The following is collected and archived by CND-Canada. If you have any questions regarding the following information/message, please contact the original sender(s) listed below. Thank You. China News Digest - Canadian Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 21:56:21 EST Reply-To: Good 1995 Sender: FCSSCD-L is a list for the open discussion and info exchange From: Good 1995 Subject: Immigration #7 To: Multiple recipients of list FCSSCD-L Status: R Immigration #7. WELCOME, NEW FRIENDS! (January 23, 1995) Dear Colleagues: Over the past two years since the present Canadian Immigration Law came into effective in the Spring of 1993, many of our Chinese students have obtained their immigrant status when they were still studying in universities. All we know that it had very little chance to success in the PR applications for students before 1993 (except the immigrants due to Tian An Man Squire event in 1990 which was in a special category other than the Independent Immigration). Several major changes in the immigration policies are expected in 1995 and some main points which might directly impact your applications were introduced in our article, Immigration #6, posted on November 10, 1994, such as stronger abilities in English/French language are to be required to the Independent applicants, and it will become more difficult in Family application, ..etc. The current situation? So far so good. As we understood, majority Chinese students, who have reasonably good background and have studied in universities in Canada for more than one/two years, have obtained their immigrant status through various approaches, by their own efforts or under assistance of lawyers. On my pinion, as I said about a year ago in Immigration #1, if your comprehensive background is strong and you know how to handle the situation which you would face, it is not necessary for you to ask for professional assistance in order to save some money. However, for various reasons, many of our friends would like to have a good lawyer to represent them in their immigration matters. Frankly speaking, it is just a matter of paying retainer fee, otherwise seldom people would not be happy to have a lawyer's assistance. If never have experience with a good lawyer, it might be not easy for you to understand what you pay for. The several thousand dollars are not payed for the INFORMATION, but for the professional assistance in the immigration matters. It is NOT very difficult for our people who have the highest level educations to collect all the necessary information if you put enough energy into, but it is DO difficult for ourselves effectively to deal with Immigration Officials directly in many cases when problems occur. Never the really working portion of a good immigration service can you collect. That's why some lawyers don't care to provide you with useful (particularly seams for you) information free, such as initial evaluation for your likelihood of success, and even a sheet showing the points you would have. However, can you show the sheet to the Immigration Officials and say: "Hi, that what I should have!"? But lawyers can and will actually do it for you in a professional way. The most uncertainty in applications is processing time which is determined by various somewhat random factors out off any individual's control in many cases. I wouldn't say that it is guaranteed for a lawyer's assistance applicant to get landing paper faster than a self-assistance applicant although it tends to, on my experience, but I can tell you for sure that the success of applicants under a good lawyer's assistance is DO much more reliable than self applicants, there is no doubt on this. Since I introduced the University Program and SRA through the network in the Spring/Summer 1994, ALL our clients are going well in different stages of application and some of them have already successfully landed. More important, NO ONE of them failed or any sign showing possible failure. That doesn't mean that they didn't meet problems during the progress, but just mean that any problems have been properly settled when they occurred. There are about 60% of the clients in the program received interview waivers under arrangements of the lawyer. The rate is significantly higher than that in self-assistance applicants and the factor should also be considered is that cases accepted by the lawyer are relatively weaker or with various difficulties. For the clients who's immigration interviews can not be avoided after efforts, an interview preparation is carefully conducted by the lawyer to ensure that the client can handle the interview properly. It is actually the lawyer directly to deal with the Canadian Immigration Officials in the whole process, so that many cases are, essentially, just paper review of applications from client's position. In 1995, we would expect that the contents of applicants have somewhat changes from mainly people who have been in Canada for years to some newcomers in Canada, and more from USA and European countries. As we understood, there are more difficulties in the applications for the Permanent Residence in Canada for those friends than for the old friends in Canada. In the circumstances, the professional services provided by lawyers in SRA would most likely fit the needs in a reliable landing. I am also associated with some other immigration lawyers, however, at this time, I would like to recommend the SRA to all our Chinese colleagues, old or new; in Canada or USA, in European countries or still in mainland China. There are good reasons to do so, just name a few: 1) It is a high standard professional law firm which has been tried by myself personally and continued being verified by other Chinese friends in various countries since last year so that I exactly know what I am recommending to you. 2) The SRA is a professional law firm which was set up 13 years ago and it has good reasons for the lawyers to treat their reputations much more important than temporary profit taking from their clients, which makes a goal of the firm to keep the services at the highest level. 3) The University Program which leads to the terms in the contract between clients and SRA was designed initially by me rather than by SRA so that the principle of the program is to protect client's interest to the maximum level and within the range that SRA can accept. It is reasonable to say that it is your program and we would be more than happy to improve it if you have any constructive suggestions to make it better. 4) It is not simply to push you to the lawyer at initial stage, but my assistance will also be available in the whole process of application to provide you with any possible convenience so that you will never feel alone and in many cases I will speak for you actually. By their experience, all clients in the program know what I mean, and the additional services without additional charge would not be often available from other firms. You can reach us by e-mail at this address, and we also use facsimile transmission, telephone and courier mail to communicate with you to complete the application. In the case that an immigration interview waiver can be arranged, you need to go nowhere and say no one word directly to Canadian Immigration Officials before the immigration visas will arrive in your hand. For your convenience, the main points in the Program which matches the terms in the retainer letter of SRA are re-posted as the following: A) Three step payment of the retainer fee. *Start (when sign the retainer letter) Cdn$ 1,000 *Receive notice of interview/interview waiver Cdn$ 1,000 *Pass interview or receive interview waiver Cdn$ 2,000 (Total Cdn$ 4,000 and all taxis payed by SRA) B) 100% refund policy. The firm will make every effort to protect the clients' interests and ensure immigration visas granted to the clients. In case of a client's application is rejected, the firm will refund all the retainer fee charged by the firm to date, except in the case of untruthful information provided by the client. C) Government Processing Fee. Cdn$500 for each adult, Cdn$100 for each child under 19, (non-refundable, payed by clients when the Application Package is submitted by SRA). D) The channels to accept cases 1) Go to Toronto, at 95 Wellington Street West, Suite 906, to meet with the lawyer personally for initial consultation charged at Cdn$150 which will be credited into your account when you become an actual client later. Please call (416) 368-7881, ask for Ms.Jacqueline Bart or her secretary to make an appointment. 2) To this e-mail address, send the completed form of PAF enclosed in Immigration #5A. I will keep you informed by e-mail. If the lawyer can accept your case, a formal letter of assessment and a letter of retainer will be send to you directly from the lawyer in SRA by mail, or by Fax, as your specification in PAF. This service is charge free and save both your energy and the lawyer's time. We would be grateful if you may consider the following first: a) Do you really want the Immigrant Visa of Canada (assuming that it is granted) ? b) Do you really wish to have the assistance of a lawyer in a firm like SRA in your immigration matters and can you afford the retainer fee ? Only in the case of positive answer to both questions above, the Initial Assessment would make sense, although you do not have to make decision to retain SRA at the beginning. We will treat each request carefully and seriously, and we wish you to do the same, which will be good for the people who really need a lawyer's help. Thank you for your cooperation. For your convenience to provide information completely and accurately for the Initial Assessment, a special designed Preliminary Assessment Form (PAF) suitable for the editing and sending by e-mail is attached in the Immigration #5A which is re-posted together with this article. Best wishes! Y.Zhang