Amandeep Hayer is the founder of Hayer Law, a Vancouver immigration law firm.

The Express Entry points requirement is currently higher than it has ever been. In this episode we discuss when they are likely to decrease.

We also discuss a recent Ontario court decision which struck down Canada’s two generation limit on citizenship by descent.

Finally, Steve recently listened to a podcast which stated that the following are five signs that a lawyer is not taking their practice seriously. They are: (1) the lawyer answers their own phone rather than having calls go through a receptionist, (2) they use a non-professional e-mail account like gmail, (3) they meet potential clients at coffee shops, (4) they lower their fees when pressured, and (5) they have many practice areas. We also discuss not having a website, Law Society sanctions and Google reviews.

00:00 – Introduction and Express Entry

28:00 – Ontario decision striking down citizenship by descent limitation

37:00 – Are these signs that a lawyer is not taking their practice seriously?

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Warda Shazadi Meighen is an immigration lawyer in Toronto and the founder of Landings Law.

Canadian immigration legislation states that adoptions that can lead to immigration must create a legal parent-child relationship and sever the pre-existing legal parent-child relationship. Many Islamic countries have adoption, or guardianship, regimes based on kafala law, by which adoptive parents become the sponsor or guardians of a child, but the pre-existing legal parent-child relationship is not severed. As a consequence, adoptions from many Muslim countries are not recognized under Canadian immigration law. Warda has launched a Charter challenge to change this. 

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Jamie Chai Yun Liew is a Professor at the University of Ottawa and the author of Ghost Citizens – Decolonial Apparitions of Stateless, Foreign and Wayward Figures in Law.

In this episode we discuss statelessness, which is when someone does not have citizenship in any country because of the operation of law.

We discuss how people can become stateless, citizenship revocation, the Federal Court of Appeal decision in Budlakoti, how lack of documentation can lead to lack of citizenship, challenging statelessness, and more.

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Will Tao is a Canadian immigration and the founder of Heron Law Office.

In January 2024 Justice Crampton, the Chief Justice of the Federal Court released a decision where he ruled that what constitutes “espionage” in Canadian immigration law must evolve “as hostile state actors increasingly make use of non-traditional methods to obtain sensitive information in Canada or abroad, contrary to Canada’s interests.”

He held that it was reasonable for a visa officer to determine that a prospective Chinese PhD student, Mr. Li, was inadmissible to Canada for espionage because he may in the future be targeted and coerced by the Chinese government into providing information that would be detrimental to or contrary to Canada’s interests. There was nothing to suggest that Mr. Li has a present or future intention to provide such information to the Chinese government. Rather, the concern was future coercion or co-opting.

Later that month, the Government of Canada’s announcement of a New Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (the “Policy”). The Policy included the publishing of a list of around 100 research organizations and institutions in China, Russia and Iran that pose “the highest risk to Canada’s national security due to their direct, or indirect connections with military, national defence, and state security entities.”

In this episode we discuss these two developments, and what it means for prospective immigrants, with a focus on China. 

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