0:02: Hi everyone.
0:04: Welcome to the Ask Canada Immigration Lawyer podcast.
0:07: I'm Evelyn Ackah, and today I have the pleasure of having on our podcast my friend and colleague Remzi Kulen.
0:15: Hello Remzi.
0:16: Hi Evelyn, how are you?
0:18: Good, thank you so much for joining me.
0:20: I know you are in New York, correct?
0:22: That is right.
0:23: In the heart of Manhattan.
0:24: Yes, awesome.
0:25: So I want to give a little bio about you so people know more about your U.S. immigration background.
0:31: So Remzi is the managing attorney with Remzi Kulen Law Firm based in New York, and he's a U.S. immigration lawyer with a practice focusing on business, immigration and employment.
0:43: Based immigration.
0:44: He does everything from investor visas, green card pathways, complex USCIS applications, and he works with entrepreneurs and investors and highly skilled professionals to help them move into the United States so they can pursue their business and personal goals.
1:01: So Remzi, welcome to the podcast.
1:04: Thanks so much for having me.
1:06: I'm excited to have you podcast.
1:08: Thank you.
1:08: Well, thank you.
1:09: Thank you so much.
1:10: So listen, I always love to start with, give us a background, you know, give me a few minutes of who you are, how you got into doing immigration law.
1:19: I just always loved the journey that people have.
1:21: Yeah, I went to law school in Turkey, and then I came here as an LL.M. student in 1999.
1:28: I went for my LL.M.; at that time, nobody around me knew how to You know, take the bar exam or go to law school here, so it was very difficult and there was not enough information around, but I knew that if I've taken certain courses, I could have passed, I could, I could have taken the New York bar exam.
1:49: So that's what I did and I passed and suddenly I wanted to stay here.
1:55: I was interning at a law firm.
1:58: And they were interested in sending me back to Turkey, not because they wanted me to open an office, but they wanted me to be their satellite over there.
2:07: So I was going to send cases to them.
2:08: They were going to send cases to me.
2:10: But after I passed the bar exam, I was like, OK, I can always go back to Turkey.
2:14: Why don't I stay here for a while and see what happens?
2:17: So I started working.
2:20: I worked at different law firms.
2:22: I did different things.
2:23: My passion was maritime law.
2:26: That was my master's degree.
2:28: At Tulane University, I interned at a maritime law firm in Turkey, but the year I graduated 2000, dot-com crisis hit the U.S.
2:38: And I don't know how, but all of those maritime law firms shrunk and they got smaller and smaller and smaller.
2:45: I think I've gotten like 400 or 450 rejection letters from different law firms, saying that they're not interested in.
2:55: So most of the people around me went back to their country.
2:59: I said, you know, I'm going to try more.
3:02: I'm a little stubborn in those things.
3:03: So I I stayed and then I worked, I started working at the litigation law firm.
3:09: I was in front of a judge at the age of 25.
3:14: It was very scary.
3:16: I didn't like it.
3:18: I didn't want the fact that I was fighting with people in front of a judge.
3:23: Not my thing, you know, I didn't like it.
3:24: And then, I got fired from that job because I was the biggest expense of the company with $35,000 salary.
3:34: So then I worked at a textile company, because I couldn't find a job as a lawyer.
3:41: So there, I learned about the intricacies of business.
3:45: How do you import from China?
3:47: What is a textile business?
3:49: I stayed there for a year and a half and I attribute most of my business background and knowledge of understanding of business to that kind of training, so to speak.
3:59: And then, The immigration law firm I hired to work at the textile company.
4:06: After they saw my resume, they immediately offered me a job.
4:10: Why, what are you doing in at a textile company?
4:12: Come back and work as, as an immigration lawyer?
4:15: And I said, I don't want to be an immigration lawyer, so I'm not going to accept your offer.
4:20: So I refused the offer and went and worked for the textile company.
4:24: A year and a half years passes and people around me say, Remzi, you're an immigration attorney.
4:30: What are you doing?
4:31: I'm sorry, you're an attorney.
4:32: What are you doing at a textile company?
4:34: I'm like, Because I want to be a maritime lawyer.
4:37: If not, I want to be a corporate lawyer.
4:39: I don't want to be an immigration lawyer.
4:40: And one of the, one of my friends put some sense in me.
4:43: He said, Do you, can you please look around?
4:46: Everybody around you needs an immigration lawyer, and you're saying that you don't want to be an immigration lawyer.
4:51: How come?
4:52: So that kind of changed something in my vision.
