Canadian Immigration Podcast Mark Holthe

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 en

What this episode is about?
Nobody comes to Canada with expectation of not being successful. Immigration to a new country, however, often puts newcomers into unfortunate circumstances. Too many immigrants are unable to fulfill their potential because their professional certification is not valid in Canada. Getting certified in Canada is challenging to the absolute majority of newcomers, as it requires significant financial resources. Financial challenges are aggravated by the fact that newcomers often have low credit scores in Canada and thus are subject to terrible interest rates for their loans. 
Well, there is a solution to this "no money - no certification, no certification - no money" loop!
Windmill provides microloans of up to $15,000 to skilled immigrants and refugees so they can succeed in their careers. They support clients to obtain the Canadian licensing or training required to work in their field, or to secure a position which matches their level of education, skills, and experience. Their loans can pay for exams, training, assessments, books and materials, living allowance, relocation costs, professional association fees, and other expenses related to advancing their career.
Thanks to these loans newcomers are included in the labor market in Canada and can compete for high wage jobs fully applying their foreign experience and knowledge. Higher wages mean higher taxes. As a result newcomers pay higher taxes and spend their hard-earned money in Canada thus stimulating economy. 
About today’s guest of the Canadian Immigration Podcast
Paula Calderon
National Director, Client Success
Originally from Colombia, Paula has spent her career leading workforce development projects that support the economic integration of newcomers to Canada. In the past, she pioneered ESL programs, worked on paid internship programs and oversaw various employment services and bridging programs supporting internationally trained professionals. She has also worked as a professor in the Career Development Practitioner program at George Brown College, has served as a mentor to newcomers and is the former President of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Colombian Professional Association. In 2018, Paula completed the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunity program and became an Aspen Institute Economic Opportunity Fellow.
You can reach out to Paula via:
LinkedIn: Windmill Microlending Twitter: @windmillcanada Facebook: Windmill Microlending Contact Windmill Microlending: 1-855-423-2262, windmillmicrolending.org
 
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

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, V

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.com for 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 la

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/ Topics for 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
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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/ Topics for 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]
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