Why should we apply immigration through Certified Immigration Consultant?

[Backer]

I believe the Canadian Immigration Process is highly sensitive and complicated and a rejection means almost end of it. For the entire life change of one and his/her family to live and settle in one of the Best Countries in the World, don't you think it is worth doing it right and play it safe rather than saving few thousand dollars?

 

[foodie69]

I believe the Canadian Immigration Process is highly sensitive and complicated and a rejection means almost end of it. For the entire life change of one and his/her family to live and settle in one of the Best Countries in the World, don't you think it is worth doing it right and play it safe rather than saving few thousand dollars?

No..it is easy to do if you can read and follow instructions. I had no issues whatsoever..

 

[can_indian]

I believe the Canadian Immigration Process is highly sensitive Agreed and complicated No, It's easiestand a rejection means almost end of itNot particularly, It depends on the reason of refusal. For the entire life change of one and his/her family to live and settle in one of the Best Countries in the World, don't you think it is worth doing it right and play it safe rather than saving few thousand dollars?In case, if your English is not good enough to fill out forms correctly and don't know how to use computers

 

[PurpleTuzi]

I believe the Canadian Immigration Process is highly sensitive and complicated and a rejection means almost end of it. For the entire life change of one and his/her family to live and settle in one of the Best Countries in the World, don't you think it is worth doing it right and play it safe rather than saving few thousand dollars?

If you comprehension skills are good it will be easy to apply on your own. Lots of consultants also make mistakes which result in rejection for their clients so you would be taking a risk either way.

 

[21Goose]

I agree - there's nothing wrong with using a good consultant.

However, it's hard to find a good consultant. There are many unscrupulous crooks out there that want to take your money and run. It's the same in business consulting - you'll find a ton of fly by night operators, but a really good consultant is worth the money.

So how do you find a good consultant? You need to educate yourself. The more you learn about the process, the easier it'll be for you to distinguish between a crook and a honest broker.

It's like doing your taxes - yes, you can do it yourself, but you can go to an accountant and have him/her do it for you. If you are naive/foolish/unlucky, he can rob you blind.

The problem with immigration consultancies is that most people just do it once - with an accountant, you'll use the same one forever if you trust him (likewise with any professional - lawyer, doctor, banker, etc.). The professional has an incentive to do the right thing, otherwise word will spread and he won't get any clients.

Immigration has misaligned incentives thought, making it easy to exploit people, and that's why you need to be extremely careful and do your own due diligence.

The Canadian Immigration process is extremely easy, and anyone who qualifies for FSW/CEC/PNP has all the skills they need to do it themselves. Now, if you want to consult an expert, do so by all means - but don't expect someone to magically do everything for you and get you into Canada. If you're promised that, it's time to run away.

 

[johnsyk]

I agree - there's nothing wrong with using a good consultant.

However, it's hard to find a good consultant. There are many unscrupulous crooks out there that want to take your money and run. It's the same in business consulting - you'll find a ton of fly by night operators, but a really good consultant is worth the money.

So how do you find a good consultant? You need to educate yourself. The more you learn about the process, the easier it'll be for you to distinguish between a crook and a honest broker.

It's like doing your taxes - yes, you can do it yourself, but you can go to an accountant and have him/her do it for you. If you are naive/foolish/unlucky, he can rob you blind.

The problem with immigration consultancies is that most people just do it once - with an accountant, you'll use the same one forever if you trust him (likewise with any professional - lawyer, doctor, banker, etc.). The professional has an incentive to do the right thing, otherwise word will spread and he won't get any clients.

Immigration has misaligned incentives thought, making it easy to exploit people, and that's why you need to be extremely careful and do your own due diligence.

The Canadian Immigration process is extremely easy, and anyone who qualifies for FSW/CEC/PNP has all the skills they need to do it themselves. Now, if you want to consult an expert, do so by all means - but don't expect someone to magically do everything for you and get you into Canada. If you're promised that, it's time to run away.

I completely agree. I need to add a bit about my personal experience. When I first decided to apply for Canadian immigration, the first step was to look for a consultant. I knew that like anything in life, there are good and bad consultants. So i decided to spend my first few weeks hunting for a good consultant. I kept looking. Writing to different people. Getting their fee estimates. And while i was doing my research on a good consultant, I started learning more and more about the process. ANd then I landed here in this forum. The rest is history. I never used any consultant.

I spent 4 weeks reading up everything in this forum and reading the entire CIC website. I applied for my IELTS and did my ECA in parallel. Soon this forum becomes an addiction. You spend a lot of time here. Taking help. Giving help. You learn something new everyday. Today, I look at the fee estimates given to me by a few consultants and Im like, wow, what a rip off.

One of the estimates was...

Fee to start profile.
Fee to get into pool.
Fee during ITA
Fee during submission.
Fee when I get the PR

This was from a CIC certified consultant. Not one of those shady ones. (I would always do my homework and never would have gone with someone shady anyway).

So yes, consultants. Avoid them unless your case is really complicated. And if your case is complicated, what you need is an immigration lawyer and not a consultant. However, those are for refugee cases or really complicated ones which dont apply to most of us FSW.

And if you really need someone, I recommend Campbell Cohen. He owns this forum and gives uis this platform for free. The least we can do is give him our business if we do have any complications in our case. That's less than 1% of the cases! There is really no complication if you have all the documents! ANd if you dont have the documents, no consultant can help you.

Lastly I need to add, a consultant can actually be a liability in many cases. They hold the password. You have no access to the profile. You cannot check it when you want. You cannot apply for time bound PNPs like SINP which opens in the middle of the night in Asia. I have seen so many people finally end up realising that the consultant is actually a liability. Its like having a FB profile you cant update when you feel like and you need to wait for someone to make changes to your FB profile. ANd pay them every time they do it. ;D