What this episode is about? In this episode I connected with Robert Leong, and we talked about many challenges faced by newcomers in Canada. One of the biggest challenges is credential recognition and continuing to pursue your career in Canada. Many immigrants feel that their options are quite limited until they recognize their credentials and meet all other requirements necessary to find a job. This includes having relevant work experience in Canadian market and becoming fully integrated into the workforce. Robert shared his own personal experience with immigrating to Canada, and shared the challenges he had to go through while trying to find his niche. We also talked about whether immigration is a good choice for everyone and what it takes to become truly successful in a new country. Listen to this episode if you are thinking about immigrating to Canada or you just recently landed. We share many insights and you may find a lot of inspiration that will help you through the hard times. About today’s guest of the Canadian Immigration Podcast Robert Y.C. Leong Canadian Immigration Lawyer Robert read law in England, and after being called to the Bar, returned to his native Singapore where he practised as an Advocate & Solicitor for about 15 years. After immigrating to Canada, he was called to the Bar in B.C., and now practises exclusively in citizenship and immigration law. Apart from handling all types of temporary and permanent resident applications, Robert has also assisted clients in immigration enforcement cases, and has appeared before various Divisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Federal Court, and the Federal Court of Appeal. Besides English, he is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, and has appeared in various radio and TV programs discussing immigration issues of the day. Robert has volunteers at pro bono legal clinics, speaks on immigration law at public libraries, and also sits on the board of a charity that helps to transform the lives of people with addiction. He’s also presented at various immigration law seminars for lawyers and for immigration consultants. You can reach out to Robert via: Website: www.CanadaVisaLaw.com About the host of the Canadian Immigration Podcast Mark Holthe is a Canadian Immigration Lawyer based in Lethbridge, Alberta. He has started his legal career with a large national law firm in Calgary where he initiated the business immigration practice at the firm. Since those early days, he has had the opportunity to work in a wide variety of law firm configurations before finally realizing that the best place for him was within the confines of an immigration boutique firm of his own making. As a Canadian immigration lawyer, Mark has particular experience in assisting clients with all aspects of Canadian immigration law. He assists large national and multinational companies in navigating the complex world of Canadian immigration and provides strategic immigration advice to international and domestic companies seeking to recruit and retain foreign skilled and semi-skilled personnel. Mark also assists temporary foreign workers with their transition to permanent resident status in Canada and over the past few years, he has taken great satisfaction in helping individuals and families with their various immigration related needs. Mark finds no greater satisfaction than helping to facilitate the reunification of families. While attending law school, Mark worked as an Immigration officer for Citizenship and Immigration Canada on the Alberta/Montana border. While completing his final year of law school, he worked as a pro bono student to the Canada Border Services Agency Hearings Officers representing the minister before the Immigration Appeal Division in Calgary, Alberta. As a result of his prior experience as an immigration officer, Mark has been able to enhance the services he offers to ...
Windmill Microlending on how they help newcomers get certified and enter the labor market in Canada and how successful immigrants will help Canada recover from the financial Crisis caused by COVID.
