Immigration Services for Individuals, Families, and Businesses in Vancouver
We pride ourselves on being a comprehensive service provider dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of our immigration clients. Whether you’re seeking assistance with initial visa applications, navigating complex appeals, or facing challenges such as refusals or removals, we are here to support you every step of the way.
We understand the importance of personalized attention and strategic guidance in immigration matters and strive to achieve the best possible outcomes for our clients through proactive and effective legal representation. Our legal team has successfully worked on:
Temporary Visas, Work Permits, and Study Permits
Many clients first come to Canada on a temporary basis as visitors, workers, or students. We can assist with visitor visas, electronic travel authorizations, and work and study permits, including applications made from both inside and outside Canada. IRCC regularly updates program rules, particularly for temporary residents, so our team ensures that they stay up to speed with all recent changes.
Our Vancouver immigration lawyers can prepare and review applications for:
- Employer-specific and open work permits, including Labour Market Impact Assessment-based permits, International Mobility programs, and intra-company transferees.
- Study permits and study permit extensions, including for students who intend to transition to post graduation work permits and eventually to permanent residence.
- Visitor visas for family members and business visitors, including those who need to attend meetings, conferences, or provide after-sales services in Canada.
In our work for corporate clients, we have assisted technology companies, airlines, and other employers with coordinated work permit strategies for key foreign workers, followed by permanent residence applications once employees are safely established in Canada. For individual and family immigration, we frequently help students and temporary workers who would like to extend their status or adjust their plans due to changing IRCC policies.
Permanent Residence and Family Reunification
Permanent residence is a major milestone for any newcomer to Canada. Our Vancouver immigration lawyers regularly advise on economic immigration programs, provincial nominations, and family sponsorships, with a focus on understanding eligibility criteria, documentation requirements, and realistic timelines for our clients before an application is filed.
We can assist with:
- Economic immigration pathways, including Express Entry programs and other skilled worker categories.
- Provincial nominations in British Columbia that connect provincial labour market needs with permanent residence opportunities.
- Spousal, partner, and dependent child sponsorships designed to reunite families in Canada.
Our representative matters in these fields have included economic permanent residence and later citizenship for foreign professionals who first arrived on work permits, as well as family sponsorships for spouses and children. In such cases, documentary evidence and detailed relationship histories were acquired to address past travel patterns, cultural practices, or prior refusals.
We also work with clients who have spent many years in Canada, sometimes with gaps in status, and who now wish to regularize their situation. In these circumstances, we carefully review travel histories, work and study records, and previous applications to determine a strategy that minimizes risk and aligns with current policy in British Columbia and Canada.
Immigration Support for Business Owners and Employers
Business immigration issues often intersect with corporate structure, workforce planning, and cross-border strategy. As part of Watson Goepel’s business law group, our immigration team regularly collaborates with our in-house Vancouver corporate lawyers and workplace law lawyers on files that involve both immigration and business considerations.
Our legal teams can assist Canadian and international companies that:
- Need key personnel to transfer to Canadian operations on an urgent basis.
- Plan to expand into British Columbia and require a long-term immigration strategy for executives and specialists.
- Want to ensure that recruitment and retention of foreign talent complies with both immigration law and employment standards.
- And more
We have successfully obtained intra-company transferee work permits under international agreements like CETA, CUSMA, and GATS for senior managers of multinational companies. We may also coordinate work permit and permanent residence strategies for high-demand technical staff, and advise foreign-controlled start-ups in Vancouver on the best timing and structure for their founders’ own immigration plans.
Status, Restoration, and Complex Cases
Not every immigration journey is completely straightforward. Our experienced lawyers can assist clients with loss of status, restoration applications, and situations where people have remained in Canada longer than permitted because of personal difficulties, misunderstanding of the rules, or past bad advice.
Our work in these more complex situations often involves detailed analysis of timelines, prior refusals, and communications with IRCC. In some matters, we have helped long-term residents of Canada who initially entered as students or workers and later fell out of status to prepare applications that fully explain their circumstances and demonstrate establishment, community ties, and hardship if required to leave.
