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In this episode, I'll talk about the risks of getting bad legal advice and a few techniques on how to spot it. I’m going to start today with a sad story. The other day, at my office, we were informed that one of our colleagues couldn’t work in Canada anymore. He was being asked to leave the country within 90 days. We were shocked. It is not like he was here illegally or committed a crime. No, he got his Permanent Residency denied. As his Work Permit was expiring, he couldn’t work in Canada anymore. And, as any visitor to the country, he is limited to stay for up to 3 months only. I dug up a little and found out that the legal advice he got was not appropriate and led to this situation. It happened to me back in 2016 I totally understand how difficult this is for him. The reason is simple, back in 2016, my wife and I got our Permanent Residency application denied. I remember the feeling that afternoon when I saw the email. First, I was excited as the subject said nothing. But as soon as I opened it, I saw the words. Your application has been denied. The reason was that, accidentally, I uploaded the original marriage certificate instead of uploading the translated document. This could have been solved easily by the immigration officer asking me to upload the correct one but, instead, they decided to cancel the whole application. I’m not going to go too deep into this because I believe there is a systemic problem with immigration, but that’s a topic for another episode. What I really want to focus on is the sad situation my colleague is experiencing and why I know it is one of the worst feelings I’ve felt in my life. Reading those words “application denied” shattered my dream. I felt like all the effort, time, and energy we had spent trying to make Canada our new home were in vain. I honestly thought that, as soon as my work permit expired, I would be selling my things here and moving back to Mexico. And it was disheartening. Fortunately for me, I work in a company that cares about me. As soon as I raised this problem with the upper management, they did everything they could to help me stay in Canada. We started working with a law firm. Long story short, about a year after the day my first application got denied, I got the news that my Permanent Residency application had been approved this time. The consequence of bad legal advice Going back to my colleague, I don’t know all the details. I don’t really know what went wrong. I just know that the immigration advisor he hired gave him incorrect advice and ended up in this situation. Now that you know all the back story, I want to talk about why it’s essential to make sure that the person you are hiring is right for you. Immigration lawyers have a great responsibility, and, at least the ones I’ve met, they take it very seriously. They know that if they make a mistake, your whole life may be torn apart. The problem is that for every one good immigration lawyer, there’s a bad one. And this is when things get tricky. How can you identify a bad advisor? It’s not like you’re an immigration expert. If you were, you wouldn’t need a lawyer. Sometimes is a recommendation from someone you know. Other times is online reviews. Whatever it is, make sure you trust the person because your future, or at least what you planned your future to be, is on the line. If you have a bad feeling about it, move on. How to spot irregularities The first thing you need to do is check if a person is licensed to represent immigrants or give advice. To do this, you can check if the consultant is a member of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council. Government of Canada - Find out if your representative is authorized Lawyers must be members of a Canadian provincial law society, so if they are not members in good standing, you should not use their services. The good thing is that most law societies let you check online to see i...