Sharon is a director and lawyer in the Canadian Immigration Practice at Vialto Partners LLP in Vancouver.

Sharon advises on all immigration matters with a focus on work permits. This includes assisting multinational and small corporations as well as individuals on various permanent and temporary resident applications. As part of her practice, she also counsels corporations on immigration compliance matters and individuals on inadmissibility issues.

Sharon is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia and the Canadian Bar Association. She is fluent in both English and Korean.

Topic: What’s in a Work Permit

Anita is an accomplished negotiator, consensus builder and problem solver, with extensive experience appearing in the Federal Court. A former Assistant Deputy Chair of the Immigration Appeal Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board, Anita deals with a variety of immigration matters including hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board and Federal Court.

Anita’s practice focuses primarily on Indigenous Law. She has worked in the public sector for over 25 years, the last ten as Director General, Treaties and Aboriginal Government Negotiations West, for the former Department of Indigenous & Northern Affairs. She has also been an adjunct instructor at Queen’s University Law School.

Lisa is highly versed in residency pathways, serving as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia Centre for Migration Studies and a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the UBC Department of Educational Studies. She is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant and is the chair of Canada’s Pathways to Prosperity Standing Committee of Students and Junior Scholar Engagement. Lisa also serves on UBC’s Scholars at Risk Advisory Committee. From 2021-22 she served on UBC’s Centre for Migration Studies Executive Committee.

Topic: Pathways to Temporary Residency

Adrienne dedicates her time to working with individuals seeking permanent or temporary residence in Canada. Specifically, she works with couples seeking to navigate the family class sponsorship process, skilled workers trying to secure a provincial nomination and businesses seeking work permits for their talented labour pool. Adrienne has first-hand experience navigating the stressful process of immigration to Canada and brings her personal understanding of the anxiety caused during this process to every file.

Topic: Avenues to Permanent Residency: Family Class

Called to the Bar in 1998, Jeevyn Dhaliwal, KC holds broad-based experience in employment law and practises in the area of workplace immigration law at Larlee Rosenberg in Vancouver.

Jeevyn is the President of the Law Society of BC and has served the Law Society in various capacities since 2013. Jeevyn’s service to the profession includes elected positions on CBABC Provincial Council and the Vancouver Bar Association, and she has been a longstanding board member and Past President of the South Asian Bar Association of British Columbia.

Topic: Update from the President of LSBC

Sarah Goodman is an immigration, refugee and citizenship lawyer who specializes in judicial reviews, having successfully represented clients in various judicial and administrative settings across Canada, including before the Federal Court and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

Sarah moved to Vancouver Island following several years of practice at a national law firm in Toronto. Prior to the start of her legal career in 2010, Sarah obtained a Juris Doctor degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, in addition to a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (with honours) from the Schulich School of Business.

Topic: Avenues to Permanent Residency: Economic Class

Meika has been recognized by Lexpert as one of Canada’s leading practitioners in immigration law, with experience working in diverse areas, including major private companies, large law firms and non-profit organizations. Her rich background on immigration, particularly in permanent residency, as well as her work ethic and her reputation as a strategic thinker have led her to build a loyal following among Canada's leading companies.

Topic: Avenues to Permanent Residency: Family Class

Katie is passionate about fighting for her clients’ rights. She has put this to good use throughout her legal career, first with a non-profit organization advocating for migrant workers, then with another leading boutique immigration law firm, and now as part of the MKS Immigration Lawyers.

When she is not advocating for your rights or indulging her guilty pleasure of reality TV, you might find Katie carving the slopes of BC’s world-famous ski hills or baking up a storm in her kitchen.

Topic: Pathways to Temporary Residency

Chi has extensive understanding on what it’s like to serve the needs of foreign live-in caregivers. She has also spent the last decade of her career focusing on complex temporary and permanent residence applications. Chi’s practice focuses on permanent and temporary residence, study permit, visitor visa, citizenship, and family sponsorship applications.

