Turf Wars: Lawyers and Immigration Consultants

Vic Satzewich wrote a book some time ago, Points of Entry, that lifted the curtain on overseas visa processing. While now somewhat dated, it provided great insight to those of us on the other side of that curtain. As lawyers we saw the outcome and to understand the process had to reverse engineer CAIPS/GCMS notes, decisions, and what our client’s told us what happened during their interviews with visa offices. That type of insight is invaluable; both Bjorn and I were Officers but with the IRB and IRCC in-land. Satzewich has continued to write in this area. In a more recent article, published in the Canadian Review of Sociology, he “examines the 33 year-long jurisdictional dispute between immigration lawyers and immigration consultants…” concluding, in part, that the legal profession were not able to kick the consultants out (my wording, not his) because lawyers did not speak with one voice at the 2017 Standing Committee hearings on this matter. Satzewich examined the testimony of the nine lawyers that appeared; on one side was Ravi Jain and Kathleen Terroux of the CBA on the other were “consultant friendly” lawyers including myself, Lorne Waldman and Richard Kurland. Jain advanced a “hard-line eradication” position... Read more →