016: Canadian Immigration World - Look out!

Canadian immigration podcast – Season 1 Episode 16

Show Notes

This episode of the Canadian immigration podcast is going to be a little different.

 It’s going to be a little shorter the normal because instead of having to guests join me today I am going to share with you a little teaser as to what is coming up in the coming weeks and months.

 I’m going to start off with a little bit of an explanation as to where the podcast is going to be headed in the future. After really evaluating what I want to accomplish with the podcast, I received a little inspiration as too what I should really do with it. So I’m going to share with you some of those thoughts

Then I’m going to give you a little sneak peek into the  line up of guests that I have scheduled in the coming weeks.  These are truly heavy hitters within the immigration bar in Canada and they are totally committed to bringing their A game.

 I have always felt that there was no purpose in having a podcast unless it was totally awesome. My goal has always been to create content that totally rocks.  Content that you can not get from any other place.

In the beginning stages of the podcast I put a lot of time and effort into creating valuable content that people can actually use and rely on and most importantly trust. With so much misinformation out there on the Internet many many people were having their lives ruined because they placed their trust  in some website or immigration forum.

 Although a lot of my immigration practice is devoted to business immigration for large multinational companies, I still have a sizable portion of work that I do for individuals.

It was witnessing first hand the destruction of peoples hopes and dreams of immigrating to Canada that caused me to want to do something different.  People would come to my office when they had run out of options hoping that I could somehow save them.  However, time after time if they’d only come to me a year earlier I could’ve helped them. But the majority of times there was nothing that I could do but tell them they would have to go home.

 I do not do free consultations, however I really struggled charging people that I could not help. Because of this and the many consultations that I had with individuals it was starting to impact on my practice and its Financial viability.  I couldn’t keep giving my time away for free yes I also couldn’t stop trying to help people who had nowhere else to turn. I recognize my legal fees were more expensive than other representatives in my community and because of that people would only come to me when they had nowhere else to go.

 So I decided that the best way I could help people on a grand scale was to create a website where I wrote blogs and share tips and strategies and a podcast where I answered listeners questions and provided insight to help people protect themselves so they wouldn’t make the same mistakes that I saw people making time and time again. My hope is that if I could give people proactive advice to help them prevent making bad decisions, this was the most important thing I could do. Because I couldn’t spend all of my time providing this advice one-on-one, I decided that through social media, through blogging, and this podcast I would be able to get the message out to far more people.

 Until today, I have had the privilege of interacting with thousands of people on a scale I never imagined.  It actually blows my mind to think about the influence I can have in the lives of people who really need help but can’t afford it. I will never regret the decision to start this podcast.  It cost me thousands of dollars to set up, but now that I understand how it works it will be a force for significant good in the future. 

If I cannot use my calling as a lawyer to make peoples lives better, without expecting to always receive money for those services, then my decision to go to law school was all worth it. 

 So this brings me back to the Canadian immigration podcast. I have always intended it to be a podcast focused on Canadian law, Policy, and practice. In the beginning I try to produce all the content myself. Obviously, it became overwhelming with the day-to-day work of managing a law firm. However, after attending our last national immigration conference for the CBA. I realize that this platform, the Canadian immigration podcasts, did not have to be something that I hoarded selfishly.

As I listened to the various immigration lawyers presenting at our national conference I realized that there was a source of unbelievable knowledge, and experience, that was really being untapped. All lawyers have a desire to help people.  The problem we have is that it is often very difficult to share insight and help with more than one person at a time because we meet with clients one-on-one.  Further, we have to be careful that we are not providing  specific legal advice that is taken by an individual and misunderstood and used to their detriment. Because of this many lawyers are often afraid to wade into the world of content marketing.

 However, I have realized the power that exists with podcasting.  And if I could invite these wonderful and amazing lawyers to come on the podcast and share their insight in a platform that can reach thousands or even Hundreds of thousands, of people at a time,  then I have truly found my calling.  Like I said, becoming a lawyer is an opportunity for me to give back to those less fortunate than I. This may sound a little cheesy; however, this is the thing that gives me the most satisfaction as a lawyer.