4:55: I called that, you know, my previous boss, and I told her 18 months ago, you offered me a job.
5:02: Does that still exist?
5:04: Oh my God.
5:05: And then she, she hired me.
5:07: That's how I started immigration.
5:08: This was 2003.
5:10: I stayed at that firm for about 5 years, did a lot of business cases, family cases, always stayed on course, business, family, and then opened up my own practice in 2009.
5:21: Right now we are a boutique firm.
5:22: We have about 15 people, and we help individuals and companies with their immigration matters.
5:29: Again, staying on the business, immigration and family immigration side.
5:32: That's so great.
5:33: I love that journey, you know, I love that because that's how life is, right?
5:38: You don't know what you're going to do.
5:40: And then I was going to be a corporate, no, I was going to be a litigator, and then just like you, I hated the conflict.
5:46: I hated the how long everything took.
5:48: I was not.
5:49: Didn't feel good and then I became, I became a corporate lawyer for a couple of years and I wasn't loving that either because I was not having the same client contact that I really liked to have the personal connections and then I became a business immigration lawyer so we kind of our careers go like this and then you find the thing that that makes you happy, that gives you a sense of purpose.
6:11: So since you've been doing this, what are you seeing right now in your practice, Remzi?
6:16: Like what kind of You know, high level, new information or challenges or, you know, updates that are affecting you and your clients, anything that's like front and center.
6:32: I've never seen this much commotion since I've started doing this.
6:35: I'm in my, my boss used to say, There's, there's not a dull moment in immigration.
6:44: And I, if she, if she saw these days, she would have been like, wow, I understated myself because that's an understatement because, I mean, look at the things that we're going through right now.
6:55: Every Friday, I look at 4:30, 5 p.m. I look at the news.
6:59: If there's anything new from this administration about immigration, right?
7:03: A few weekends were spoiled because of the announcements.
7:07: So for the sponsorship process, right?
7:11: Adjustment of status applications, $100,000 H-1B fee.
7:16: So, you know, you do this long enough and then you say, you know what, you don't say this cannot happen.
7:24: It can happen, because for them to announce something, it obviously it doesn't have to be.
7:30: It doesn't have to have any basis in law.
7:32: They just announce it and then they see what happens.
7:35: They look at the reactions.
7:37: So in that sense, it's a crazy roll, roller coaster ride in, in that sense.
7:41: And, I think this is the year that I've been working the most throughout my career.
7:47: and it has to do, it has to do with these, with these updates, and I'm trying to keep up to date because I have a social media presence.
7:54: I have Instagram, I have YouTube.
7:56: And once you start, you cannot, You cannot stop, you know, like you have to be in it.
8:01: You have to update your clients, you have to update the followers.
8:05: So yeah, it's crazy.
8:07: Am I loving it?
8:08: I mean, I'm not complaining, you know, I'm not complaining, but it is crazy.
8:13: It's a, there's a lot of unpredictability.
8:17: We know that immigration is like a boat.
8:21: Which gets waves from different sides, and then it's going to settle.
8:24: It takes time, but most of the clients we work with, they don't, because this is the first time they're doing it or they're not used to it, so they're very excited.
8:32: You have to calm them down.
8:34: I think if I became a prime minister or something one day, I'm going to put psychological, psychology courses in law schools for the 1st 2 years, and they're going to be mandatory.
8:46: I think that's a great idea actually because that makes perfect sense to me because we spend so much of our time feeling like therapists, don't we?
8:57: Like we're always like, yeah, we're always listening and they're upset and they're, they're depressed and they're emotional and and it's just trying to keep them balanced and looking at the long term picture and not just the quick fix, right?
9:14: But It is, I think that's a great idea actually.
9:17: I would love that if we learned that.
9:19: I never took psychology in university, so, so yeah, so tell me a little bit about like your ideal client files, you know, what are the things that you love to do the most, Remzi and immigration?
9:33: I love E2 cases.
9:36: I do.
9:37: And I don't know if it's because I worked at that textile company for a year and a half, and I know how business works, and I understand the business aspect of it.
9:50: I know how to explain it to a consulate officer or an immigration officer.
9:55: There were times where a clients thought that the case was going to be denied or refused.
10:02: We were able to explain it in a very nice way and put it in such a way that the consular officer and immigration officer would understand.
10:11: So I love structuring those kinds of cases.
10:14: I love creating arguments for them.
10:18: I do love extraordinary ability cases.
10:20: I think those are great cases because Every artist is a different area and you learn so many new things.
10:30: I love, I love working with researchers, and also H-1Bs and PERMs.
