dollars by filing yourself. There is no advantage, in terms of speed of processing, to having a lawyer do it for you. The lawyer I spoke gave me an estimated quote of $5500.00 to file the application for us. She is a great, well-respected lawyer, and I'm sure that's a pretty standard fee. Unless you really don't have the time, or know yourself to be very disorganized, or are very uncomfortable communicating in either french or english, I think you will find most of the help you need on this forum.

 

[Dayanara]

We hired a lawyer, just out of sheer worry that we would miss something.

Our lawyer had us fill out all the forms to the best of our ability and then we gave them to her and she then re-did them....and wow, we missed A LOT or put too much info in that was not needed.

Our case is pretty basic, no issues or reasons that we would have difficulty, but again, did not want anything to be messed up.

We used money from our wedding to pay for the costs so we did it with "free" money so to speak. Still hurt the bank account, we would have loved to have used the money for something else like debt or a new sofa set, but getting my hubby here is much more important so we did not mind dishing out the cash.

If you are confident in yourself to fill out the forms and gather all the information, then a lawyer is not needed for straightforward cases.

Hope that info helped!

 

[rjessome]

The answer to your question depends on you and how comfortable you are with your ability to prepare a convincing application. I would also judge it by the embassy you are using. As everyone on this board knows, some are much more difficult than others. And as another poster pointed out, are there any complications to your case that you know about at the outset and are having difficulty explaining. If it's straightforward and you have lots of convincing evidence of genuiness AND you trust your abilities to describe it in a convincing fashion, then I would say NO, you can do it yourself.

I disagree to some extent regarding what other posters have said about your file organization. A lawyer or consultant will focus on quality over quantity as well as proper organization in the way embassies want to see them. But everyone is right that you have to work hard either on your own or with your representative if you hire one to obtain all of the necessary information.

I did not hire a representative to sponsor my husband. We were going through a difficult embassy but I had no knowledge of their history or the immigration process for spouses prior to this. I did the best I could with my application and felt very strongly about it. However, while I was doing it, I became very interested in this line of work and went back to university and became an Immigration Consultant. Boy, did I learn a lot!!! My application would have looked much different if I had this knowledge prior to submitting. Our file was approved (thankfully) but not before hubby had a difficult interview and we spent MORE than the maximum amount of time waiting for a decision. It was a very difficult time.

Since becoming a CCIC, I represented a couple going through the same embassy as me and my husband. I employed all the things I had learned and low and behold, the application was approved in lightening fast time with NO interview! I was concerned they were going to have a similar experience to me as they had some red flags that we didn't. However, I made sure to explain EVERYTHING in my submission letter. It worked, approved. Did my representation have anything to do with it? I certainly HOPE so! But seeing as I can't speak for the VO reviewing it, I'm not sure. I'm just happy this couple doesn't have to go through the same experience that we did.

Even still, hiring a rep is not required. This couple has some issues that had to be overcome. Doesn't sound like you do. And you may want to see if you can get a lawyer or CCIC to review your application for a flat fee once it is complete if that will make you rest easy. $5500 is expensive but doesn't mean the lawyer isn't worth it. But it is on the higher end of what is charged. A review would be MUCH cheaper.

 

[jeans22]

Thank you so much for your opinions with regards to this post!! Thanks to this forum and to all the great people that take time to write their thoughts, I believe that I can put together a strong and convincing case for me and my soon-to-be wife. My sponsor does not have any legal problem nor do I so I think our case will be a straightforward one. But nonetheless, I will take rjessome's advice and hire a lawyer to review our case once we're finished putting it together.

Now that you mentioned it, rjessome... I'm wondering...does anybody know what the statistics are for the embassy here in Manila?

Once again, thank you very much to everybody that share their two cents!

 

[brightredscream]

There are a lot of interesting opinions here..
I've been told that the best way to go about doing things IS to hire a lawyer...

We'll be going through the Buffalo office when the time comes, so I'm hoping that not having a lawyer won't hinder us.

 

[Patricksgirls]

We are hiring a lawyer based on quick marriage after divorces even though both of us were separated for some time before we met.
I will say that my fiance managed to have a chance meeting with an immigration judge that stated a lawyers stamp does not make any difference. He also stated what others have on here that some people add more than needed and sometimes that raised red flags. No clue about any of that! BTW he also stated that appeals usually get honored because they figure if you go through the grief again you really do have true intent towards each other. There he said a lawyers stamp goes a long way.
It was rather enlightening!

 

[dishy_max]

My boyfriend and I were both employed full time five months ago when we started this and our jobs involved long hours with many corporate nights out and not much free time at home together so lawyers were handy.

We would try and get as much done on the weekends as we could and would fire it off to lawyers for their review.

We've both since quit work as we're going travelling in a few weeks and I must say that if we knew about this forum and both or one of us weren't working.....we wouldn't have hired lawyers and would have simply used this site! There are so many helpful people on this site and if a question you want to ask isn't posted....post it yourself and you'll have an answer in no time!!

But on the other hand if you are super busy or have some difficult circumstances, hiring a professional might be worth it. Just make sure you check out the firms, ask for recommendations etc.

One last thing is that you don't have to pay $1,000's for a full start to finish review. You may only need an hour consultation or a couple of hours for review of your application. Don't get suckered into them telling you that you need their help throughout.

Personally I'd rather pay a few $100 for piece of mind than get something wrong and get rejected! Personal choice and you'll find that it's a 50/50 divide on whether you should or shouldn't. If you think your app is good and you have no problems....just read this forum and all the tips and advice and you should be fine.

Dish

 

[canada_555]

u dont need a lawyer... all the info is on cic site... dont waste ur money