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Canadian Immigration Lawyers - Abrams & Krochak
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Illegal in U.S. and Wish to Immigrate to Canada?

Abrams & Krochak receives a significant number of inquiries from individuals, who have no legal status in the country in which they are residing and who wish to immigrate to Canada. The vast majority of these inquiries are from individuals in the United States and the number has increased substantially since the recent U.S. election and talk of mass deportations. The two (2) primary concerns for these individuals, when considering Canada, are:

1. Whether their illegal status in the United States will render them ineligible to immigrate to Canada; and

2. Whether the Immigration process can take place while they continue to reside in the United States, albeit illegally.

Insofar as eligibility is concerned, illegal status in a third country will not render an individual ineligible to immigrate to Canada unless issues of criminality are involved. Even then, there is not an automatic disqualification and Abrams & Krochak advises on a case-by-case basis.

Insofar as the Canadian Immigration process is concerned, all applicants in the Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades categories are processed under a system called “Express Entry”. With the assistance of Abrams & Krochak, applicants create an Express Entry Online Profile and if they are invited by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada, the majority of the Application process takes place online. Therefore, if no interview is deemed necessary by Immigration officials (which applies to the majority of cases filed by Abrams & Krochak, to date), the applicant’s place of residence is irrelevant. Place of residence only becomes relevant if the applicant’s file must be transferred to a Canadian visa office for further processing and/or the scheduling of an Immigration interview.

The general rule is this: if a file needs to be transferred to a Canadian visa office for further processing and/or the scheduling of an Immigration interview, it will be transferred to the Canadian visa office in the country in which the applicant is currently residing if (i) the applicant has at any point in the past lawfully resided in that country for a period of one (1) year or more OR (ii) the applicant is in possession of a valid visa, authorizing him/her to remain in that country for a period of at least one (1) year (such as an H1-B, J-1 or F-1 visa in the United States). Otherwise, the file must be transferred to the Canadian visa office which normally serves the applicant’s home country/country of habitual residence/country of citizenship.

As long as you are accurate about your qualifications when you complete Abrams & Krochak’s Online Eligibility Assessment Questionnaire at https://www.akcanada.com/assessment1.php, should you receive a favourable assessment from Abrams & Krochak, then it is worthwhile creating an Express Entry Online Profile since, as was stated earlier, if you are invited by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada, the vast majority of Abrams & Krochak’s cases are approved without the need for a personal interview and you will have the chance to begin a new life with legal status in Canada instead of continuing to live in fear of deportation from the United States.

Should an interview be deemed necessary in your case and should you be required to attend it in your home country/country of habitual residence/country of citizenship or a third country whose Canadian visa office serves your jurisdiction, you can evaluate your personal circumstances at that moment in time and then decide whether you are willing to take the risk of leaving the United States and travelling to attend your interview or abandoning your Canadian Immigration plans altogether.  Keep in mind, however, the fact that abandoning your Canadian Immigration plans does not necessarily mean that you can apply at a future date, should your personal circumstances change.  Canadian Immigration laws, regulations and policies are always subject to change at any time without advance notice.

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Abrams & Krochak Professional Corporation (“Abrams & Krochak”) recognizes the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information. As lawyers we have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a lawyer-client relationship. We are committed to protecting any personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy.
Abrams & Krochak is responsible for the personal information we collect, use, maintain and disclose. To ensure this accountability, we have developed this policy, and trained our lawyers and support staff about our policies and practices.
What is “Personal Information?” Personal information is any information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced. It does not include the name or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.
Why Do We Collect Personal Information from You?
We collect personal information from our clients to:
  • provide legal services to you, in accordance with your instructions;
  • bill you for legal services rendered;
  • provide information to you about developments in the law; and
  • advise you of upcoming firm events.

How Do We Collect Your Personal Information? We collect information only by lawful and fair means and not indiscriminately. We may collect personal information directly from you at the start of a retainer and in the course of our representation of you.
Consent Consent for the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information may be obtained orally or in writing and may be expressly given or implied. In determining how we obtain your consent, we will take into account the sensitivity of the personal information about you that we are collecting, using and/or disclosing.
Use of Your Information When we use your personal information to provide legal advice and services to you, including for billing purposes and when we use your personal information to include you in any direct marketing activities, we will assume that you have consented to such use unless you specifically advise otherwise. If you tell us that you no longer wish to receive information about our services, or about new developments in the law, we will not send any further material.
Abrams & Krochak does not disclose your personal information to any third party to enable them to market their products and services.
Disclosure of Your Personal Information
Under certain circumstances, Abrams & Krochak may disclose your personal information:
  • when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
  • when you have consented to the disclosure;
  • when the legal services we are providing to you require us to give your information to a third party (for example, to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Health Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada) your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
  • where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
  • if we engage a third party to provide administrative services to us (like computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by our privacy policy; or
  • if the information is already publicly known.
Updating Your Information
Since we use your personal information to provide legal services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date.
If, during the course of the retainer, any of your information changes, please inform us so that we can make any necessary changes.
Is My Personal Information Secure?
Abrams & Krochak takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Among the steps taken to protect your information are:
  • premises security;
  • restricted access to personal information stored electronically;
  • deploying technological safeguards like security software and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access;
  • internal password and security policies;
  • obligation of each lawyer to maintain client confidentiality under the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of Upper Canada;
  • all employees and third parties that have access to personal information collected by Abrams & Krochak will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement that is in keeping with this Policy.

Access to Your Personal Information You may ask for access to any personal information we hold about you. Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests that require archival or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.
Correcting Errors If Abrams & Krochak holds information about you and if you can establish that it is not accurate, complete and up-to-date, Abrams & Krochak will take reasonable steps to correct it.
Can I be Denied Access to My Personal Information? Your rights to access your personal information are not absolute.
We may deny access when:
  • denial of access is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of our clients);
  • information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
  • when granting you access would have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy;
  • when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
  • to protect our firm’s rights and property;
  • where the request is frivolous or vexatious.

If we deny your request for access to, or refuse a request to correct information, we shall explain why.
Can I Request Anonymity? Whenever it is legal and practical, we may elect to deal with general inquiries on an anonymous basis (for example, by accessing general information on our website).
How Long Do You Keep My Personal Information? We keep your personal information as long as is reasonably necessary for us to complete our dealings with you, or as may be required by law, whichever is longer.
Web Site Our website contains links to other sites, which are not governed by the privacy policy.
We may also collect personal information on our website (www.akcanada.com). We only collect the information you provide to us voluntarily by sending us an e-mail message, completing forms or using the links contained on the website. Abrams & Krochak collects and uses your name, address, telephone number, email address and other information you submit on or through the website for the purposes for which you provided the personal information, to respond to your inquiries and to provide you with updates and information that we think may be of interest to you. In providing Abrams & Krochak with any personal information on or through this website, you consent to the collection and use of that information for these stated purposes. We currently do not use cookies on this website. “Cookies” are small text files that recognize repeat visitors and track their visits to a website.
On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information.
Communicating with Us You should be aware that email is not a 100% secure medium, and you should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information.
Changes to this Privacy Policy Since Abrams & Krochak regularly reviews all of its policies and procedures, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. Please review our website for updates.
Request for Access If you have any questions, or wish to access your personal information, please write to our Privacy Officer.
Inquiries / Complaints If you have any questions or concerns about how your personal information has, is or will be handled by Abrams & Krochak or if you would like to register a complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer.
Deletion Request If you wish to have your personal information removed, please provide your details on our request form.
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