Dear Section Members,
The CBA Immigration Law Section is Canada’s leading association for immigration practitioners. I am writing to inform you about our plans for the coming year and hopefully inspire you as a member of our Section! Our members enjoy exclusive access to the CBA Immigration Law Section national listserv, regular updates on immigration law, policy and operations in Canada and prime networking and professional development opportunities. Meet the 2017-2018 executive.
In the 2017-2018 year, the Section will continue to act strategically in the areas of law, policy and operation of the Canadian immigration system. Our Executive Committee will be meeting this month to discuss priorities, which will include asylum/refugee initiatives, issues related to temporary foreign workers, North America perimeter initiative, client service modernization, and immigration consultants.
We look forward to continuing our collaborative meetings with political, policy and operations leaders at IRCC, ESDC, CBSA and the Department of Justice and invite you to send ideas and topics for our collaborative meetings in November. We appreciate these long-standing relationships and our mutual efforts to improve Canada’s immigration system.
My personal goals as Chair this year include building on the solid communication lines we have formed with various government departments. I also want to continue building on our reputation for providing balanced and meaningful input and feedback with respect to policy development, through our Law Reform initiatives. This will include ensuring our timely submissions receive wide distribution via social networks, personal meetings with MPs and sharing with third party organizations. Finally, I want to encourage government departments and political leaders and their staff to respect our profession and value the contributions that lawyers make every day to assist thousands of individuals with immigration, refugee and citizenship matters.
GET INVOLVED
The success of the Section comes from the dedication of our volunteers and Section members; we invite you to engage with the Section:
- Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
- Subscribe to our Section member listserv: Ask a question or contribute to a discussion.
- Nominate a young lawyer for our Founder’s Award or a distinguished colleague for the Award of Excellence.
- Submit an article for publication.
- Access CBA Member resources, including videos on the importance of using an immigration practitioner.
- Save the date and join us in Ottawa for our annual conference on April 19-21, 2018.
- Join a working group and contribute to our submissions. Working groups include:
- Citizenship
- Family Class
- Vulnerable Persons
- Live-in Caregivers
- Immigration Plans and Priorities
- Express Entry and LMIAs
Contact us at CBAImmigrationLaw@cba.org to become involved.
As a fellow member, I invite you to become involved in Section activities!
Sincerely,
Barbara Jo Caruso
Chair, CBA Immigration Law Section