10:35: I think what I like, like about them is, PERM, you have to be very punctual.
10:43: So, and I'm very punctual in my own life.
10:46: So I think it suits me, you know, it's, it's the, it's the form that I get scared the most in my life, ETA 9089 PERM application because you put a dot wrong and then they're going to deny the case.
10:57: But, you know, 98% approval rate in those cases for us, for our law firm is, is a great accomplishment.
11:04: So.
11:05: I think that's, that's, that's my personality.
11:07: I find to be happy in something, in everything that I do.
11:11: So I think, I, I know I listed the whole visa application, but these are the, these are the things I like the most.
11:18: And also, I like helping families.
11:19: That's the other thing.
11:20: Like, if I were an immigration lawyer on the business side, side, mostly, and I was not helping, I-485 clients, I wasn't prepping.
11:27: Prepping them for the, green card interview.
11:30: I wasn't teasing them during the interview.
11:33: like, tell me the truth.
11:34: How many times you got married?
11:35: I can see it in the records.
11:36: It's the, it's the second time, so you have to see their faces.
11:41: So I think I like that aspect of it too, the human touch, you know.
11:46: I love, I just love it.
11:47: And I think it's a great, Feeling that I like what I do because in network meetings I see some lawyers that really don't like what they're doing and they were so one of them was so surprised that I really like what I'm doing after 25 years and he said, you know what, that's a blessing.
12:09: You should be very happy about it because most lawyers.
12:13: They just do it for the money.
12:14: That's what he said.
12:15: So I was like, OK, I'm going to appreciate this.
12:17: I'm not going to take it for granted.
12:19: It seems like you found your calling.
12:20: Like, I feel the same, you know, I feel like even though they, we all have days of frustration and disappointment or occasional refusals and things like that, at the end of the day for me, just like you probably, it's the client happiness.
12:33: Like we just had somebody approved at the port of entry yesterday for an L-1A that was challenging.
12:38: And he was there for hours.
12:40: He missed his flight, but they approved it at the end of the day, and you know, the gratitude and the appreciation and almost tears because so much was riding on it is what makes me happiest, you know.
12:50: It feels like you really make a difference in someone's life every day.
12:55: So that's what I get from it.
12:56: But I want to ask you about H-1B because.
13:00: Are people still even doing them?
13:01: Like, is this a thing with the changes?
13:05: It is, it is a thing because the $100,000 fee is about to expire in September and last week a court struck down the $100,000 fee.
13:15: We still don't know how USCIS is going to react to it.
13:17: I didn't see any announcements from AILA yet as to whether people are filing and not getting the invoices.
13:23: I'm kind of holding all of my cases, consular cases to the end of June before the deadline to see if we can get some kind of, some kind of an indication.
13:34: But yes, H-1B is still a thing.
13:37: it was very useful.
13:38: the $100,000 fee was very useful, especially for students who are already in the U.S. who switching status who have the money or.
13:47: 100,000 $100,000 doesn't apply.
13:50: It doesn't apply to people who are changing their status in the U.S.
13:56: It's only for consular applications, right?
13:58: So in, in, in that sense, it was really good for the students this year.
14:03: They were, they were getting selected in the H-1B quota more.
14:08: They had their chances this year, so we'll see how it goes, but I'm happy to report I have a client who paid the $100,000 fee.
14:16: He was selected.
14:16: He paid the $100,000 fee.
14:18: I have another one.
14:19: He's like, Oh, for this guy, $100,000 fee is nothing, so I'm going to, yes, I'm going to pay.
14:23: So I have these interesting people who think that, you know, H-1B is worth, well, this person actually that they're going to hire is worth that money, but obviously for many, many other small businesses.
14:37: It is impossible.
14:38: I'm especially, I'm especially so sad for nonprofits, for universities, for hospitals.
14:45: I mean, they should have been exempted.
14:47: They have not been exempted, but we'll see.
14:50: Maybe this court striking, striking down the $100,000 fee, it's going to be effective immediately, and maybe they're, they're not going to extend it in September, seeing the outcry, but for now, we have to live with what, what we have.
15:04: Unbelievable.
15:05: I mean, one thing that's so different from Canada is in the U.S. you get RFEs that are like pages and pages and pages long.
15:13: We don't really, we get a refusal that says doesn't meet the criteria or whatever.
15:17: We don't have an RFE process in Canada.
15:20: Really?
15:21: No, we don't.
15:22: We don't.
15:22: You can do something called a reconsideration and you just send something through the portal web form, like it's like a little email, but there's no.
