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| Subject: How much did your consultants charge ? |
I am wondering whether to take a consultant or not.
The one we?ve contacted seems to be expensive.
How much did you pay or were you expected to pay?
Is there any rule how much they can chage?
I would be very thankful for any information.
elli
[06-09-2005,07:29]
[**.153.138.71]
elli |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
I would NOT hire a consultant. You can do it all yourself if you are very careful and check things three or four times.
If you have some oddity to your application a consultant might be OK but if it is a straight forward application, save money and do it on your own.
[06-09-2005,12:50]
[**.244.235.164]
Rachunek |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
I agree with Rachunek....if your case is regular, you can do it your own. I hired a consultant and that was the biggest mistake of my immigration process. My consultant was only warm and helpful when they were trying to win me. After submitting my application, I can´t even get an email answer from them. So if you can, try to do it your own....goodluck...
[06-09-2005,15:08]
[**.39.44.102]
Joe05 |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
$3500.00
We could have done it on our own.
[06-09-2005,15:10]
[**.235.111.195]
FWChelle |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
I´m willing to do it for anyone for $500 with a money back guarantee on the correctness of the application :)
So you decide !
[06-09-2005,16:05]
[***.214.154.104]
BigB |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
I checked with 4-5 and most charge in range of 1300-1500 US$. They would be willing to break payments. Usually around 700-900 at application, and then the rest at medical stage.
I paid 1300 in all one go. Was not sure so I paid by Credit Card and got the contract (usual one - if not successful will get refund blah blah...).
But as mentioned - you can always file yourself. It just happened that I wanted to consult a immigration consultant.
[06-09-2005,16:20]
[**.244.28.75]
starwars |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
Cohen is the one I´m working with, supposedly the better one. About 1500. All in all, I´m disappointed with their service, it took forever to get the correct data into the forms, mis-communications, sloppy responce. For all the money I paid, they should at least provide some feedback on progress times, or maybe "how´s it going" sort of thing.. nothing but cold, generic, impersonal email answers.
But my case is kind of unusual so it might help a little. I don´t recommend anyone to hire one if it´s a straightforward case.
[06-09-2005,16:41]
[**.54.43.132]
outof usa |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
Even seemingly straight-forward cases can go south. People should also realize that their consultants can´t get answers/updates from CIC any quicker than you can, so once it´s processing, there may not BE anything to update their clients for a few months.
In our case, it´s not that we ´couldn´t´ do it ourselves, but we wanted the peace of mind that everything was done right the first time, and we were willing to pay for that peace of mind.
To their credit (and compared to some stories I´m hearing), our agency has actually been very good about everything, I always get to talk to someone if I call there, and they always respond to emails promptly. The Director is a member of the CSIC, and has over 25 years experience, employed by Citizenship and Immigration, (formerly the Employment and Immigration Commission) as an Officer, Supervisor, Staff Trainer and as a Visa Officer in Manila, Philippines. There´s some real exerptise there.
Where they steered us wrong was not informing us of every possible scenario that could have happened with our application, including a flat-out refusal... simply because they didn´t think it would happen. I honestly believe they were as surprised as we were, but that didn´t make us feel any better. Included in the intial fees we paid them, they are now handling a re-application, from scratch.
They can be there to guide you and answer questions, but ultimately your application is in the hands of 1 immigration officer, and only that person will decide how your case will be ruled. There is NOBODY who can tell you what decision will be rendered beforehand.
[06-09-2005,17:39]
[**.235.111.195]
FWChelle |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
without revealing too much privacy, can you tell us why it was refused?
[06-09-2005,20:50]
[**.54.43.132]
usa |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
I hired a lawyer instead of a consultant and he charged me $2000.00 US. I do realize that a lawyer or a consultant is of no help to anybody but to fill up the application forms. One good thing about my lawyer is that he responds to all of my queries, if i ask him 100 questions a day he will answer. I recently asked him if i should apply for CIAPS notes, he said he does not recommend this course of action, he said more you send queries to Visa Consulate more your application is delayed because they have to dig out every thing of yours and they dont like this because of the heavy burden of appliactions. Secondly he said there is nothing you can get from CIAPS notes so i did not apply then. My advice to you is that: If you can fill the forms then dont hire anybody, usually what happens after submitting the mistaken forms is that embassy return them to you for correction and if you hire a lawyer or a consultant, they do the same until all the informtaion is completed and then they submitt your forms. Thats it. Choice is yours. my lawyer is ABRAMS & KROCHAK their website address is www.akcanada.com
[06-09-2005,20:55]
[**.247.123.149]
Steve |
(in reply to: How much did your consultants charge ?)
usa,
It´s no secret really, I´ve talked about it a lot on this forum. Our conjugal application was refused because we did not have what they considered to be an impediment to marriage. We weren´t married yet because my ex husband was delaying the divorce, and we got tired of him arsing around and just wanted to get the ball rolling with immigration. Their other reason was that we had not combined our personal affairs to the extent they wanted (joint bank accounts, wills, etc).
My partner met all other criteria. Clean medical and FBI clearance, etc. We had sent over 2 years worth of "proof" to validate our relationship.. dozens of flight records, telephone records, photographs, emails, you name it. (which was why our consultant thought everything would be fine). They believed we had a relationship, but it was merely a long distance "dating" relationship with no real permanence.
During the time our application was processing, my divorce finally got settled, we got married, bought a house, combined all possible affairs, and were just in the process of gathering all our new info to send to Buffalo to inform them of our change of status when we received the refusal letter. Very BAD timing.
Ironically, they didn´t even comply with our "Use of Representative" designation and sent the letters directly to us. We knew about it before our consultant did.
We sent the new info to Buffalo anyway and requested a reconsideration based on our new status and information, but we had no response. An appeal could take up to 2 years, so, now we´re starting from scratch and re-applying as spousal.
We´ve since learned that the "Designated Immigration Officer" (who, incidentally, isn´t even a Canadian, she´s an American citizen employed by the Buffalo consulate) who assessed our case is now being investigated for multiple unjust refusals.
That´s what I meant about your entire fate being in the hands of one person. They give God-like powers to any dork. You just never know.
I don´t mind talking about this because maybe I can save someone else from making the same mistake we did. Don´t waste your time with conjugal class, if at all possible, get married first, or wait out whatever is preventing you from marrying. It will save you time in the long run.
[06-09-2005,22:07]
[**.193.72.81]
FWChelle |
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