Stay in touch

Get updates about the latest immigration news and be better informed about the Canadian Immigration Process.
First Name
Email address
Secure and Spam free...
BlogCanadian CitizenshipPermanent Residents

Questions to ask an immigration lawyer in Toronto

By June 28, 2016 September 22nd, 2022 No Comments

Selecting an immigration lawyer is a fundamental part of your migration process. Not all immigration lawyers are the same, and also picking the right one could suggest the distinction in between the success and also failure of your immigration application. Asking an immigration lawyer in Toronto questions prior to making a decision to hire them prevails, and need to always be a part of the employing process.

Questions to ask a lawyer

  1. Ask the lawyer how they will contact you and how often. Bear in mind that some immigration applications could take months or even years to process, so there might not be much to report on your case weekly. Nevertheless, the immigration lawyer should have the ability to respond to your telephone calls or emails in a timely fashion and also keep you updated when possible. Simply put: they should to be readily available for you.
  2. Request recommendations or referrals. If the immigration attorney does a good work with his other clients, there are likely several old clients who were happy with the immigration lawyer’s services. While much information is personal in the lawful world, some immigration legal representatives may have a selection of testimonies or “thanks” letters published on their website, or on on-line reviews or in their workplace to show you.
  3. Ask the attorney whether they know your case will certainly achieve success or a failure. A great immigration lawyer will have the ability to contact their years of experience and also inform you your chances, however generally not offer a “percent” of chance your application will be approved. If an immigration legal representative warranties your application will certainly achieve success because they understand someone working at Citizenship as well as Immigration Canada, it’s a lie!
  4. Check the fees: An excellent immigration lawyer will be able to describe these for you plainly, as well as not be vague about just how much they bill.

Immigration lawyers offer solutions to immigrants, but these services can be limited. They can submit immigration forms for you however they cannot appear in Federal Court if essential when the situation is refused.

There have been lots of instances in the media during the past year where immigration professionals have actually overcharged clients, refrained from doing the job the client paid for or even blackmailed customers right into paying even more money prior to having them deported. This is not to state all s misbehave. There are numerous great, honest as well as professional ones. Nonetheless, customers will have little to no choice; it appears, making use of immigration professional if something does go wrong.

How do I find a good immigration lawyer?

Immigration applications and appeals require expertise and experience. You need someone who has handled all types of immigration matters and is confident about helping you. Also, an understanding of the local environment is a crucial factor. That’s why you should always choose a lawyer from the country for which you need immigration services. For example look for an ‘immigration lawyer Toronto near me’, if you are in Canada.

If you are migrating from another country or seeking help for someone else who wants to come to Canada, then look for a Toronto immigration lawyer. Toronto is Canada’s financial hub and lawyers here have all the expertise you will need for your matter. There is a chance that the lawyer may need to be certified to take up your matter. With a lawyer who is from Canada, you can be confident that they can work for you in compliance with local laws. Moreover, they will be able to represent you before immigration appeal tribunals and courts, if this is required.

Working with Toronto immigration lawyers has another advantage. They have well-designed, informative websites. Read through the website carefully. It will give you an idea about the application or appeals process and tell you how knowledgeable the lawyer is. Moreover, it will tell you if the lawyer handles the kind of work you are looking for. Again, their authority and confidence in the field can be seen from how frequently they write blogs.

Expertise in the field is an especially important factor. There are a number of ways you can find this out. An immigration lawyer Toronto relies on will write frequently about immigration law. It is their area of expertise and they won’t be shy about sharing their know-how.

There is nothing better than word-of-mouth when it comes to finding the right immigration lawyer. Fortunately, immigration lawyers Toronto has are aware of this too and they are particular about client service. There are a couple of sources you can check to find out if other people recommend a particular immigration lawyer in Toronto.

First, the website is a great source. If a Toronto immigration lawyer highlights his or her clients’ testimonials about their work, then you are at the right place. Few lawyers can claim to have these. Believe it or not, there are too many immigration lawyers Toronto knows to be bad at respecting their clients’ needs.

Public listings like Google, Facebook and Yelp are also great places to find out more about an immigration lawyer in Toronto. People share good and bad reviews online, and no one can hide the truth on public forums such as these. If you think someone on an immigration lawyer’s team has been praised as being particularly knowledgeable or helpful, do call and ask to speak to them. They will be a good immigration lawyer in Toronto to take on your case.

What does an immigration lawyer do?

An immigration lawyer is your guide through the immigration or citizenship process. But, most of all, an experienced immigration lawyer will take the surprise out of the immigration process. Preparation is the most important aspect of any visa application. An immigration lawyer in Toronto will start by understanding your requirements, and your personal and professional circumstances. Each of these will affect what immigration path you should consider and how. A Toronto immigration lawyer has a lot of practical experience working with immigration matters and will make sure you don’t waste your time and money on the wrong immigration path.

Any immigration lawyer Toronto knows is an expert in the field will tell you that strategy makes a big difference to immigration success. You have to find the right immigration program for you. That could be, for example, preparing for Express Entry or one of the provincial nominee programs for immigration as a Canadian permanent resident. Furthermore, timing your immigration application right is important too. File at a busy time and your application will be stuck with months of backlog.

Toronto immigration lawyers will be able to guide you with all of those aspects and more. When filing any visa application, there is a correct way of doing things. This means you should submit the right documents that are required and also in the right form. Done in this manner, you improve the chances of your application being accepted by immigration authorities and the visa being granted.