Appeals, Inadmissibility, and Judicial Review in Vancouver, BC
Unfortunately, even a well-prepared application can be refused. When this happens, our Vancouver immigration lawyers at Watson Goepel LLP represent clients in appeals and review processes when decisions are unreasonable, procedurally unfair, or inconsistent with the evidence they’ve provided.
Overcoming Inadmissibility
Clients may face inadmissibility for reasons such as criminality, medical concerns, or misrepresentation. Our Vancouver immigration lawyers advise on both temporary and permanent solutions, including Temporary Resident Permits and Criminal Rehabilitation applications. These applications are assessed under detailed legislative tests and policy guidelines that take into account risk, rehabilitation, and public interest considerations under the immigration legislation.
In representative matters, we have assisted individuals with older foreign convictions to obtain Criminal Rehabilitation and regain their ability to visit or work in Canada. We have also helped business travellers overcome past misrepresentations where incorrect information on prior applications had led to concerns about credibility.
Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds Applications
In exceptional situations, humanitarian and compassionate applications may be available to people who do not meet the usual program requirements but will face significant hardship should they be required to leave Canada. These applications focus on establishment in Canada, the best interests of any affected children, and the hardship that removal would cause in the country of origin.
Our immigration lawyers serving Vancouver can prepare detailed submissions that explain clients’ histories, gather supporting documentation, and reference current legal tests and case examples. In the past, we have successfully crafted such applications for long-term residents with Canadian citizen children, and for vulnerable adults relying on extended family in British Columbia for support.
Federal Court Judicial Review
Where no appeal is available, or when an appeal has been unsuccessful, judicial review in the Federal Court may be an option for certain clients. An application for leave and for judicial review is a two-stage process that begins with a request for permission (leave) and, if granted, proceeds to a hearing where the Court reviews the initial decision for legal or procedural errors.
Recent special measures by the Federal Court have extended the time limits for perfecting some immigration judicial review applications, which makes it more important than ever to seek prompt legal advice so that deadlines and document requirements are understood and met.
Our immigration lawyers work closely with Watson Goepel’s litigation and dispute resolution team when our clients matter proceeds to the Federal Court. Our judicial review experience includes challenges to refusals of work permits, study permits, and permanent residence applications, some of which resulted in the refusals being set aside and the applications returned for reconsideration by new decision makers.
Why Work With Our Vancouver Immigration Lawyers?
Whether you are at the beginning of your immigration journey or you need help responding to a difficult decision, choosing the right strategy at the right time is critical. At Watson Goepel LLP, our role is to help you understand your options, the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and the practical steps required to move forward.
When you retain our Vancouver immigration lawyers, you can expect:
- Clear Strategy and Communication: We start by learning your goals, timelines, and constraints. By doing so, we can then identify realistic options, explain the legal tests that will apply, and outline what information and documents are needed. You will understand why we recommend a particular path and what could happen if circumstances change. We also provide regular updates as your application progresses, including when IRCC or other bodies release new policies or decisions that could affect your case.
- Integrated Business and Immigration Advice: For employers, investors, and entrepreneurs, immigration is one part of a broader business plan. Our Immigration Group works closely with our corporate, commercial, workplace law, and real estate teams so that your immigration strategy aligns with your structure, contracts, and workforce. This can include coordinating the timing of work permits with closing dates on transactions, ensuring that shareholder and employment agreements reflect immigration conditions, and planning for longer-term paths to permanent residence for key personnel.
- Support for Individuals and Families: For individuals and families, immigration issues often arise during times of stress or change. We take care to explain each step in accessible language and to identify community resources where appropriate. When family law, estate planning, or other legal issues intersect with your immigration story, we can connect you with colleagues in our Vancouver family law and wills, trusts, and estates groups to ensure that your plans are coordinated with care.
Contact Our Vancouver Immigration Lawyers Today
If you have questions about a visa, work or study permit, permanent residence, an immigration refusal, or a possible Federal Court challenge, speaking with an experienced immigration lawyer in Vancouver can help you make informed decisions.
To discuss your situation with a Vancouver immigration lawyer at Watson Goepel, call (604) 688-1301 or reach out through our website to request a consultation. Our team will review your circumstances, outline potential next steps, and work with you to develop a plan that fits your goals in Canada.