What this episode is about? We all know that love knows no boundaries. However, in reality there are a lot of obstacles international couples may need to go around if they want to stay together and not being separated by the border. In this episode I invite Alicia Backman-Beharry, an amazing Canadian Immigration Lawyer who joined Holthe Immigration Law in August of 2020, to discuss spousal sponsorship applications. We talk about the differences between Inside and Outside Canada Sponsorships, benefits and drawbacks of each type of the application, as well as reasons why your Spouse or Common-Law Partner Class or Family Class application can be refused. COVID-19 and the travel restriction also had a significant impact on the processing of the Spousal Sponsorship applications. Alicia and I discussed how this global pandemic impacted applicants and how IRCC takes a ruthless approach of refusing applications for frivolous mistakes, in attempt to keep the processing time down. I definitely recommend that you listen to this episode carefully, because even slightest mistake can crush your plans of sponsoring your loved ones. Also, take a note of tips we provide that can help you make sure your application is not refused: 1. Examine and follow your Documents Checklist with forensic level of details 2. Provide sufficient proof of genuineness of your relationships 3. Provide an explanation along with your application if any of the documents or questions do not apply to your situation. 4. Make sure you have added your signatures and validated your forms 5. Ensure your photos meet the requirements. If you want to learn more about the difference between Spouse or Common-Law Partner Class and Family Class applications Alicia Backman-Beharry prepared a wonderful blogpost that covers everything you need to know about these two applications. Check the blog post here: https://www.holthelaw.com/spousal-sponsorship-canada/ About today’s guest of the Canadian Immigration Podcast Alicia Backman-Beharry has practiced as an immigration lawyer for 17 years. She was called to the Alberta bar in 2003 and was an associate with a medium sized firm and a boutique immigration law firm. Alicia went out on her own as a sole practitioner 8 years ago. She works with corporations, individuals and other lawyers to solve difficult immigration legal issues. Prior to joining the Holthe Immigration Law team, she also contributed as a part-time program lawyer at a non-profit poverty law clinic. She finds it rewarding to help individuals and companies through the complex world of Canadian Immigration law. Having taught courses on temporary and permanent residence, Alicia is able to see how various pieces of the immigration puzzle fit together, and can provide advice so that people understand which application to pursue and why. During her career as Immigration Lawyer Alicia Backman-Beharry has assisted with a wide range of business immigration matters, including applications for Labour Market Impact Assessments, work permits, Intra-company transfers, and Employer Compliance Reviews. She also has extensive experience with Permanent Residence applications including Express Entry, Provincial Nominee Program, Humanitarian and Compassionate, and family class sponsorships. While working with the poverty law clinic, she routinely helped people with inadmissibility issues, refugee matters, restoration applications, and temporary residence permits. She has appeared before various Courts and Tribunals, including Federal Court, Provincial Court, the Court of Queen’s Bench, the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Immigration Division, and the Immigration Appeal Division. Volunteering has always been a big part of how Alicia spends her time. She enjoyed 9 years on the Board of a large immigrant serving settlement organization, including serving as Secretary, Vice-Chair, Chair and ...
What this episode is about? In the midst of COVID 19 pandemic we, Canadian Immigration Lawyers often ask ourselves – what is going on with immigration and how Canada can adapt to the new normal with existing and new potential immigration programs? In light of the ongoing and severe economic crisis Canada really could use some investment and even consider rolling out a new immigration program to get back on track with the recovery from consequences of the pandemic. This would allow our country to bring in new awesome people, give a boost to our economy, create new jobs across Canada. As a chair of the Canadian Bar Association Immigration Section I have had a great opportunity to discuss immigration with number of organizations, including the Conference Board of Canada, which has been proposing some alternatives to the investor program. So, in this episode I bring on Phil Cohen to discuss what can we do as a country to help encourage more investment in Canada. During this episode we look into investor programs existing in other countries, in particular EB-5 program that exists in United States. This, then leads us to a discussion of how a program, similar to EB-5 would be of benefit to Canada. EB-5 is an American immigration program that allows both, Americans and foreign nationals to set up companies that can raise money from immigrant investors. In return, investors can qualify for a Green Card (alternative to Canadian Permanent Residence) so long that the business achieves certain requirements, such as: The investor has to invest a minimum amount of $900,000 or $1,800,000 USD The business must create a minimum of 10 jobs for each investor the business takes on This program allows to attract significant amount of investments to small and large businesses. In times of economic uncertainty the program like EB-5, without a doubt, benefits not only the business seeking investment, but also has a great positive impact on economy and the public. Moreover, the cost of the capital typically ends up being much lower when businesses seeks for investments