Need Immigration Lawyer to help cut growing red tape.
September 7, 2010 2:03 PM Subscribe
Immigration Lawyer required for Calgary - any suggestions?
My situation is fairly simple - my wife has moved to Canada from a commonwealth country. Our intention was to apply for PR status from within Canada. The process is arduous and challenging - or so it seems. Different individuals from the same office in Calgary (Harry Hays) have given us completely different pieces of information.
We are lost in a sea of red tape, and need someone to help us out. We have filled out 80% of the forms we *think* we need, but really need someone to guide us the rest of the way.
Immigration lawyers here are charging $200+ for a consult, but none are giving an estimate of total cost.
All I want is someone who is reliable/dutiful, will help, and is truly knowledgeable.
Any recommendations?
My situation is fairly simple - my wife has moved to Canada from a commonwealth country. Our intention was to apply for PR status from within Canada. The process is arduous and challenging - or so it seems. Different individuals from the same office in Calgary (Harry Hays) have given us completely different pieces of information.
We are lost in a sea of red tape, and need someone to help us out. We have filled out 80% of the forms we *think* we need, but really need someone to guide us the rest of the way.
Immigration lawyers here are charging $200+ for a consult, but none are giving an estimate of total cost.
All I want is someone who is reliable/dutiful, will help, and is truly knowledgeable.
Any recommendations?
This page of info looks pretty straight forward. Sorry can't be more help as I do immigration work in the US and don't want to give you bad information. In the US, the process is similar...read all of the info, fill out forms, and wait for a reponse. If you forget something, you will get a form letter from immigration asking for it. If your city has a non profit agency that deals with lots of immigrants, they may be able to provide help or referrals for the type of service you need.
posted by MsKim at 3:02 PM on September 7, 2010
posted by MsKim at 3:02 PM on September 7, 2010
I don't have any recommendations, but have you considered using an Immigration Consultant instead of a lawyer? For straightforward cases they're going to be a less expensive and possibly more knowledgable (I've heard some horror stories about misinformed immigration lawyers). They're regulated by the government, and you can get a list here: https://www.csic-scci.ca/
When my wife and I went through the same process, we found the canadian_immigration Yahoo! group an extremely useful resource. You might be able to ask questions there and figure this out without an immigration lawyer or consultant (that's what we did).
By the way, it's normal to get different answers from different immigration agents. They're mostly college kids and aren't very well trained, and sometimes following their advice can get you into trouble. My approach was to keep calling and go with the most consistent answer, but only after backing it up with my own research or info I found from the canadian_immigration yahoo group.
posted by Emanuel at 4:13 PM on September 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
When my wife and I went through the same process, we found the canadian_immigration Yahoo! group an extremely useful resource. You might be able to ask questions there and figure this out without an immigration lawyer or consultant (that's what we did).
By the way, it's normal to get different answers from different immigration agents. They're mostly college kids and aren't very well trained, and sometimes following their advice can get you into trouble. My approach was to keep calling and go with the most consistent answer, but only after backing it up with my own research or info I found from the canadian_immigration yahoo group.
posted by Emanuel at 4:13 PM on September 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: One of them told us to go to the USA and re-apply for entry into Canada so that we can get a study permit for our daughter during the time the papers are being processed. Another told us that we send the learning permit request to Arizona! (??) Another told us that we have to send her back home...
The gov't website is okay, but it's vague when applying from within Canada for sure, as the link for the checklist for an in-canada app is labelled "out of canada", and the same for some of the forms.
We have started looking for immigration consultants and will hopefully find someone good soon.
posted by burhan at 8:00 AM on September 8, 2010
The gov't website is okay, but it's vague when applying from within Canada for sure, as the link for the checklist for an in-canada app is labelled "out of canada", and the same for some of the forms.
We have started looking for immigration consultants and will hopefully find someone good soon.
posted by burhan at 8:00 AM on September 8, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by burhan at 2:50 PM on September 7, 2010