My Record suspension has been completed and I did It myself. My waiver makes me nervous However, immigration lawyers are expensive. Is the process easy? My pardon was easy and I hear it's more difficult than the waiver. Help!
Should I do my waiver myself?
Allan S. congrats on your record suspension. You can certainly do your waiver without a lawyer. You must be sure to be complete and thorough with your submission. Any errors and they will bounce it back to you. However if you navigated a record suspension by yourself I am sure you can handle a waiver. The only benefit of having a lawyer do it would be if they know someone inside the Office of Admissibility and could find out where your application is. Otherwise it's wasted money, you can do it yourself and not have to pay a lawyer. Once you've done it once keep a complete copy of everything you did and just replicate it every time. Just remember that it can take up to a year and sometimes longer to get approved for a renewal so plan accordingly. And remember.... never book a trip to the states without your waiver IN HAND. Every time I thought I would be fine booking in advance my waiver did not show up in time. I've missed spring break twice over the last few years because of it.
I agree with Figman. Keep a copy and duplicate it every renewal time. I had a lawyer do the first one for me, and he gave me a copy, and the 2nd and the 3rd one I have done myself.
It's a waiting thing that bothers most people, but eventually you'll get a waiver sooner or later.
Cheers!
Hey, Mr.Vancity
I am trying to do my waiver alone and it's way too stressful. I am from Vancouver aswell and I am looking for a lawyer to help me with my waiver. If you don't mind me asking.. which lawyer did you use? I am exhausted from stressing about this.
@ Vancity Girl
Call this number 1 888 908-3841 ... if he ask's who sent ya... just say ZaCh's Dad...just too keep things anonymous on here.
He's a local 604 guy who knows his waiver stuff.
This is an accredited lawyer that did this for you? :)
@Vancity Girl, did you find a lawyer to assist with your waiver? I'm just starting on this process myself and wouldn't mind some help in the various letters that are needed.
@theCanadian - No, I have not found a lawyer. I am just going to do it myself. However, It's very stressful but I think after reading this blog that it is definately a smart idea. There are so many companies looking to take your money. Be careful of who you trust to help you and what information you disclose to them.
@vancity girl .... doing it yourself can be stressful but make sure you having everything in proper order double even triple checked it cause if you go to the border and they ship it off and then DHS needs more info you have only 87 days to reply or your file will be deemed incomplete and you will lose your $585us and will have to start all over.
Just letting you know, I've heard horror stories about waiting 1 year just to find out prints expired, more information about convictions etc...and then people losing the money only to start the process over again.
I do all of my own and gotten every single one approved so far...just waiting for my 4th one now.
I've helped others on theirs in local 604 but not anyone from this site yet.
But then again nothing is free in life!
@ScottyB
“DHS also looks for certain things in all cases that they purposely do not put on the checklist. If you don't know this and fall into that trap, then you risk getting your case denied by saying the wrong thing.”
Why don't you share these 'certain things' on this forum? Otherwise we'll assume you're just here to advertise your company.
@alan S.
Congrats on your record suspension. If you can do that yourself you can do the Waiver no problem.
I don't know who administers this forum, but it's great. However we seem to have been taken over by these guys who are promoting their business of getting so called Permanent Clearance.
They don't seem to want to tell us their company name and address or publish their rates. They also seem to have a little trouble with English. Again I just advise everyone here to be very careful who you tell your most private matters to and who your give your hard earned dollars to. If they can't be completely open then beware. ANYONE with a little knowledge of web design can create a web page and produce phony documents.
We have enough on our plate without getting scammed. To those guys who use this site to promote themselves and troll for business I say give us your company name, address and rates or get off this forum. Advertise like a real business.
Listen everyone allan s is a buddy of mine and trust me we called this dork sendittoken.com he straight sings u this nice song where its called i will give u the talk and take ur money ... Dudes a fraud i seen him a few times at lounges and my boys were going to tune him up the dudes a fake wanna be thug hate this dude he full of it period all you people on here think he good well think again
Also why u think this scotty b and whoever are always getting deleted because they get offended when u call them out awwww poor babys
How long do you need to keep repeating this waiver process? I overstayed my visitors visa when I married an American, I'm Canadian, and I had gotten bad information that I could stay in the states and fill out my spousal visa application.
@Lisa, Good morning, I did my first waiver this year. I was inadmissible due to a criminal charge from 18 years ago. (got turned around last November). I then started the process to apply for my waiver. The border guards (at Lynden) were extremely helpful and gave me the list which tells you step by step procedure. The wait to receive my record from the RCMP (Finger prints and charge) was 4 months to the date. I then took all my paper work to Lynden and it was exactly 4 months from April 8th, received August 8th and got a 5 year waiver. You do have to repeat the entire process once your waiver expires. I didn't find it hard to do, and the border people will review your package before they send it off. The entire process took 9 months. Good luck