through EB-5 program. Tune in to learn more details about American EB-5 program and potential benefit Canada would enjoy if we implement similar program in our country. About today’s guest of the Canadian Immigration Podcast Phil Cohen is the founder and president of Strategic Element as well as the Editor-in-Chief of The EB-5 Definitive Guide (see:www.starteb5.comfor more information). Phil has a long history of developing businesses, business concepts and products, dating back to 1993. With a career that began in the manufacturing sector, and grew to include new developments in technology and a variety of start-ups, Phil has progressively built up experience in the area of new business development with a focus on transforming ideas in to viable business models. Phil has worked with large public companies as well as small and mid-sized start-ups and businesses. Beyond the development of business concepts, models and plans, Phil has taken a hands-on role in the launch of several businesses and business initiatives. In so doing he has faced firsthand the realities and challenges faced by new businesses. This firsthand experience has provided him with the insight and real-life exposure necessary to develop businesses and business plans that work. About the host of the Canadian Immigration Podcast Mark Holthe is a Canadian Immigration Lawyer based in Lethbridge, Alberta. He has started his legal career with a large national law firm in Calgary where he initiated the business immigration practice at the firm. Since those early days, he has had the opportunity to work in a wide variety of law firm configurations before finally realizing that the best place for him was within the confines of an immigration boutique firm of his own making. As a Canadian immigration lawyer, Mark has particular experience in assisting clients with all aspects of Canadian immigration law. He assists lar
Misrepresentation is one of the most serious wrongdoings that the applicant for Permanent Residence in Canada can do. In other words you want to avoid misrepresentation at all cost throughout each stage of the immigration process. And let's call things by their proper name - lying is never a good idea whether you're lying in immigration or any other context. However, what if you never intended to misrepresent your case or did not even know that you have misrepresented something? This is just one of the issues that I have discussed with Rekha McNutt in today's episode of the Canadian Immigration Podcast where we touched on the various aspects of appealing the removal of PRs for misrepresentation. Rekha practices primarily in immigration law. She has extensive experience with temporary resident visas, express entry, federal skilled workers, Canadian experience class, Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, family class sponsorships, refugee claims, pre-removal risk assessments, and in-Canada humanitarian and compassionate permanent residence applications. Rekha has focused much of her practice on Federal Court Judicial Review applications of various types of negative immigration-related decisions. Rekha had appeared before the Alberta Provincial Court and the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. She has also appeared extensively before the Federal Court of Canada and Immigration Tribunals such as the Immigration Division, Refugee Protection Division, and the Immigration Appeal Division. Rekha is the past-Chair (2015-2016 & 2016-2017) of the Southern Alberta Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, Immigration Section. In this episode Rekha and I had an awesome and engaging conversation about misrepresentation and the consequences of such wrongdoings. It is surprising that there are so many ways how almost anyone can become a victim of their own carelessness, lack of understanding of the immigration processes or even reports filed by their close circle of friends or relatives. Rekha gave a full explanation of what misrepresentation really is and how serious and challenging the consequences may get if IRCC believes there was a misrep. Additionally, in this episode we discussed the following: what is the misrepresentation; examples of Innocent Misrepresentation; misrepresentation on inadmissibility vs. misrepresentation on eligibility; different ways IRCC finds out about cases of misrep; fairness letter and Section 44 reports; the process of removal of permanent residents for misrepresentation; different ways to fight your case if Immigration Division issues a removal order. Sponsor: Canadian Immigration Institute - Founded by Immigration Lawyer Mark Holthe Affiliate Program: Click on this link to become an affiliate of the Canadian Immigration Institute: https://www.canadianimmigrationinstitute.com/become-an-affiliate OR, go to the Canadian Immigration Institute main page and scroll down to the very bottom and click on “Affiliate”. Earn 30% when someone purchases via your affiliate link Additional Resources: Rekha's firm: http://www.caronpartners.com/ How to contact Rekha: RMcNutt@caronpartners.com Canadian Immigration Institute: https://www.canadianimmigrationinstitute.com/ Topicsfor our Next Podcast If you have a suggestion for topics we could cover in the Podcast, please drop me a line at mholthe@holthelaw.com. If you know of anyone that would be interested in coming on the Podcast as a guest, please send them my way. share on facebook, share on twitter, share on LinkedIn Binge on all of our Canadian Immigration PodcastEpisodes! If you want to listen to more episodes, you will find all the episodes here. Subscribe to the Canadian Immigration Podcast on iTunes and Spotify If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe. If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out and raising the visibility of the show. Share the Love We also encourage you t
