Immigration to Canada: Two Options

Author: Alex Berez

When you apply for Permanent Residence visa under the Skilled Worker Immigration scheme, you have two options:

In this article, I will talk about the first option:

a) Hiring an Immigration Representative:

The first option is to hire the services of an Immigration Representative / Consultant. They are also called Immigration Lawyers. Their job is to make the process easier for you, because they know exactly the documents you need to submit with your application. They normally charge legal fees and government fees. The legal fees refer to the fees they charge for their consulting services, and the government fees refer to the fees that have to be paid to the Canadian government in order to apply.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2005), authorized, paid representatives may only be:

? Immigration consultants who are members in good standing of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. If you wish to verify if an Immigration Consultant is in good standing of this Institution, please visit the following website: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/consultants/verify-rep.ht ml#consultants

? Lawyers who are members in good standing of a Canadian law society and students-at-law under their supervision. Please visit their following website to verify a lawyer's status in a Society: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/consultants/verify-rep.ht ml#law-societies

? Notaries who are members in good standing of the Chambre des notaires du Québec and students-at-law under their supervision. For further information please visit the following website: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/consultants/notaries

If you wish to hire an Immigration Representative to assist you with your Permanent Residence application, you need to complete the form called ""Use of a Representative"" [Number - IMM 5476]. Its purpose is to appoint the representative to establish communication and conduct business with Citizenship and Immigration Canada on your behalf. Please note that the forms may change from time to time, so you should verify which form you need to use at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/consultants/index.html.

This form can also be used to cancel the appointment of the Immigration Representative that you had chosen before.

You can find more information about Immigration Representatives / Consultants at the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants´ website: http://www.csic-scci.ca/index.html .

This Institution (CSIC) was created in 2003, and its main objective is to regulate the activities of Immigration Consultants (its members), who provide immigration services and advice for a certain fee.

Immigration Consultants can be members only if they have demonstrated knowledge and ability to provide immigration advice and represent potential immigrants to Canada. They also have to present and pass a Knowledge and Ethics Test to obtain the membership. The Society has also created a code of conduct called ""Rules of Professional Conduct"" in order to establish the expected standard of professional conduct and competence for its members. These rules also provide guidance to this profession in order to protect the general public from unprofessional, improper or incompetent service from the members of the Society.

Therefore, you should verify if your Immigration Representative is a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. You can find a list of its members at http://www.csic-scci.ca/indexE.html

About the author: Alex Berez is author of ""Step-by-Step Immigration to Canada"". http://www.StepbyStepImmigrationCanada.com