Newcomer - advice please.

[Copullmoores]

My family and I are looking to emigrate to Canada. My Parents and Sister and Brother In Law all emigrated some time ago and following several years of holidaying (vacationing?) there and falling in love with the country we have taken to bold decision to initiate the process.

We have been offered Temporary Work Visa following an LMO. Like at least one other member on this forum we would then look to have our PR application fast tracked through the system.

My biggest issue is that my 8 year old son has cerebral palsy. This essentially affects the right side of his body and he is wheelchair bound. Cognitively there are no problems at all and his is a bright and very communicative little boy. He currently attends mainstream school in the UK and has a class room assistant there to assist with day to do task such as moving around the classroom. He uses is a laptop in class for his work as he finds writing a slow process and this helps him keep up with the rest of the class.

From medical point of view he has a non degenerative condition and so on a week by week, month by month basis needs very little care in this respect. He has an annual X-Ray to ensure his hips are okay but beyond that we do all the physio work for him (system in UK is similar to Canada – BC at least - where a physio will show parents the exercises and then ongoing care is down to the parents).

The only other area of cost would be equipment (wheelchair, standing frame etc) but we, as a family, would take care of the funding side of this.

Anyway I have one or two questions:

(i) Whilst on a TWP spouses and children are allowed to enter the country and the children attend school – has anyone had a similar situation like mine? Would the local authority be obliged to provide a classroom assistant as in the UK?
(ii) Does anyone have any success stories?
(iii) Is it worth appointing an immigration lawyer so that when submitting application for Permanent Residency you have someone fighting your corner?
(iv) Am I just wasting my time as it is unlikely we will be giving PR status in view of my son’s condition.

What I was hoping to do is get into Canada on the TWP and then spend the first 12 months at least demonstrating that my son is not a huge burden on the Canadian system. Does this seem the most logical route?

Any information/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John