15:31: 12-page RFE process.
15:33: No way, it's yes or no.
15:35: Something that's interesting.
15:36: So if something denied, yeah, yeah, I understand, but if something gets denied, do they tell you why?
15:43: Sometimes they do like a visa, you know, if it's a visa application or visitor visa, they'll say, we don't believe you're going back, or we don't believe your intentions or whatever.
15:52: So they, but it's an automated like drop down kind of thing.
15:56: And it is one page, one page, that's it.
16:00: And so then you use that and you can obviously do like a FOIA or in Canada's Access to Information request to see if you can find out some more before you might want to reapply.
16:10: But that doesn't sound right.
16:11: It's, that's how it works, or else you have to appeal and litigate, and we don't do that.
16:15: We have partners who, you know, do any kind of judicial reviews or appeals.
16:21: But I wanted to ask you about RFEs.
16:23: I mean, what are you seeing?
16:24: Are they getting worse?
16:25: Are they the same?
16:27: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're getting worse, and immigration is using AI now.
16:31: So yeah, same with Canadian immigration.
16:34: So like, you're like, wow, this is amazing.
16:38: Who wrote that, you know, it's like things that you haven't seen before.
16:45: I like, well, I like the fact that they are sending an RFE instead of denying the case.
16:53: First, let me tell you that because an RFE gives you a chance for you to explain yourself, and I think it's a very fundamental part of the immigration process because sometimes it's a good RFE, sometimes it's a bad RFE.
17:05: They didn't get it.
17:06: So I don't mind going back and explaining one more time what I have submitted.
17:12: So I think.
17:14: RFEs are great tools for explaining yourself to the officer.
17:19: We are getting more, more H-1B RFEs, more I-140 RFEs, more E2 RFEs, NIW National Interest waiver RFEs have gotten crazy because they changed the rules in the middle of the game.
17:31: So let's say we filed the case in 2024, it's taking, you know, 16 to 18 months for them to take a, take a look at the case, and come January 2025, they come up with a memo, we think, which we think is a great memo.
17:48: Turns out they changed the whole system and they are adjudicating, adjudicating all of the cases, even filed before.
17:55: According to that memo.
17:57: So, and then for us to understand this, we had to see 5 or 6 RFEs and, where is this coming from?
18:03: Like, they didn't ask this before.
18:05: So that, that was a whole learning process.
18:07: And, I wish they said something like, OK, we're going to apply this memo from, to all cases from the state, you know, that immigration never does that.
18:18: So, no, you just follow the trends.
18:21: You have to have a lot of cases to understand what's going on.
18:24: But yeah, more RFEs, more questions, more AI in the RFEs.
18:29: But at the end of the day, if you understand the gist of it, if you really can read what it says, because sometimes it's a template.
18:38: Like if you're reading it for the first time, You don't, you don't get it.
18:41: But if you, if you have, if you've had enough of these, and if you know what they're saying, then you can really respond to them and give them what they want, exactly, exactly.
18:50: And I wish they were applying the preponderance of the evidence tests, but we try, we always try to go 90, 95% or 110% in RFEs.
19:01: Although it's, although it's preponderance of the evidence, we still have to explain everything, but I'd rather have an RFE than a denial.
19:12: So, so what, what, what percentage would you say of RFEs lead to approvals versus, you know, like that's a hard thing because I know for clients and you know if we work together, refer clients to you in the future, it's like people always, and then of course there's extra fees for the clients and this and this and this, but I always wonder.
19:33: How many of those turn into approvals?
19:36: I think I was keeping real statistics on this, but now I don't in the last few years.
19:44: But I know that in the H-1B, for example, it was close to 90, 90, 92%, and in all the other, and all the other cases above 95%.
19:56: So even if you, if you do get an RFE.
19:59: we, we are able to respond to it properly, and the reason the rate is a little lower on the H-1B is because of Crazy applications of law, especially during the first Trump administration.
20:13: Like market research analyst is not an H-1B position, for example.
20:17: It's not a specialty occupation.
20:19: They overturned that decision two years later, and I contacted my client.
20:23: Remember the case?
20:24: We fought very well and it got denied.
20:26: There's a court decision now.
20:28: We can apply.
20:28: And get the H-1B visa just with one letter and he got and the guy goes, I moved on.
20:35: I'm a I know sometimes timing is everything, right?
20:37: It's the law changes and then it doesn't.
20:42: What about citizenship now with all of these conversations about naturalized citizens versus those born in the States?
20:50: Have you seen any?