She is also a professor, currently teaching Economic Immigration at Queens University in their Graduate Diploma in Immigration and Citizenship Law program.

Topic: Avenues to Permanent Residency: Economic Class

Daniel Lee advises and represents clients in numerous areas related to immigration that involve work permits, such as corporate immigration law, employer immigration compliance and global mobility for employees.

Daniel has extensive experience in providing immigration services to Canadian and foreign-based companies in a wide range of industry sectors, including oil and gas, telecommunication and information technology, and manufacturing. He works closely with employers in developing workplace policies to ensure their workplaces are in compliance with Canadian immigration laws and policies and assists clients in making applications for permanent residency in Canada under the economic class, the Provincial Nominee Program (including Entrepreneur stream), and Family Class Sponsorship.

Topic: What’s in a Work Permit

Jae is an expert in the mobility of individuals from other countries to Canada, whether for short-term or long-term assignments.

She advises on employer compliance audits and provides corporate immigration planning that is tailored to the organization and its needs. She also assists high net worth individuals, professionals and their families with various immigration matters, including family sponsorship, permanent residence, citizenship and complex immigration matters including previous refusals, inadmissibility and residency issues.

Topic: What’s in a Work Permit

Hannah’s practice focuses on assisting clients with applications for temporary and permanent residence, including humanitarian and compassionate, family sponsorship, and economic applications, as well as refugee claims, pre-removal risk assessments and removal proceedings.

Hannah provides services in all areas of immigration, refugee, and citizenship law. She represents clients before the Federal Court and all divisions of the Immigration and Refugee Board. Hannah also has experience with complex admissibility matters and citizenship revocation proceedings. Hannah has a particular interest in gender-based refugee claims and in serving members of the LGBTQ community in a broad range of immigration and refugee matters.

Topic: Pathways to Temporary Residency

Cédric has six years of experience in immigration and refugee law, specializing in the economic class pathway. Previously, Cédric was a law clerk at the Federal Court of Canada, a decision-maker (member) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and an expert at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Cédric Marin is a licensed and insured lawyer with the Law Society of Ontario since 2018. Cédric Marin is a member of the Canadian Immigration Lawyer Association and a member of the Canadian Bar Association, Immigration Section.

Erin practices immigration, citizenship, and refugee law. Erin appears regularly before the Federal Court, Immigration Division, Immigration Appeal Division, Refugee Protection Division, has acted in cases before the Federal Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada, and has attended Citizenship Hearings.

Topic: Judicial Reviews: What You Need to Know

Will’s focus on international students, families and temporary foreign workers has made him an expert on pathways to temporary residency. He provides legal services in all areas of Canadian immigration and refugee law with a focus on complex applications, overcoming refusals, inadmissibility matters, appeals and judicial reviews. Will regularly appears before the Immigration and Refugee Board and the Federal Court of Canada.

He is the founder of Heron Law Offices, as well as the founder and creator of the award-winning Vancouver Immigration Blog, where he hopes to make immigration and refugee law more accessible to the public.

Topic: Pathways to Temporary Residency

Andrew’s commitment to multiculturalism has enabled him to represent clients from all over the world. Since his call to the Bar, Andrew has practiced as a barrister and solicitor, gaining valuable experience in judicial reviews. He has served as a member of the Immigration Appeal Board (1986 to 1989) and as Assistant Deputy Chair of the Immigration Appeal Division, Immigration and Refugee Board (1989 to 1993).

Andrew speaks Polish as well as English and is active within the Polish community.

Topic: Judicial Reviews: What You Need to Know

Brian specializes in helping foreigners come to Canada to visit, travel, study, work, invest or immigrate, while also assisting local companies hire foreign workers, reunite permanent residents and citizens with their loved ones from abroad and help make refugee claims. While in law school, Brian worked for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and has a passion for immigration law.

Brian is also an advocate for LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS, and active on several national executive committees in these areas.

Topic: Avenues to Permanent Residency: Economic Class