Hi, I am a newbie and would just like to share what happened to me.
My OH and I replied to an advert regarding jobs in Canada, the company turned out to be immigration consultants. We used them initally to obtain the correct number of points and on finding out we had more than enough decided to proceed to the next stage..................that was until we were told the fees were £10,000 from start to finish
I then decided whatever they can do I can do better and therefore took it upon myself to find my husband a job. I emailed his CV to 5 companies, in British Columbia in the areas we were prepared to live, the next day my husband got a phone call from one of the companies, this carried on to 4 phone calls every evening at 8pm (UK). On 4th day they offered my husband a job.
Within such conversations whereby they sold the company and the place to us they didn't want it on their conscience if we didn't like it and therefore paid for us to go out to Kelowna for 3 days. We loved it and his employers could not do enough for us, chauffering us around, taking us to dinner, it was great! Then to our surprise on the 2nd day of our visit they had arranged for professional people to come in and handle our application this cost
them several thousand dollars.
Our application is now being fast tracked through the PNP route as it turns out my husbands skills are in demand and the province will sponser him. This is the fastest route to gain entry to Canada along with this we are also applying for Permanent Residence.
By taking the PNP route the job itself does not have to go through HRDSC for their approval, furthermore the paperwork is virtually nothing but the basic questions. No evidence is required other than police clearance and medicals.
Perhaps we are very lucky in my husband's prospective employers doing all this for us, but it really does pay to get in touch and apply direct to companies. Some may reply and others may not but you have to keep on going and someone will want you.
So if you are all wondering about immigration consultants..................just go through the forms yourself and if you really cannot complete them then call upon their help. But for the sake of spending ££££££££££'s all it takes is a few weekends to complete the forms. Most of it for some people is gathering information on your previous years history, education, jobs etc. If you cannot get certain bits of information then I know from other forums that people have offered full explanations as to why they cannot gather such info, this was sufficient as they are now PR's in Canada.
So don't be worried or freaked out by it all just take your time and apply.
Good Luck to you all.