Working Your Way Into Canada 2025

Course Chairs
Kyle Hyndman — MKS Immigration Lawyers, Victoria
Silvia Macedo — McCrea Immigration Law LLP, Vancouver
Craig Natsuhara — EY Law LLP, Vancouver

About the Course Chairs
Kyle Hyndman is a partner at MKS Immigration Lawyers, based in Victoria. He has a diverse immigration solicitor's practice serving both individuals and organizations. He is a past chair of the CBA's national and provincial immigration sections. He has served on the boards of non-profit agencies serving immigrants and refugees, has provided expert advice to governments and civil courts, helped establish a pro-bono immigration law clinic, and regularly mentors law students and junior lawyers pursuing careers in immigration.

Kyle completed his LLB at UBC in 1999 and his LLM at the University of Toronto in 2013, where he won the Howland Prize for his thesis on the immigration law-making process. He has organized and co-chaired numerous legal education conferences and courses on immigration and citizenship law and has spoken and moderated at numerous national and local conferences. Kyle is frequently invited to speak on immigration and citizenship law to the media, educational institutions, and community groups.

After launching a successful career as a civil and employment lawyer in her native Brazil, Silvia Macedo decided to immigrate to Canada without having set foot here before.  Undaunted by the Canadian licensing process, she worked her way through another law degree, a second career as an immigration paralegal, and a third career as a mother to two boys. Silvia has now returned to where she started, this time tackling the practice of Canadian immigration law.

Silvia takes on all kinds of immigration and citizenship cases, and loves diving into a juicy legal research project. As a trained Brazilian and Canadian lawyer, she's happy to work with clients in English and Portuguese.

Craig Natsuhara practices at EY Law LLP in Vancouver, where he co-leads the Canadian Immigration practice.  He has practiced business immigration law since 2000.

Craig enjoys advocacy work, having initiated the project that led to the prior recruitment-exempt LMIA category for digital media and having provided input on formulating what became the Global Talent Stream LMIA. He has had the privilege of guiding many international companies with their expansion to BC. He is passionate about supporting BC's economy and assisting foreign nationals to work in this amazing province.

Craig has been recognized by Lexpert, Best Lawyers, and Who's Who Legal. He was the chair of the CBABC's Immigration Section from 2007 to 2009. He has been a member of the Immigrant Employment Council of BC ("IEC-BC") Employer Advisory Group since 2018.

Craig has been a director of the SPARK Computer Graphics Society since 2011 and a director (and past president) of the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre since 1998.

Faculty
Michelle Bowlen — Selkirk Immigration, Revelstoke
Mojan Farshchi — MKS Immigration Lawyers, Vancouver
Darcy Golden — Immigration and Refugee Legal Clinic, Vancouver
Mark Holthe — Holthe Immigration Law, Calgary
Victor Ing — Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre, Vancouver
Chi-Young (Chi) Lee — McCrea Immigration Law LLP, Vancouver
Jae-Yeon Lim — McMillan LLP, Vancouver
William Tao — Heron Law Offices, Burnaby
Kelvin Wu — Manager, Immigration, UBC, Vancouver
Vivian Yuen — Larlee Rosenberg, Vancouver

Click here for full faculty bios

• navigating the IRCC portals and understanding which portal to use for what
• overcoming technical glitches and quirks
• tips and tricks for making the portals easier to use
• interpreting information in Application Status Tracker and the Authorized Paid Representative ("APR") Portal
• jurisprudence related to IRCC portals
• predicting the impact of digital platform modernization ("DPM") and the challenges of "one portal to rule them all"

• understanding the IMP targets and how IRCC intends to achieve them
• understanding the opportunities and challenges of key categories including intra-company transferees, treaty professionals, reciprocal, and more
• understanding key categories for post-secondary educational institution faculty and staff

• how to prepare a complete POE package
• understanding the new flagpoling rules
• using the International Mobility Workers' Unit

• who can accompany
• who can get a work permit
• who can get a study permit
• what's changed and best practice tips for advising foreign workers and their families

• step-by-step guide to escalating responses
• how to contact IRCC or CBSA
• requesting reconsideration
• when and how to consider judicial review
• getting GCMS notes—ATIP and Rule 9 Reasons