Canada law firm on visit to help potential immigrants
Stabroek News
May 25, 2004
Private legal immigration advisers from Canada are currently in the country to assist certain categories of skilled workers and students to gain migrant status to live and work in Canada.
Targeted are caregivers, teachers, nurses and entrepreneurs, Eduardo Furtado, immigration consultant attached to the legal firm, IPACS Law Office, told the media at Le Meridien Pegasus yesterday.
Furtado said there was a strong programme in place for investors and if entrepreneurs meet certain criteria all the immigration documents they may require is a passport "to come and stay in Canada".
He said compared to last year it is easier for certain categories of workers to gain access to live and work in Canada as the points system used to assess applicants has been reduced 67% from 75% as of September 2003.
He noted, too, that it was easier for persons with family members or relatives who could assist them in resettling. "This is a good time for people than in the past to migrate to Canada. The government is being much more flexible," Furtado said.
Asked how many persons, his law firm was seeking to represent, Furtado said the law firm was "not taking people" to Canada but was providing free advice initially to show them the best way to apply. If it was clear that applicants do not have the necessary points they would be advised whether they need to have themselves better qualified or what they should do.
Furtado will be in the country up to June 1 and will meet potential applicants at seminars to be held at the GPSU Hall, Regent Street tomorrow and at the Mahogany Hotel, Corriverton, Berbice on Saturday. The interviews will be done on a one-on-one basis and counselling is free.
Legal adviser, Guyana-born Canadian, Doug Maloney, who has lived in Canada for the past 25 years accompanied Furtado who represents the law firm, IPACS, which is associated with a group of Canadian immigration legal advisers.
He noted that Toronto alone has a population of about 200,000 persons of Guyanese origin.
Asked why seek to repatriate skilled people from one underdeveloped country to a developed country, Furtado said he was an immigrant himself and his parents moved from Portugal to Canada to seek a better life for him. Had he remained in Portugal he would not have had the opportunity he has had.
He spoke too of immigrants being able to assist their families from their country of origin through remittances. Some who emigrated back to their country of origin do so with skills they develop while living away from their homeland.