20:52: Not really, except for the fact that they're, if you're filing the naturalization now, you're subject to the 128 questions instead of the 100 questions.
21:03: I don't know what they accomplished by doing that.
21:05: They were also, they're also talking about neighborhood, neighborhood investigations, where you have to show, that you're a good person, and they're going to ask your neighbors or the people in the community whether you're a good person.
21:21: I haven't seen that happening.
21:23: Just like a lot of things that they say and they don't do.
21:27: There is no real implementation or implication.
21:30: It's going pretty well.
21:32: People are getting naturalized, so I'm happy to report they're still getting naturalized and they're not being deported and no, no, I remember there was talk about like people that were not that were naturalized citizens somehow being losing it, or you know, there's all these chitter-chatter about.
21:50: There is, I think the biggest idea of this administration's immigration program is.
21:58: To create an atmosphere of fear so that people don't come or people leave.
22:09: after the adjustment of status memo, I shot a video on my Instagram channel for 14 minutes.
22:13: I was very tired, 4 p.m. on a Friday night.
22:17: My phone is ringing.
22:18: There's a lot of emails.
22:19: I had to say something.
22:20: I never put videos.
22:22: For 14 minutes on Instagram, but I had to go there and do it because I have to, I have to say something.
22:26: So after, after I shot that video, I met, I met with a friend and went to a restaurant.
22:32: It was a Turkish restaurant, so we walked in, everybody's looking at me.
22:37: I'm like, Whoa.
22:38: And then You're a celebrity, Remzi, minor celebrity, Evelyn, minor celebrity.
22:45: So, so, we finished our dinner and the waitress came to me and said, Remzi, Remzi, I really tried my best to stop asking you questions, but you had your dinner, so I have a lot of questions.
23:03: You should watch the video.
23:06: Yeah, she was, she was, she watched the video.
23:08: That's why she had a lot of, of course, because they thought that I looked very sad and I looked very stressed out, and we watched you and we think that everybody, everything is going to go bad.
23:19: I'm like, no, I didn't say that.
23:21: I actually said exactly the opposite.
23:23: So I had to shot another video.
23:26: To tell them that everything is correct and I mean everything is, everything is going to be OK and just wait and don't panic and I'm shooting this video because of that lady in the Turkish restaurant that's.
23:38: You're so funny.
23:39: Oh my God, I know that you and I both do a lot of social media and you know that's the way we people find you, especially we have a similar sized firm.
23:49: We have 15, 16 people, How have you found, you know, business, so let's shift to like the entrepreneur side of being a lawyer, but also managing attorney, running your own firm.
24:01: How important has creating this online presence been for your business?
24:07: I think it's been instrumental.
24:10: The time I started was during COVID.
24:14: We, we got locked up on March 18th.
24:17: I never forget, forget the date.
24:19: March 18th, 2020, we were talking about it.
24:23: I was in three different states in a week, going from interview to interview, but with COVID, everything got like that, right?
24:31: So I'm sitting at home.
24:32: I'm like, OK, what are we doing right now?
24:34: Like I did, I finished my emails.
24:36: I reviewed the cases.
24:37: So what am I doing?
24:37: There's no commute.
24:38: There's no going to interviews at different states.
24:42: So I started shooting the videos, and my first video was was broadcasted April 4th, 2020.
24:50: I never forget the date.
24:52: Now that I look at it, it's hideous.
24:54: Like I don't, I can't watch.
24:56: You can't.
24:56: You can't go backwards.
24:58: No, but at that time it was good because there was a lot of miscommunication.
25:04: There was a lot of misinformation, and people were at home watching videos.
25:10: So I think Coincidentally, the, the time that we went on, was great.
25:17: And then people started watching it.
25:19: And then I felt like, I owe it, I owe this to the community because I know, and they don't know, and there's a lot of misinformation.
25:27: Let me get to the source of it.
25:29: Let me get the correct information and disseminate.
25:31: So once you start doing that with good faith and without any expectations, people People start liking you.
25:39: People start following you, people start asking you questions, they get engaged.
25:43: And, you know, I liked it.
25:46: it's very difficult because it has to be a part of your life.
25:51: It has to be your second nature to be able to talk.
25:54: And at the same time, you have to find time for it.
25:57: And you know, and I know how many times we wanted to cancel that video shoot at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. because there's a lot of pressing things, but You still do that and you still do this by sacrificing from yourself.
26:12: It's not that you don't do the job because you're shooting the video.
26:15: You do the video and then you do the job, and people don't understand it, you know, like one time a client of mine, this is my, this is one of my favorite stories.
