ETE said:
The key word here is "experienced and smart consultants". If you want a consultant to help with such life changing situation, then it is your duty to make sure you go for consultants who are knowledgeable and who have a track record of success.
However, the advices given on this forum are legit ones and they have helped people in their applications. Do not belittle the information that is gotten on here. Besides, these people are not paid and yet they go out of their way to help people. I for one have benefited from these forums and also from speaking to qualified immigration consultants.
Asivad has helped a lot of people on this forum including me and so i understand what she/he is saying. She/he means you just have to be careful when deciding whether to use a consultant or not.
I don't belittle advices given on this forum, but my standpoint is that one shouldn't follow them blindly.
An immigration consultant is paid to focus on and find solutions for your specific case and circumstances, trying to bring out the best of your situation.
On immigration forums what typically happens is that everyone is speaking from their past experience and interpret the rules based on this experience only.
For example I can go now and read the rules of processing FSW applications, but my interpretation and my consultant's interpretation would probably be very different.
She knows how to apply those rules to my situation and sort of 'forward think for me', while I don't.Simply because she knows what CIC expects from those rules and can extrapolate them for me.
As you also mentioned, he/she has to be a smart and dedicated person, otherwise I agree with Asivad that it isn't worth throwing the money out the window.
