Hello All,
I've been waiting years to make a post here. My case was one of the worst that can happen to someone and I would like to share my experiences, the problems I have faced, the mistakes I made and the solutions that brought me here today.
First of all, I am not using my real name as I know for a fact that the lawyer who screwed me over is trolling this site, and we will get to that.
Eight years ago, I arrived in Canada from my country of citizenship (not nationality) on a student visa like the lot of you in 2014. Having graduated with a Marketing Diploma in 2015, I was given a Post-Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) which was valid for three years, or as long as my passport was valid for.
I had started working in a property management company in 2016 when I was asked to join another company (for which I will not divulge the nature of business) in its Operations due to my background in it in my previous life.
When I began, there were some red flags including the mode of payment to the company's employees. However, THAT would have been easy to fix.
This is where the real problem began.
The company's owner has a lawyer who works for him on a retainer basis who he recommended that I turn to for my immigration needs. The "lawyer" had immigration as his forte.
So in Spring of 2017, I met with this lawyer who gave me options. One of them was filing for a refugee claim and he made it appear that this was the best option. He even went on to tell me that Canada was not really giving out PRs that easily for work permits and bridging extensions, etc etc.
Without doing my due diligence, I agreed and paid the man a hefty sum. That was big mistake number one.
So the Refugee claim was applied, I got into the interview and months later, REJECTED.
Reasons? The country I came from did not have a history of human rights violations. In fact, it is considered to be a vacation spot. Can you imagine? If only I had done my research and due diligence, I would have known right from the start that applying for a refugee claim is not the easy way in. The application itself was baseless and the content was a joke. The lawyer made me do his research for him and his answers to each line could have been done by a 10-year old.
So after the initial dismissal, the lawyer then said, let us appeal, then REJECTED again. Mind you, this was over the course of many, many months leading to 2020.
Then here we were, the final appeal. The federal court. INSTANTLY REJECTED due to baseless claims.
Other issues were:
- my work permit which was valid, had been gone due to the refugee claim. But, if my lawyer was actually legit, we could have applied to restore it.
- my original passport was taken from me and never returned.
- obviously, my reputation with the Canadian government was tarnished.
- I already had a deportation order enacted at this point after the final appeal. I was just awaiting for the CBSA's call.
So what was I to do? My girlfriend of ten years who is a Canadian and I were at the end of our rope.
If I had actually used my brain from the start and hired a legitimate immigration consultant, I would not have had this issue from the start.
My girlfriend who I am living with, found Ella ***** (EDITED BECAUSE PEOPLE HERE THINK I AM ADVERTISING)
Upon my initial consultation with her, she was shocked with what had happened to me. Of course I am to blame for the lot of it but the shocking part to me was that lawyers all over Canada are apparently scamming a lot of new Canadians into applying for a refugee claim for a large sum of money.
For a lot of you this may be old news. But to me or even some who would be reading this, it is apparently a big thing! A lot of immigrants have been denied due to baseless claims and of course, the lawyers did not give a second thought. Yes, there are a lot of great lawyers who will file for a rightful refugee claim.
The point is, do not be easily swayed by an easy way out. Do your own research! Get a second opinion. Read forums like this.
For the good part of my story, since I had been living with my girlfriend since 2015, we were actually able to apply for a common-law spousal visa. We went through all our documents like a fine-tooth comb, as our consultant Ella is very meticulous about the quality of her work.
She said that my case was really bad, but there is always hope. She said that there are plenty of avenues that we can take before an immigrant is sent flying home.
If it were not for Transcend Immigration, this message would have come from thousands of miles away.
If any of you need further insight as to what happened to me, feel free to PM me. Hope this helps someone out along the way.
I've been waiting years to make a post here. My case was one of the worst that can happen to someone and I would like to share my experiences, the problems I have faced, the mistakes I made and the solutions that brought me here today.
First of all, I am not using my real name as I know for a fact that the lawyer who screwed me over is trolling this site, and we will get to that.
Eight years ago, I arrived in Canada from my country of citizenship (not nationality) on a student visa like the lot of you in 2014. Having graduated with a Marketing Diploma in 2015, I was given a Post-Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) which was valid for three years, or as long as my passport was valid for.
I had started working in a property management company in 2016 when I was asked to join another company (for which I will not divulge the nature of business) in its Operations due to my background in it in my previous life.
When I began, there were some red flags including the mode of payment to the company's employees. However, THAT would have been easy to fix.
This is where the real problem began.
The company's owner has a lawyer who works for him on a retainer basis who he recommended that I turn to for my immigration needs. The "lawyer" had immigration as his forte.
So in Spring of 2017, I met with this lawyer who gave me options. One of them was filing for a refugee claim and he made it appear that this was the best option. He even went on to tell me that Canada was not really giving out PRs that easily for work permits and bridging extensions, etc etc.
Without doing my due diligence, I agreed and paid the man a hefty sum. That was big mistake number one.
So the Refugee claim was applied, I got into the interview and months later, REJECTED.
Reasons? The country I came from did not have a history of human rights violations. In fact, it is considered to be a vacation spot. Can you imagine? If only I had done my research and due diligence, I would have known right from the start that applying for a refugee claim is not the easy way in. The application itself was baseless and the content was a joke. The lawyer made me do his research for him and his answers to each line could have been done by a 10-year old.
So after the initial dismissal, the lawyer then said, let us appeal, then REJECTED again. Mind you, this was over the course of many, many months leading to 2020.
Then here we were, the final appeal. The federal court. INSTANTLY REJECTED due to baseless claims.
Other issues were:
- my work permit which was valid, had been gone due to the refugee claim. But, if my lawyer was actually legit, we could have applied to restore it.
- my original passport was taken from me and never returned.
- obviously, my reputation with the Canadian government was tarnished.
- I already had a deportation order enacted at this point after the final appeal. I was just awaiting for the CBSA's call.
So what was I to do? My girlfriend of ten years who is a Canadian and I were at the end of our rope.
If I had actually used my brain from the start and hired a legitimate immigration consultant, I would not have had this issue from the start.
My girlfriend who I am living with, found Ella ***** (EDITED BECAUSE PEOPLE HERE THINK I AM ADVERTISING)
Upon my initial consultation with her, she was shocked with what had happened to me. Of course I am to blame for the lot of it but the shocking part to me was that lawyers all over Canada are apparently scamming a lot of new Canadians into applying for a refugee claim for a large sum of money.
For a lot of you this may be old news. But to me or even some who would be reading this, it is apparently a big thing! A lot of immigrants have been denied due to baseless claims and of course, the lawyers did not give a second thought. Yes, there are a lot of great lawyers who will file for a rightful refugee claim.
The point is, do not be easily swayed by an easy way out. Do your own research! Get a second opinion. Read forums like this.
For the good part of my story, since I had been living with my girlfriend since 2015, we were actually able to apply for a common-law spousal visa. We went through all our documents like a fine-tooth comb, as our consultant Ella is very meticulous about the quality of her work.
She said that my case was really bad, but there is always hope. She said that there are plenty of avenues that we can take before an immigrant is sent flying home.
If it were not for Transcend Immigration, this message would have come from thousands of miles away.
If any of you need further insight as to what happened to me, feel free to PM me. Hope this helps someone out along the way.
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