26:22: One time a client of mine calls.
26:24: He has, he has a question.
26:27: He says it's urgent.
26:27: Of course it's not urgent.
26:28: And then always urgent to them, and then it's not really urgent.
26:32: There are some urgent questions, but this was not urgent.
26:34: So he goes.
26:36: I have a question, and my assistant goes, OK, he's not available right now.
26:40: And then he goes, I know, he's in the YouTube live video.
26:44: Why don't, why doesn't he stop that video and take the call because I'm his client.
26:49: Oh my God.
26:51: So I still, I still get back to the guy, and I still talk to him, and most people don't realize maybe that it is really difficult to do.
26:59: I mean, there are some people who started this and couldn't continue because it takes a lot from you.
27:03: So it's a lot of dedication.
27:05: I admire people like you who actually day after day do this, and It's what we're trying to do is give information and that's, that's always, that's always been my goal, and I know a lot of people who watch me don't even work with me.
27:23: But I still answer their questions.
27:24: I still do the live.
27:26: I still respond to 80, 60 to 80 questions in a, in, in an hour, in a, in a YouTube, in a YouTube live.
27:32: So I enjoy doing it.
27:33: As long as I enjoy it, I'm going to do it because I think this is giving back to the community.
27:39: But, but then it also became a very important marketing tool, and I didn't realize that, until about maybe, maybe 2 or 3 years after I started this, people started coming back to me.
27:50: From the videos, like I've, I've seen your videos for the last 5 years.
27:54: This is the reason I'm in the U.S., so I want to work with you.
27:56: I don't want to work with somebody else.
27:59: Well, that makes me happy.
28:01: That's exactly what it's for.
28:02: People say that to me.
28:03: I've been watching you for years, and now I have a thing, and I'm like, wow, you know, it's, it's not a quick hit, you know, for the most part.
28:11: Or now I'm finding people.
28:12: I always ask, we always ask, how did you find us?
28:15: Chat GPT.
28:17: And all the other AI, it's it's quite incredible because they're finding the videos and the blogs, and then it leads to now being seen as a subject matter expert.
28:28: So people out of the blue will find us through, through, you know, LLM or other kind of AI.
28:35: So I'm sure the same experiences and let's be honest, I mean, we are the subject matter experts.
28:41: I haven't done anything else in my life.
28:43: I mean, this is, and if you think about it, there are a lot of subsections of immigration law, right?
28:49: I'm not even saying that I'm doing all the subsections.
28:51: I'm saying that I know a few subsections very well, and if you're coming to me for something that I don't know, I'm going to refer to you.
29:00: I'm going to refer you to somebody else.
29:01: So I think that's what makes this beautiful.
29:05: As long as you excel in one field, you go deeper, deeper, deeper.
29:10: And you realize you can help more people.
29:13: That makes me very happy.
29:14: Oh, I love your philosophy.
29:16: I love how you operate, you know, because I think, I think people recognize value and they recognize true integrity, you know, we're not out there in fancy pink suits or other kind of flashy, doing all the, you know, we're not doing that.
29:31: We're not selling.
29:32: I have, I have a pink shirt.
29:33: We're not selling fear, you know, that's the other thing we're selling hope.
29:38: And what's real because I always tell clients like, listen, this is not an easy case.
29:44: I always tell them this is 50/50, you know, if it's something that I say, 0, 90% I'll tell you, but if it's not, I tell them as well so they can make an informed decision because I want a happy client and if they still want to go for it, even if it's mid mid level of success, they just want to try.
30:02: Then we document it so they know we're trying, even though my advice might be I'm not sure no matter what we do, the facts are the facts, right?
30:10: And and I think people appreciate and respect that honesty that I don't want an unhappy client.
30:17: I don't want to take your money and not be successful.
30:20: So, you have that same philosophy.
30:23: I can tell, yeah, and that's why you're, yes, I do, because at the end of the day.
30:28: If we were, if we were in this, to do this on the 5 or 10 years, you know, like get the money, get out.
30:35: It would have been different.
30:36: I'm not in it for that.
30:38: I just want to be in it for a long time.
30:40: I just want to be useful to my clients.
30:44: I want people to remember me.
30:48: I want people to say yes, and it's happened to me a few times.
30:52: Remzi, I know we lost the case, but I know we did everything we can, so I'm so happy.
30:57: So don't worry about it.
30:58: So I'm, this is, this is not, this is the second best thing you can hear after congratulations, it's approved, but you know, to be at that level.