It is not a secret that Permanent Residents can lose their status and be removed from Canada for committing a crime. In fact, a lot of people have heard some stories about PRs being removed from Canada for violating the law. However, not everyone knows specifics and details on how this removal process is done and if there are any ways Permanent Residents can challenge their removal from Canada. Well, today's episode is really focused on Permanent Residents and Criminality. In this episode of the Special Series on Immigration Hearings and Appeals I discuss everything you might want to know about Criminality as a ground for removal of Permanent Resident from Canada with amazing Canadian Immigration Lawyer Rekha McNutt. Rekha practices primarily in immigration law. She has extensive experience with temporary resident visas, express entry, federal skilled workers, Canadian experience class, Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, family class sponsorships, refugee claims, pre-removal risk assessments, and in-Canada humanitarian and compassionate permanent residence applications. Rekha has focused much of her practice on Federal Court Judicial Review applications of various types of negative immigration-related decisions. Rekha had appeared before the Alberta Provincial Court and the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. She has also appeared extensively before the Federal Court of Canada and Immigration Tribunals such as the Immigration Division, Refugee Protection Division, and the Immigration Appeal Division. Rekha is the past-Chair (2015-2016 & 2016-2017) of the Southern Alberta Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, Immigration Section. In this episode Rekha and I had a very interesting discussion on challenging removal of PRs from Canada based on criminality. Rekha shared insights and demystified what happens to a PR charged with a criminal offense and how this fact is treated both within criminal as well as immigration system. Additionally, in this episode we discussed the following: consequences for a PR when charged with a criminal offense; types of criminal charges and difference between serious and regular criminality; options for appealing removal order; practical aspects of representing a client in appealing removal orders. Sponsor: Canadian Immigration Institute - Founded by Immigration Lawyer Mark Holthe Affiliate Program: Click on this link to become an affiliate of the Canadian Immigration Institute: https://www.canadianimmigrationinstitute.com/become-an-affiliate OR, go to the Canadian Immigration Institute main page and scroll down to the very bottom and click on “Affiliate”. Earn 30% when someone purchases via your affiliate link Additional Resources: Rekha's firm: http://www.caronpartners.com/ How to contact Rekha: RMcNutt@caronpartners.com Canadian Immigration Institute: https://www.canadianimmigrationinstitute.com/ Topicsfor our Next Podcast [reminder]If you have a suggestion for topics we could cover in the Podcast, please drop me a line at mholthe@holthelaw.com. If you know of anyone that would be interested in coming on the Podcast as a guest, please send them my way. share on facebook, share on twitter, share on LinkedIn[/reminder] Binge on all of our Canadian Immigration PodcastEpisodes! If you want to listen to more episodes, you will find all the episodes here. Subscribe to the Canadian Immigration Podcast on iTunes and Spotify If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe. If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out and raising the visibility of the show. Share the Love We also encourage you to subscribe to our Canadian Immigration Podcast on Spotify.
Losing your status in Canada is the worst nightmare for Permanent Resident. Unfortunately, many Canadian PRs end up losing their Permanent Residence status. One of the common ways to lose your PR status is by not meeting the residency requirement. In this episode Rekha McNutt joins me once again for our Special Series of Immigration Hearings and Appeals to discuss specifics of residency requirements and filing appeals of the Removal Orders at the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD).
For US companies relying upon foreign workers, Monday, June 23, 2020, was a day of significant disappointment. President Trump announced that many categories of foreign workers would no longer be granted entry to the US until the end of 2020. Fortunately, Canada's immigration policy is far more welcoming. If you are a US company that is going to be hurt by these latest rounds of restrictions, Canada may just be the answer. Tune in to this episode where US Immigration Attorney, Nicole Ezer, explains what these restrictions mean for your company and Canadian Immigration Lawyer, Mark Holthe, shares some great "made-in-Canada" solutions to turn your disappointment into relief. Many US companies were left reeling on Monday, June 23rd when President Trump announced that H-1B, L, J and H-2B visas would be blocked until the end of 2020. These four non-immigrant visa categories are relied upon heavily by US companies seeking to fill critical skill shortages in the US. Now what is a US company going to do? They were already hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but this most recent announcement feels like insult to injury. In this episode US immigration attorney, Nicole Ezer shares some great insight into what these restrictions really mean for US companies and why things may not be as bad as they seem. I then take some time to pull the curtain back on some very practical solutions that Canada's facilitative immigration policy offer to struggling US companies and their foreign workers. Nicole Ezer is the founder of Ezer Law Group, a business immigration boutique law firm based in Houston, Texas. She is my go-to attorney for any US bound business immigration need. We have collaborated for years on mutual cross-border clients and I have fortunate to call her my friend. Nicole has practiced in the areas of family-based immigration, naturalization