Are lawyers just vampire money-pit evil people?

April 13, 2008 9:30 AM

Wanted: Most expedient and financially prudent way to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

I can't find any specific questions or direct help in the various government websites for my particular circumstances, so am looking for anecdotal evidence or a person in the know:

I have a work visa in Canada, and I have been here since October 2006. I am English and I have a very specific and technical job here that I am extremely well/over qualified for, with 15 years employment in the field. I'd like to apply for permanent residence, and have had quotes in the region of $2.5 to 5K for the process from immigration lawyers. At the moment, that is quite a lot of money to me, although I could save that without major hardship if I had to.

So questions are as follows:

1: Is there any advantage in turn-around time going with a lawyer? (please quantify answers). How long does either take?

2: I can't decide how likely I am to screw up the process if I don't use a lawyer (my work permit took two goes to go through when we tried to do it ourselves) so am weighing cost/arse-factor of just getting it done over not paying $3K or so. Any experience?

3: After having got a work visa, and having had lawyers offer to take my case on (expressing, as they would, high chances of it being successful), are lawyer supported applications a reasonable certainty?

4: I've heard rumours that there may be difficulty extending my 2 year work permit - which seems nonsensical to me. Is there any truth in this? The difficulty revolved around needing a few months gap between visa expiry and additional applications, which seems stupid.

5: Does it make it any easier that I am already employed and living here?

So. I am essentially looking to take the right decision for reliability of application. I also want to get this over and done with.

Can anybody help with this?

posted by Brockles to law & government (5 comments total)

You seem to be in Toronto. The Law Society of Upper Canada recommends that lawyers offer a free half-hour initial consultation, and almost every lawyer in Ontario does.

Immigration is arguably the most archaic and bureaucratic field you'll ever encounter. This is exactly the type of situation where a lawyer who specializes in the field is most useful. There is always a chance that you would have done fine by yourself, but I'd say that you're almost certainly better off with a lawyer.
posted by winston at 12:04 PM on April 13

Is there any advantage in turn-around time going with a lawyer?

I've seen no evidence that there is, so I'm going to say no.
posted by oaf at 3:24 PM on April 13

I did this in the reverse (Canadian, moved to the US as a permanent resident for a while) and had a lawyer. Very glad I did. Not that our case was unusual or anything (married an American), but just seeing that 2" stack of paper of the completed application... well, it was worth the $2k. The lawyer came with us to the interview and cut in a few times to clarify the answer to a question, or cut off what was going to turn into a tangent, and also kept the interviewer in line. The lawyer also cleared up a lot of those little "oh they say that but that's not really how it goes in reality" or "actually this is more important than you think" type questions. Major peace of mind. There were a LOT of little details, and while tons of people do it successfully, I was happy to pay and make sure it got done right the first time.
posted by stephthegeek at 3:39 PM on April 13

I am in immigrant to Canada, but I don't have fist hand experience with immigration lawyers, as I immigrated with my parents when I was in high school and we went through the process before coming to Canada.

My girlfriend, however, applied just recently, and we are now waiting for the reply. She and her sister applied on their own, after having done undergrad in Toronto, and having worked under a work permit for 1 year. They needed to obtain a work permit immediately after starting school (but after getting job offers), and they have been able to renew their work permits without any long delays, in particular because they were able to get letters from their employers. In the extreme case that the renewal is not processed in time, they were given the option to pay an extra fee and have one issued locally in order to have to miss work because of processing delays -- I am sure you would be able to do the same. There was no need to wait for any gaps between the visa expiring and applying for a renewal.

They are currently waiting for their residency applications to be processed, but given the score they have received due to their qualifications, age, etc, we figure it would be extremely unlikely that they would be turned down.

Since you are highly trained in a specialized area of work, you are currently employed and you have a work permit, I also find it hard to imagine that you'd need the help of an immigration lawyer, especially if it will cost on the order of a few K. My impression is that the immigration process in Canada is MUCH shorter and MUCH simpler and less arbitrary than the immigration process in the US, after hearing from Canadian friends who moved to the US.
posted by TheyCallItPeace at 3:56 PM on April 13

To answer 1) there is NO difference in turnaround time whether you use a lawyer or not. The application is processed exactly the same way whether you fill it out yourself or have a lawyer or immigration consultant help. Where a difference could come in is how fast you actually get the forms filled out, how fast you find answers to questions, avoiding screwups that could get your application returned to you, and such things. But then, I've heard horror stories about lawyers and immigration consultants who get it all wrong, so you never know.
posted by Emanuel at 7:43 PM on April 14