31:08: the trust that you have with your clients, I think what makes me really happy because I just had a consultation, not a consultation, a follow-up call with a client.
31:17: We are, we are responding to the RFE tomorrow.
31:20: I wanted to talk to her and see her reaction to the RFE response.
31:25: I said, Are you happy with the RFE?
31:26: She said, I think it's amazing.
31:28: OK, that's enough for me.
31:30: This is what we did.
31:31: I just wanted to see your reaction because I don't want you to tell me two weeks after we send out, I wish you, you put it in there, or you see the decision, because it's a difficult case.
31:40: After you see the decision, I don't want you to tell me, we wish we put it.
31:44: I wish you asked me.
31:45: I want to do that now so that you don't tell me that later, right?
31:48: So, so that's how I think we practice, both of us.
31:54: And yes.
31:55: We are not millionaires, but we don't have, and we don't, we have happy clients, I think.
32:01: Yes, and life is balanced, you know, like I like the work we do because the people I have so much respect for our colleagues that do deportation, asylum, all of that, because they're up at night, they're going to detention centers, they're doing very different work, and I know myself, I couldn't sleep.
32:18: I, I appreciate them.
32:21: I don't know how they do it, and I, but you know what, some people live for it.
32:27: Like they love doing it.
32:30: I never did, but some people are born, born for it actually.
32:36: So kudos, kudos to them, for us and for you, your ideal clients, Remzi, give me an overview of like, if people are, you asked me this, this question, I said everything else about not that.
32:48: So, so the ideal, so ideal client would be, I mean, I love working with professional, Professional people who know what their responsibilities are, they ask the right questions.
33:04: They give us what we want.
33:05: Of course, not all clients are focused or they are very busy, but if you remind them what we need and they send it to us, that's great.
33:14: That's why I like working with.
33:17: young professionals, and also, I'm a small law firm.
33:22: I rarely work with HRs, but if there's an HR department, I love working with them because you want something and it comes along right away.
33:29: They'll ask you a 100 questions, right?
33:32: and then I like working with informed people, polite people, who appreciate things.
33:39: So, and not, I'm not saying that.
33:43: We work with them all the time, but we, when we find them, we really appreciate them.
33:48: And I, you know, almost every week I get a gift, gift from a client.
33:54: it's interesting.
33:55: I'm going to show you something.
33:56: Look, look at this.
34:00: This is, this is amazing.
34:01: Look, this guy has a leather, leather company, leather leather water holder.
34:10: Exactly, yeah.
34:11: And it for you.
34:14: Yes, it has a belt too, right?
34:16: I get all of this cool stuff from the clients and they're like, we appreciate you, you know, like.
34:22: So I'm not so great.
34:25: I'm not even counting the sweets and wine and yes, I love it.
34:31: I love it.
34:32: And that's one thing I do is when clients appreciate you, it's not like we need the presents, but it's nice, the thank you and the I know you did your best.
34:41: That means so much, right?
34:42: Yeah, it is.
34:44: It's a show of appreciation and I really like it.
34:47: I started.
34:49: organizing meet and greets when I go to different cities for interviews, it's unbelievable.
34:57: 10 to 30 people show up in every city.
35:00: And, you know, it's like a live Q&A session where they ask, I respond for 2 hours.
35:06: But you know what?
35:07: I, and not, not everybody is working with me.
35:11: Some of them are clients, some of them are not.
35:13: I love, I love getting to know people.
35:15: I'm, I think I'm curious in nature, so I love talking to people.
35:19: I want to know how they came to the U.S., what's their plan?
35:22: Is there anybody that I can introduce you to make things easy, easy for you, networking.
35:28: So I think this is one of the most enjoyable years of my life, I would say.
35:34: So yeah, thing every crisis brings other opportunities.
35:39: You get to know, you get to meet more people.
35:41: So it's true.
35:42: It's true.
35:42: Well, can I ask you, can I ask you something?
35:45: How, how is the immigration, how is the immigration right now in Canada?
35:48: I mean this Is what we're going through, but how is it in Canada?
35:52: Is everything fine?
35:54: Can people come to Canada?
35:55: People, of course, can come to Canada.
35:57: We, we have so many Americans right now, Remzi trying to claim citizenship, Canadian citizenship, because the law changed in December.
36:05: So if you can find any family down your chain of ancestry.
36:10: Even if it's like the great great great great great grandparent, you are eligible for Canadian citizenship.
36:16: That changed in December.
36:18: So we have had dozens and dozens and dozens of people since January because it just changed in December, all looking for their genealogy.
