Advocacy and Dealing with Refusals 

Laura Schemitsch has been practicing Canadian immigration and refugee law since 2019, handling a wide range of matters and complexity. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Ottawa in 2019 with specializations in Public Law and Law and Social Justice. Before law school, she completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History from McMaster University and a Master of Arts in Art History from Queen’s University.

Laura’s academic work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and major media outlets. In November 2022, she was invited to speak before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration in Canada’s House of Commons.

Her passion for immigration and refugee law began in 2017 when she joined Capital Rainbow Refuge, a private sponsorship group supporting LGBTQIA2S+ asylum seekers in Ottawa. She articled at Gerami Law PC, a boutique immigration and refugee law firm in Ottawa, from August 2019 to June 2020, and was hired back as an associate. In June 2020, she relocated to British Columbia with her family, transferred her law license, and practiced in the Sea to Sky region before joining Heron Law Offices in June 2023.

Laura has successfully represented clients before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and helped individuals navigate complex immigration challenges, including application refusals, humanitarian and compassionate requests, inadmissibility issues, procedural fairness responses, and judicial reviews. She supports employers, entrepreneurs, permanent resident applicants, temporary foreign workers, international students, and visitors throughout their Canadian immigration journeys. 

Student Portal and Student Strategies and Processing 

Marina Vespoli Snyder is a seasoned Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC-IRB) with over six years of experience since becoming licensed in 2017. She holds additional licences to practice in Quebec (QC) and Saskatchewan (SK). Her expertise spans several key areas, including economic immigration, temporary residence, family reunification, Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs), and citizenship applications.

With a strong foundation in Business Administration and International Commerce, Marina has a particular interest in business immigration.