What Does an Immigration Lawyer Do?

By definition an immigration lawyer interprets the law to help you analyze your own rights, possibilities, and strategies, and guide you (or if applicable, your sponsoring family member or employer) through every step of the complicated immigration process.

Immigration lawyers do much more beyond helping people become citizens of new countries. There are many items that a lawyer can assist in.

What Services Do Immigration Lawyers Provide?

Immigration lawyers provide legal help with immigration matters. They can provide immigration services such as:

  • Permanent Residency
  • Work Visas
  • Visitor Visas
  • Student Visas
  • Citizenship
  • Denied Entry Cases
  • Deportation
  • Overstay Cases
  • and many other legal matters.

What an Immigration Lawyer Can Do

  • Collect and organize required documents
  • Explains all of your immigration options
  • Represent you for immigration legal issues
  • File all papers to the government and immigration programs
  • Fill and submit a visa application with zero errors
  • Advise clients for any immigration matters
  • Can provide legal advice for clients

An immigration lawyer helps you submit the appropriate documentation required for your case. An immigration lawyer/attorney also helps ensure that you are handling the process with as much efficiency as possible. They will try to avoid any delays in helping you obtain your visa. When you have an emergency situation that requires you to go to another country, an immigration attorney helps you obtain the type of documentation that you may need to legally reside within a country for a long period of time.

What is The Difference Between an Immigration Lawyer and an Immigration Attorney?

The phrase “immigration lawyer” and “immigration attorney” are often used interchangeably throughout legal talk. There is very little distinction made between the two. The only main distinction between the two labels is that an attorney is considered the official name for a lawyer in the United States. A lawyer is someone who is learned and trained in  law. Yet, they may not actually practice law. They often give legal advice.  An attorney-at-law is defined as a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Although the terms often operate as synonyms, an attorney is a lawyer but a lawyer is not necessarily an attorney. To the general public, these terms may be used interchangeably but to the American Bar Association, the slight distinction is significant.

Immigration Lawyer vs Immigration Consultant

By definition an immigration consultant is a person who helps people to emigrate from one country to another country and through legal and documentation process to increase the chances of immigration for study, work, travel or business purpose.

In Canada, an immigration consultant is legally authorized to represent clients during the immigration process but have different education backgrounds and regulation authorities.

In conclusion, an immigration lawyer and a licensed immigration consultant can provide legal advice and represent a client for legal matters.

Find out if you need an immigration lawyer for Canadian Immigration

Find out if you need an immigration lawyer for US Immigration