Episode Description
In this episode, I'm speaking with Jatin Shory, Partner- Immigration and Refugee Law at Shory Law LLP, and Table Officer (National Immigration Section), Canadian Bar Association.
Hundreds of thousands of people sit in the Express Entry today without fitting into any of the new category pools. And when some of them ask Jatin what comes next, he says he doesn't have a clear answer to give them.
So he's resorted to sorting people by the clock. If a client has a year and a half to two years left on a work permit, Jatin tells them to stay the course and keep working towards making their application harder to turn down. If they have six months or less, he tells them it's time to start thinking about going home.
It's wild to me how the reason an individual's future who's contributing taxes and value and more to Canada all depends on a date stamped on a work permit.
Jatin and I also chat about:
Why he's nudging clients towards provincial programs these days
How fake Canadian immigration agents target people running out of time
His father's immigration path from arriving at thirty to becoming a lawyer at forty
Why he calls himself and his siblings the privileged benefactors of that journey
Why he calls 2024 the turning point in Canadian immigration
Dozie's Notes
A few things that stuck with me as I listened through this week's conversation:
On paper, the Express Entry rewards merit. But listening to Jatin sort his clients, the thing deciding their odds isn't the points, it's how much time they have left on their permit. Two people can do the same work, pay the same taxes, build the same case, and the one with more months left on a permit gets told to stay while the other gets told to leave. When the time on a document matters more than the effort behind it, I'm not sure the system is still rewarding the thing it claims to.
We tend to treat leaving Canada as the failure and staying as the win. But Jatin thinks that getting out with your savings beats staying and being slowly bled by a fake job offer. That's a hard thing to hear, because it cuts against everything newcomers are told about persistence, but persistence aimed at a door that's already shut just makes you easier to take advantage of. I should also acknowledge that this is easier said than done.
Where you live now shapes your best shot at staying in Canada. The clearest routes to PR right now appear to be through rural communities and specific provincial draws, not the big federal pool. Jatin thinks provinces understand their own labour needs better and are able to plan past one election cycle. And looking at all that's happened in recent weeks, it would mean your odds depend partly on which province needs you.
Official Links
✅ Connect with Jatin Shory on LinkedIn
One Ask
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