 So going forward, it is not going to be the Mark Holthe show.  I am going to open up this platform to anyone with a message to share, story to tell, or insight and direction that can be given to help people as they navigate the complex world of Canadian immigration law, policy , and practice.   In future episodes, I am going to bring on some of the most intelligent, most experienced, most seasoned, and just overall awesome immigration lawyers consultants and hopefully one day government officers to help demystify an area that has become insanely complicated.

You were listening to the aid

 With nowhere else to turn, I’m going to give people somewhere to look for information. And when these experienced wonderful immigration practitioners choose to sacrifice their time to come on the podcast, I will then do everything in my power to let those listeners know exactly where they can find them. In this way I’m also giving back to everyone of those lawyers who comes to the podcast ready to really bring it. IN other words, I want to set the bar extremely high. When a guest has prepared themselves to share fantastic insight that you cannot get anywhere else and to really showcase their knowledge and understanding and to make it available in a way that would never otherwise be available.  This is when everyone wins.

 This podcast isn’t going to be about fancy instructional videos, or expensive websites, or slick design. This podcast is going to be all about content. And my goal is to create the best immigration content  available and not only spoken word, but written content as well.  I’m hoping to get guest bloggers to share articles and insight in written form as well. Ultimately the goal is to make this the central  platform for immigration professionals to have something to share, Something to offer, that can really make a difference in the lives of the people who to the podcast.

Okay, I think you get it. This podcast is going to be totally awesome.

Alright so let’s shift to the last part of this podcast.

As I have told you, I have been lining up some of the best possible guests you could get to discussed Canadian immigration law policy and practice. Here is a sampling of what I have in store for you. 

1. Ravi Jain with Green and Spiegel in Toronto –Spousal Sponsorships
   1. Strategies for inland v. outland filing
   2. Bad faith marriages (the two tests)
   3. Spousal open work permits
   4. Appeal process
   5. Processing times
   6. Levels planning

2. Rekha McNutt from Caron and Partners in Calgary – JR process – dealing with TRV refusals
   1. Mentioned previously that first recording didn’t go very well.
   2. This will be our second attempt
   3. when the visa offices are just not nice – what do you do?

3. Marina Sedai – Sedia Law Office - Express Entry
   1. We presented at our National Immigration Conference of the CBA on Express Entry
   2. Ran out of time – so much more to cover than what we were able to do in our presentation
   3. Lawyers don’t want to listen to us, when they had John Acheson there
   4. He was very transparent – so transparent that he told us who is actually responding to our requests for reconsideration on EE refusals – the call centre agents
   5. I had to jump out of my chair to protect him from the invisible fruit that was being tossed at him by the other lawyers
   6. We are going to cover a lot of the areas that we didn’t get a chance to cover in our presentation.
   7. One specific area is a number of questions about that our colleagues at sent us to address in our presentation. Because we ran out of time we didn’t get a chance to answer all the questions. So hopefully we can address that in our presentation.
   8. Marina is a good friend and I am really excited about this one.

4. Jeffrey Lowe – Lowe and Company in Vancouver – Owner Operator LMIAs
   1. One of the most entrepreneurial business minded immigration lawyers in the country
   2. 2014 at our National CBA Immigration conference, Jeffrey, myself and Janet Thomson Price presented on the unique topic of Money Matters – The Business of Immigration Law
   3. I have the chance to really get to know Jeffrey.  We talked about the changing landscape of immigration and our lawyers had to adapt to the business opportunities that present themselves.
   4. He shared a book called Who Moved My cheese by Dr. Spencer Johnson – which really got my mind thinking about ways to innovate my law practice.
   5. To large extent I owe Jeffrey for giving me the inspiration for starting this podcast
   6. what better person to talk about some of the creative uses of the Owner Operator Advertising Exemption for LMIAs:
      • What is an owner operator LMIA
      • Some creative ways to use it to benefit or clients
      • Some FAQs that are commonly asked

5. Les Morley - Citizenship – I have never met another lawyer in the country that knows more about Passports. Wrote a paper for our CBA National Immigration section that blew my mind. It was amazing the time he put in to preparing this paper. I knew I had to get him on the Podcast, so that one is coming as well.