and asylum and participated in activities that provide education to industries and communities regarding immigration issues. She is a frequent speaker before industry, HR groups and for attorney CLE activities, and is a 2002 Graduate of the Center for Houston’s Future Leadership Forum. Nicole has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center, teaching “Business Immigration Basics”. Nicole has focused her practice on immigration policies and planning and consulting for companies of all sizes. She is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Nicole develops, implements and updates immigration policies for multinational corporations. Sponsor: None of this would be possible if it were not for my Canadian Immigration Institute. My DIY courses earn me sufficient revenue to continue pushing out great free content on Canadian Immigration. Canadian Immigration Institute - Founded by Immigration Lawyer Mark Holthe Affiliate Program: Click on this link to become an affiliate of the Canadian Immigration Institute: https://www.canadianimmigrationinstitute.com/become-an-affiliate OR, go to the Canadian Immigration Institute main page and scroll down to the very bottom and click on “Affiliate”. Earn 30% when someone purchases via your affiliate link [Tweet "Canada is a great option for suffering US companies?"] Additional Resources: Nicole Ezer's law firm: https://ezerlawgroup.com/ The best way to reach Nicole: Phone: (281) 404-7781 Website: https://ezerlawgroup.com/contacts/ Topicsfor our Next Podcast If you have a suggestion for topics we could cover in the Podcast, please drop me a line at mholthe@holthelaw.com. If you know of anyone that would be interested in coming on the Podcast as a guest, please send them my way. share on facebook, share on twitter, share on LinkedIn Binge on all of our Canadian Immigration PodcastEpisodes! If you want to listen to more episodes, you will find all the episodes here. Subscribe to the Canadian Immigration Podcast on iTunes and Spotify If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscrib
Are you frustrated with your language scores? Have you considered writing both language tests? If you want to improve your scores, you have to listen to this episode with professional language instructor Garret Lim. He shares the real goods on what makes the IELTS different than the CELPIP. You can decide which one is better. In this episode, Garret Lim shared some great insight into exactly what the CELPIP and IELTS tests cover. By knowing the differences between the two tests, you can make the right choice as to which is going to allow you to score the highest. After all, your entire future in Canada depends upon it. Garret Lim is a career ESL teacher that has spent over 13 years teaching English as a second language. He has taught in 3 countries and has had students from over 30 different countries. Recently, he's narrowed his focus a bit and is now specializing in test preparation for people wanting to immigrate to Canada who need to reach a certain proficiency band on one of the tests. It goes without saying that your Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) is an aspect of your application that can really make or break it. Here is what is covered in this episode: Why English is so important with respect to your Express Entry What the CLB is and what it represents How the CLB is measured. Differences between the CELPIP and the IELTS Final advice or tips for those taking the tests Sponsor: None of this would be possible if it were not for my Canadian Immigration Institute. My DIY courses earn me sufficient revenue to continue pushing out great free content on Canadian Immigration. Canadian Immigration Institute - Founded by Immigration Lawyer Mark Holthe Affiliate Program: Click on this link to become an affiliate of the Canadian Immigration Institute: https://www.canadianimmigrationinstitute.com/become-an-affiliate OR, go to the Canadian Immigration Institute main page and scroll down to the very bottom and click on “Affiliate”. Earn 30% when someone purchases via your affiliate link [Tweet "Is the IELTS really better than the CELPIP?"] Additional Resources: Garret's website: http://tu-easy.online Topicsfor our Next Podcast If you have a suggestion for topics we could cover in the Podcast, please drop me a line at mholthe@holthelaw.com. If you know of anyone that would be interested in coming on the Podcast as a guest, please send them my way. share on facebook, share on twitter, share on LinkedIn Binge on all of our Canadian Immigration PodcastEpisodes! If you want to listen to more episodes, you will find all the episodes here. Subscribe to the Canadian Immigration Podcast on iTunes and Spotify If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe. If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out and raising the visibility of the show. Share the Love We also encourage you to subscribe to our Canadian Immigration Podcast on Spotify.
During this episode Canadian Immigration Lawyers Mark Holthe and Arghavan Gerami get into discussion on whether the approaches taken by the CBSA during COVID-19 go in line with the principles of the Open Government, transparency and rule of law. Lack of responsiveness to the dialogue between CBSA and law practitioners and public played important role in formulating the view that people were left on their own in figuring out the details of the legal basis upon which the officers make their decisions at the border. In a pandemic people need more transparency and clarity on new policies and procedures that the Government implements. However, as discussed during this episode many attempts to bring clarify and request any information that would allow people to be aware of new changes in cross-border travel were left unanswered. The host and guest of this episode also address the issue of lack of communication from the Government in interpreting what is considered to be “non-essential” ...