Personal experience: for sure do the consultation. It takes away the majority of the worry if you're a worrier. (I'm a stress ball) and I can't imagine what would have gone through my head if we hadn't done a consultation and have a lawyer basically go over it and tells us
-It's complete
-Doesn't seem to be any issues with the information provided.
-Prospective date of when we'd receive acceptance (which he was right, he said early Nov and we just got approved.)
Do. The. Consultation.
It helped me sleep at night knowing that we put down all the correct dates, they all matched, everything was signed, no conflicting information.
(which at one point I passed out at school after being told by another student that studying in Canada and working is altogether illegal) but she wasn't from the US and was in a totally different situation than me and I did know better, but in the moment I flipped and fell to the ground.
just to give you an aspect of the kind of thoughts that this process put me and my spouse through.
As far as hiring a lawyer to be your Rep. I've seen some conflicting info on it. I have a now close friend who is still going through and it and the lawyers seem to have dropped the ball on their application. Because it gives them all the power. The handle everything and you never really get an update unless you know your lawyers are actively checking on it, have connected the application, and are monitoring for responses. you're at their beckoning and you're not the only one they're representing.
So if you have a straightforward application meaning neither of you are criminals, you have solid evidence, the country the non-Canadian is from, and whatever else makes you a 'straightforward application'. I'd say don't do it.
but that's just my opinion. I haven't seen anyone really rave about doing it.
Thank you for your advice.
My only concern is that they will believe we are truly in love but will refuse us due to the intention for status which unfortunately is true as well.
You just can't Frame it that way, you REALLY can't frame it that way at all. You basically have to make that unknown.. I'm a student here in Canada and it was a HUGE factor for us to start saving our money and really start our lives together without my total income from limited work going to school. but CIC does not care about that. That also isn't why we applied, and we made no indications of financial reasons in our application. I'm not going to lie, and who wouldn't, that not paying international fees and being able to work more would be amazing, but unfortunately, it would speak against you in your case. It would make it look like a 'marriage of convenience'.
. I said to myself 'no thanks' and I did the all the paperwork myself with the help from this forum