applying with solicitor or without

[Minovilla]

Dear Members ,

For all who applied for PR , did you applied with solicitors or by your self ? How does it effect application ,
my friend was in interview for resident card after marriage , the last question they asked him was , why did you apply with Solicitor , its HO who gives RC not the solicitors .
Could an officer say that to an applicant interview ?!

Moderators (solicitors) , what is the average timeline for PR this days please ?

[NikiGio]

It depends on the complexity of the application and the strength of your evidence.

If yours is a straightforward application and you have good evidence, I'd suggest doing it without a solicitor - I did my application myself (worker, here from 2010, 5 P60s to prove work and residency, bills to prove continued residency, covering letter to summarise my situation), and it took only 3 weeks to be processed and approved.

For complex applications - I'd suggest at least a consultation with a lawyer. In these cases, having a solicitor can greatly increase the chances of getting PR. On the other hand - if you know what you are doing, research the requirements and are potentially willing to risk losing £65 - you could try doing it yourself even in the case of a complex application. But if you get refused, I'd definitely suggest a consultation with a lawyer before a 2nd application. Complex applications can take anything from a couple of months to 6+ months to be processed.

[Minovilla]

Thank you for your time and reply ,
Complex means case worker needs time to look more into application ? they can refuse if they are not happy about evidence ,
it is quiet hard to think of what happening there or the way they file applications
what i think is there are steps and application can pass at any step or fail at other .

[NikiGio]

Whether a case is complex or not depends on the applicant's situation - how long they've been here, how they've been exercising treaty rights, what evidence they have, if they have been away from the country or not exercising treaty rights for more than 6 months since arriving, if they're applying alone or with family members, etc.

[obormot]

A mere fact of using a solicitor would not change how HO deals with your aplication.
So if you rerad the HO instructions, understand them well and think you can provide all they want, you do not need a solisitor.
If you have questions or doubts about what type of applicationm you are eligible for, what documents to send, etc., or simply if you are a worried type, then you need at least to get professional advice. And after that you could decide to either do it yourself, or doitentirely with solicitor.

[Minovilla]

Thank you for your reply ,
well i had a missing document but solvable as per solicitor , so i believe he can write a good letter,
my concern is the processing time , the applications with solicitors seem to take longer .

[Obie]

Thank you for your reply ,
well i had a missing document but solvable as per solicitor , so i believe he can write a good letter,
my concern is the processing time , the applications with solicitors seem to take longer .

Well solicitor's application and normal application do not have different turn around time.

A good solicitor who knows what he or she is doing, can make an impact on a complex application. A poor solicitor could make an otherwise straight forward application complicating and lead to refusal.

I do not see a person being disadvantaged by a solicitor, unless the solicitor is incompetent beyond rescue.