Visas & Advice Detail
Professional pointers
In the April 2009 issue of Emigrate magazine, Sarah Coles compared the responsiveness, pricing and initial knowledgeability of various Canadian immigration professionals.
Here, the feature is provided in full, followed by a response by immigration lawyer Ian Goldman of Goldman Associates.
Professional pointers
Sarah Coles goes undercover to check out the services offered by Canadian immigration agencies
Getting into Canada is far from easy. Even if you still squeeze into the shrinking list of skilled occupations, meet the magic number of points, or have the cash to invest your way into the country, the process is increasingly complex.
There are forms to fill in, documents to produce and checks to undergo. And the whole thing is done on the understanding that one mistake could send you all the way back to the start again. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that there are a number of professionals out there who offer to make this difficult process simpler, or to take it off your hands altogether… for a fee.
However, not all professionals are the same, so I went undercover to test them out.
For the purposes of the test I was a single, 34-year-old accountant, in good health, with £120,000 of assets – essentially an ideal candidate. I spoke to a combination of lawyers and consultants, and a mixture of those based in the UK and Canada. They were all professionals, as they were either in a firm of a practising Canadian lawyer, or a consultant recognised by the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC).
It's worth bearing in mind, however, that the individual you speak to may well be neither of these things – they just work for one – so it's important you are comfortable with the individual you are dealing with.
The fundamental service at the heart of these companies is essentially the same – help in getting you your visa. All offer an initial assessment to see if you are likely to be granted a visa, which is often done online. Most then put together a visa application for you and send it off. The one exception of the companies I contacted was Hand in Hand, which will provide the documents, give advice on completing them, and check them when they are done. This won't take the job out of your hands, it will simply help you through the process. However, in return it charges less.
Once the visa has been submitted, all these companies will deal with any queries that come up, and keep an eye on your application as it progresses.
Some of the firms provide just visa preparation, such as Hand in Hand, while others have wider offerings, such as help finding a job. There are differing degrees of assistance available here. Four Corners, for example, offers help with a CV and, where possible, will put you in touch with a recruiter. Others, such as Willis Brazolot and Co and Alberta Immigration.com go further, with in-house recruiters who will put your CV into Canadian format, and submit it to potential employers.
Some firms also offer relocation services from shipping to house-hunting and help in finding schools. Again, there are varying degrees of assistance. Alberta Immigration, for example, offers to spend time with all newcomers to help them settle in. Others, such as 4 Corners and Commonwealth Immigration, simply provide guides or factsheets.
There are a number of added extras some companies have introduced, to help them stand out from the competition. Alberta Immigration, for example, emphasises the personal touch, and has devoted much of its website to testimonials of former clients. Four Corners, meanwhile, makes much of its accessibility, and holds regular events where you can ask questions and meet the professionals.
Both Commonwealth Immigration and Willis Brazolot and Co are keen to demonstrate their knowledge of the area by issuing newsletters to keep clients updated on developments within the general immigration field, while Ian Goldman of Goldman Associates makes much of the fact he is a lawyer in an area dominated by consultants.
This distinction is worth exploring. The key difference between the assistance offered by lawyers and consultants only seems to arise if you have a tricky case, or if you are refused a visa and you want to appeal. In this case only a lawyer can represent you in court. Other than that, there is little difference between what they can achieve for you.
The names that appeal to you will depend on what you are looking for in a professional. If you want a full service firm, for example, the likes of Willis Brazolot may suit. If you're just looking for help with your visa, you may find companies such as 4 Corners or Commonwealth Immigration are suitable, whereas if you just want some guidance and are prepared to do the legwork yourself, Hand in Hand may have a solution.
The type of assistance you select will dictate the cost. Generally, the more a firm provides you with, the more you will pay. So, for example, Hand in Hand's offering costs £1,000, while the majority start at £2,000 for an application. Full service firms may cost a little more. Fee charged by Willis Brazolot and Co, for example, start at £3,000.
Aside from the breadth of services, and the price, the final consideration will be the quality of customer service. There were some key differences here. To begin with, not all the firms were easy to contact.
Only 4 Corners was available immediately, although Commonwealth Immigration, Hand in Hand, and Willis Brazolot and Co returned my call swiftly. The others took at least 24 hours to get back to me, while some took days, and some never returned the call at all.
Some firms don't like talking to you unless they know you have a reasonable chance of success. One company, for example, wouldn't let me get any further than a recorded message until I had sent an assessment form in. Their system is designed so the majority of clients don't need to speak to anyone at the firm until they are at the stage of signing up.
Most annoyingly, one firm didn't even respond to any of my initial messages, and yet didn't tell me to send an assessment form in either. When I finally got to a human being, however, the customer service was excellent.
Once I tracked down company representatives, the levels of knowledge differed. With Commonwealth Immigration, for example, the individual assisting me didn't know the rules surrounding various occupations, so had to keep halting the call to make checks. In fairness, this may be because the company provides immigration assistance to a selection of countries, while most of the others were Canada specialists.
The quantity of information given also varied. Commonwealth Immigration, for example, wanted to proceed very quickly to the CV stage, without providing any information on how the process would continue, or what I could expect. In contrast, Hand in Hand, was careful to talk through all the options, and happy to go through where I could get help with the things it didn't provide. This was the firm that gave the most unprompted information.
Also worth a mention are Willis Brazolot and Co, and Alberta Immigration. These were the only companies that warned me the skilled occupation list was likely to change in the summer, so it was worth acting fast.
In the end, who you pick comes down to the kind of services you need, the amount you are willing to pay, how many hoops you are happy to jump through in order to speak to someone, and finding an individual you feel comfortable is fully informed and has the time to talk to you.
Ian Goldman writes:
I think that it would have been a better article had Sarah compared the firms' services in terms of quality, at least up until the end of an initial consultation.
There are a lot of people calling us for free information and wanting a quick free consultation. These quick consultations are often not in the client's interest because they do not allow us to get the whole picture of the client's situation and to explore options that the client doesn't already know about. After all, there is no point in us telling the client (and Sarah) what she already knows. The highest value service we provide is at the very beginning by getting the client on the right track. So, we want to be sure to get that right rather than just getting the person as a client to make some quick money and not provide them with proper long-term service.
To avoid dealing with 'information fishing' and collecting information on the phone, we usually request information in the form of a CV or an assessment sheet before we talk to a prospective client. So, I think that the article suffered from not evaluating the quality of the service. An even better article (probably beyond the amount of time available) would go beyond the initial speed/quality and consider the quality and quantity of services that are provided all along the way (in other words, the entire package) and compare those with the fees. This is important because the form-filling function is the lowest-value part of our service.
For further information: Immigration to Canada