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Will Tao is a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer. He co-founded Heron Law Offices in 2021 and provides legal services in all areas of Canadian immigration and refugee law with a particular focus on complex refusals, appeals, and judicial reviews of international student, family class, and foreign worker-related applications.
Will also provides strategic advice and consultation to government, media, educational institutions, and businesses on immigration-refugee, decolonization, and race/inclusion-related issues. Will teaches Immigration Law through the UBC Certificate in Immigration: Laws, Policies and Procedures (CILPP) program.
Will is currently focused on writing and research projects to deconstruct and re-think traditional ways of doing in Canadian immigration and refugee law, applying an intersectional, race equity lens.
In his spare time, Will runs and operates his law blog Vancouver Immigration Blog, which won a Clawbie for Best Law and Commentary Blog in Canada in 2019. Will can often be found commenting in local media and writing opinion pieces on immigration policy, race equity, and diversity topics.
Will previously sat on the Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group, the Punjabi Market Revitalization Collaborative, and is currently on the board of the hua Foundation. Will is the Former Chair of the City of Vancouver’s Cultural Communities Advisory Committee and a past member of the Mayor’s Working Group on Immigration and City of Vancouver’s Historical Discrimination Against People of Chinese Descent Committee. Will also served as a Committee Member on the Canadian Bar Association British Columbia’s Equality and Diversity Committee.
Will is a graduate of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (J.D.), the University of British Columbia (B.A., History and International Relations).
For more information check out his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vancouverimmigrationlawyer/
Director of Operations/Case Manager | Arenous Foundation and Heron Law Offices
Edris Arib is a law and public policy professional with experience in international and civil society organisations. He worked as Legal Counselor for Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and International Development Law Organization (IDLO), and as Policy and Advocacy Consultant for Transparency International.
He co-founded, a non-profit organization Arenous Foundation, with his Heron Law colleague Will Tao, to fill the gap of advocacy, research, and education around issues of immigration and race equity. He looks at the broader and systemic challenges faced by international students, temporary foreign workers, and newcomers in Canada. He with the Arenous Foundation team are working to address these shortcomings by advocating, revealing issues that are hidden in plain sight and empowering their target group within British Columbia, Canada.
My name is Will Tao and I am a Barrister and Solicitor practicing exclusively in the field of Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law. I work for a full-service Canadian immigration and refugee law firm called Heron Law Offices based in Burnaby, B.C.
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Acknowledges that he lives and works on the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples – sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.
This site reflects my personal opinions and views only and should not be relied on and should be verified prior to any professional use. Please note that none of the information on this website should be construed as being legal advice. As well, you should not rely on any of the information contained in this website when determining whether and how to apply to a given program. Canadian immigration law is constantly changing, and the information above may be outdated. If you have a question about the contents of this blog, or any question about Canadian immigration law, please contact the Author.