Before a visa is granted an applicant may be required to sit for an interview with immigration officials. The interview is a very crucial part of the process and can make or break your shot at the visa. Matters such as spousal relations, questions about financial support and why you are migrating trip up many people. Immigration lawyers Toronto respects for a strong immigration track record can help you enormously with interviews. You can find out in advance what sort of questions to expect, what answer officials are expecting and how to prove what you are saying. Most importantly, speaking to an immigration lawyer will take away the unknowns of the interview process.

Also, if the immigration authority asks for additional documents or clarifications for documents, advice from an immigration lawyer is very important. He will be able to explain why the document has been asked for in the first place. After all, if you don’t understand why immigration officials have asked for additional documents, you can’t correctly satisfy that request. What many people don’t realize is that sometimes it is better to withdraw an application that may not be successful than to keep trying with it. An immigration lawyer Toronto knows has experience will help you find what would be the best strategy.

Of course, if an issue were to arise and your application was to go to appeal, then you would definitely need an immigration lawyer of repute. An immigration authority, like CIC, will have lawyers representing them before appeals tribunals, and you need someone who can fight for you strongly too.

Immigration lawyer fees in Toronto

High quality immigration services will never come for free. Immigration is a very resource and time intensive task. Good Toronto immigration lawyers will charge reasonable fees for their services. However, there is no standard formula for how much a Toronto immigration lawyer will charge clients. There are many factors that can affect this and we’ll go through them in detail. First, though, you should understand that a good immigration lawyer will never be a one-person show.

To be able to provide high quality immigration services, a lawyer needs a team to help them. Their team will assist them with filing, follow-ups and other administrative tasks. Paralegals and law clerks will help with research, keeping the lawyer in the know of the latest immigration programs. This way, an immigration lawyer Toronto will be able to focus on getting the strategy, preparation and submission of your application right. Also, an immigration lawyer will have then have time to focus on appeals.

So, if you find someone claiming to charge very little fees for their immigration services – be wary, they may have hidden fees! People working alone or people pretending to be ‘lawyers’ are very dangerous for you. Not only can they ruin your application and land you in trouble with immigration authorities, they may even try to misuse your information.

Similarly, an immigration lawyer charging full fees upfront or a large lump sum payment before beginning work is a warning sign. It can be that such a person has no intention of doing anything and may simply disappear with your money. It is also possible that they will lose motivation to do the work once the entire fee has been received and you will get very sub-standard immigration services.

Another thing to be wary of is if the lawyer wants to see your bank statements or financial documents before quoting you a fee. That is a warning sign that they don’t have a standard fee structure. That and they will try and cheat you out of the maximum fee based on your paying capacity. This is a very dishonest practice and you should not provide such documents before services and a fee has been agreed.

Some Toronto immigration lawyers are more respected than others and will have a higher standing with immigration authorities, who respect their honest and no-nonsense approach. A trustworthy immigration lawyer in Toronto with a reputed practice will not charge you fees in this way. They know their practice deserves respect and their fees and fee structure will reflect that. An honest lawyer will be open about their fees and not try to con you with hidden fees or surprise fees.

Keeping clients satisfied is very dependent on how clearly a lawyer explains their fees. And the best lawyers will always be forthcoming about that. After all, they know that if you leave satisfied, you may refer them to someone else.

So, just as important as how much fees the immigration lawyer Toronto is charging you, is how openly they are talking about it. After all, great immigration services don’t come for free!

How much does a Canadian immigration lawyer cost in Toronto?

If you search for ‘Canada immigration lawyer fee’ on Google, you will get a lot of forum posts. People have asked a lot of questions like, ‘Is $500 too little?’ ‘Is $5000 too much?’. Then there are some responses which say that a lawyer should charges $1030 for all services, without even mentioning the name of the immigration lawyer Toronto.

There is no standard fee structure for Toronto immigration lawyers. How much a lawyer costs to retain and for their immigration services will depend on many factors. The first and most important factor – your case. Every immigration case is different and requires fresh planning and preparation. Therefore, if you see anyone quoting an exact number on any of these forums or on websites, know that it will most likely be very different for you. Every immigration matter involves filing forms, printing paperwork, spending time on strategy and communication costs. It is very difficult to plan in advance for every little thing; it is why immigration lawyers Toronto don’t normally quote a standard flat fee.

Also notice that a comment like ‘I was charged $2000’ on the internet is never explained. You do not know what services the lawyer provided. Maybe it was a group of applications, maybe it was for a single application with additional follow-up work. In fact, if no details are mentioned, it is a sure shot sign that someone is trying to mislead you. A fee figure like that may be a lot for a lawyer with a bad reputation; or it could be a very reasonable charge for a lawyer with a great reputation as a Toronto immigration lawyer.

Another factor is when the figure was quoted. Too often people miss that ‘I was charged $900’ comment was written many years ago. Yes, that fee may have been appropriate – in 2005. But 10 or 20 years later, of course, it is too low. Not only does the value of currency change over time, the immigration process itself evolves so much.

Immigration lawyers Toronto knows to have good reputations will be very open about how they charge fees. They want to keep their clients happy – and key to that is making sure clients understand what they are going to be charged for. After all, a happy client will refer one more client, whereas an unhappy client will scare away ten.

So, read through a lawyer’s website thoroughly to understand their fee structure. If they are straightforward about their fees, it’s a good sign. Also, beware of hidden fees. If someone is being very vague about their fee, it means they are going to surprise you with charges.

As respected Toronto immigration lawyers we ensure that our clients understand our charges at the very outset. We talk about the expected fee and also tell clients to plan for additional charges if the visa requires additional documents. Similarly, we advise you on how much appeals can cost. With our help you can make immigration decisions that are sensible and cost-effective for you.