Mary Keyork immigration lawyer should you use a lawyer to assist you in your
immigration application? This is a question that I'm often asked by clients
the answer is you can use a lawyer or you can also apply by yourself there's a
lot of people that navigate through the Citizenship and Immigration Canada
website by themselves and are able to successfully submit applications the use
of a lawyer is that often if you have a case that's a little bit complex or
there's some level of detail that is not clear to you with respect to how you're
supposed to tackle it then it's always best to consult, at least consult with a
lawyer before submitting the application. Immigration lawyers have years of
experience navigating through the huge bureaucracy which is Citizenship and
Immigration Canada and although the the website and forums or blogs can provide
a lot of useful information my view is that every application is different,
every case is different, every applicant is different so it's important to
consult with an expert in order to provide all of your information to make
sure that you're covering everything. For example,
spousal sponsorships often couples come and see me and they think that it's very
straightforward to submit an application there in a genuine relationship they
have a marriage certificate and they're ready to submit it, complete the forms
submit the marriage certificate, copies of passport but in reality immigration
officers are looking for much much more than that in order to get a spousal
sponsorship approved you have to demonstrate the genuineness of the
relationship and you have to prove that your relationship is permanent, committed
and long-term just because you are married and even if you have children
for example doesn't mean that you are in a genuine relationship, it's important to
be able to prove that with documents when the time comes for the officer to
assess your case the officer will not see you, will not talk to you, will only
look at your documents and officers tackle and assess thousands
of applications every month and you have to make sure that your application is
complete and stands out and the officer just by looking at the documents and
going through your story will be able to determine that yes this is a genuine
relationship this is not somebody that's entered a relationship just to gain
entry into Canada so as lawyers we have years of
experience dealing with immigration officers of the different embassies with
their requirements and the changes of policies and we know exactly how to
submit applications in order not to even give the option to the officer to refuse
so we've prepared through the years a list of very detailed documents
supporting documents that we're going to ask you to collect which is very very
different than what's on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website on the
website it gives you very basic information on what supporting documents
you should submit but our firm will give you a list that's very detailed
including reference letters and pictures and questionnaires describing how you
met, why you got married or if you're a common-law relationship how does that
happen does the public know about your
relationship, was there a ceremony to celebrate your engagement, did you travel
to visit each other, receipts of activities you've done together, and all
of these documents will be prepared in a very specific way in order to make it
all so easy for the officer to navigate through your application it's not about
submitting a very big application with a lot of documents, it's not about the
quantity but it's about the quality and it's the way it's presented so if you
are able to really prepare a strong application to demonstrate your
application then you can go ahead and do it by yourself but it's always
recommended to at least consult and with a lawyer and if you do have some level
of complexity for example if there's a criminal background, if there's a
previous refusal if there's some sort of issue with respect to previous entries
to Canada then it's always best to consult with a lawyer to make sure that
you've covered all your bases. The reason for that mainly
is that if your application is refused then you lose a lot of time you have to go to
court and then you lose a lot money because you have to hire a lawyer to go
to court a lot of legal fees or you have to reapply that means you have to start
everything all over again and and more so besides the refusals, it can take much
longer for your application to process if an application is complete it will
process within about the processing times however if you're missing
documents if you forgot to check a box or put a signature, the way immigration
works often is they won't call you and tell you all you forgot this they'll
simply either refuse your application or most of the time they'll just return the
whole thing to you after sitting on it for a few months and they'll tell you
look you forgot to include this include it and then apply again and then you've
lost five months or six months so having a lawyer on file will ensure that you
don't go through these little hurdles and it'll make the process much easier
for you because it'll take the burden off of your shoulders and every time you
have questions or you wonder what's happening to your application you'll
have your lawyer to call and ask all your questions
you