36:27: So we actually have a genealogist that's working as a contractor for us because we find papers, you know, we don't go to the registry for them, but he can help them.
36:36: And once they get all the paperwork, then they're engaging us to do their citizenship applications and often it'll be for a family of 10.
36:43: It's not just the one person.
36:44: They all want it for their children and their grandparents and their cousins and their anybody that can track.
36:50: So that's been the biggest change to Canada.
36:53: They can track to Canada from anywhere in the world.
36:57: What's the idea behind this to It was a lawsuit.
37:00: Well, no, it was, it was a lawsuit because it used to only have the first generation rule, which meant that let's say my grandfather was born in Canada and then I was born in the U.S., I could not pass citizenship.
37:14: I could get that citizenship from my, you know, from the, from the grandfather, but I couldn't pass it to the grandchild.
37:20: And lost. So there are some families that sued and said these are called almost lost Canadians because they still were considered Canadian but they weren't able to get citizenship.
37:31: So people sued the government and they won and the government just said that's it, we're going to let everybody.
37:37: But right now it's just, I think it's going to be for the next year or two, and then I think they're going to come and create some limits.
37:42: So everybody who's looking now, people.
37:45: Back to Quebec, Ontario, even before Canada was created in 1867.
37:49: If you can go back and find any evidence, you can be a Canadian citizen, and they're doing it rushed now because who knows, in a year or two, you know, policy changes.
38:00: So that's the biggest change that we're dealing with right now.
38:03: And wow, become a Canadian when you can, I guess that's the name of the you can do it, do it, because Never know.
38:09: And people, it's not necessarily that they're all looking to escape the U.S. or wherever or the UK.
38:14: It's to have a second passport, just, just, just to have an alternative.
38:18: You never know.
38:19: And even if you have children that want to go to school in Canada, they can pay regular fees like a Canadian citizen.
38:26: So there's options and benefits down the line.
38:28: So how does the tax work for Americans in Canada?
38:32: Do they They're not taxed double.
38:35: It's not, no, we don't have, we have a tax treaty.
38:37: We don't have what you guys have with this worldwide taxation.
38:41: We don't have that in Canada.
38:42: But then if they came to Canada in order to stop that worldwide taxation, even if they lived in Canada, they'd have to rescind their U.S. citizenship.
38:51: Oh yes, of course.
38:52: Otherwise you're still a U.S. citizen living in another country.
38:55: There's, you're still being taxed, you know, it's worldwide income.
38:58: Yeah, there, there was a lot of questions about giving up on, giving, giving up the green card because of the problems green card holders, was having when they were entering the U.S.
39:09: So I made, I made a video about it.
39:13: One of the comments below it was.
39:15: Are there really people asking about this?
39:17: Because I think this guy was getting into the DV lottery every year and not winning.
39:21: So, the idea of someone giving up the green card was so foreign to him, to him.
39:26: Like, yeah, people ask for it and I'm doing it actually, so this is the reason I did the video.
39:30: So yeah, the renunciation of citizenship actually comes up in more AILA panels than ever before.
39:38: So I'm going to the global AILA next week.
39:41: In San Diego, are you going to the AILA conference?
39:44: Not this year.
39:45: I have a conflict.
39:47: I'm going to see the soccer games.
39:49: Oh, just a little soccer game, just the World Cup soccer game.
39:54: Yeah, yeah.
39:56: Good for you.
39:58: Who, who, who knows when I'm going to be able to see one again?
40:02: Where are you watching it?
40:04: So I'm going to Vancouver for the first time.
40:06: Is it?
40:08: Yeah, I've never, never been.
40:10: I'm very excited.
40:12: So I'm going to see the 2nd 1 in San Francisco, the 3rd 1 in Los Angeles.
40:17: So it's all West Coast in 10 weeks. My God, Remzi.
40:19: Well, listen, when we, when we get offline, send me an email and I'll give you all the places to eat and if you have time before, before the game, and you know, if you have time to do anything besides soccer, but I'm so excited for you and I want to thank you so much for joining me on my podcast.
40:35: You are a lovely lawyer and highly, highly reputable, and just I'm looking forward to finding opportunities to work together.
40:42: Thank you so much.
40:43: Yes, we will files that I don't do and seeing how we can collaborate in the future.
40:49: Absolutely, absolutely.
40:50: Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
40:52: You are lovely.
40:53: Thank you.
40:53: Thanks.
40:53: You are a wonderful, wonderful interview.
40:55: OK, take good care.
40:57: You too.
40:58: Bye.
40:59: OK, bye.