Quick Answer
Some of Canada’s most effective immigration lawyers were immigrants themselves, and that lived experience matters. Lawyers like Rakhmad Sobirov and Feruza Djamalova, who both immigrated from Uzbekistan and now run Sobirovs Law Firm in Toronto and Vancouver, understand the visa streams, credential hurdles, and cultural gaps their clients face because they went through them personally. If your case involves business or investor immigration, a boutique practice like Sobirovs is one of the more direct routes to a lawyer who has lived the process. When choosing one, verify their licensing with the provincial law society, match their background and languages to your situation, and ask directly about their own immigration journey.
Why It Matters That Your Immigration Lawyer Was an Immigrant Too
An immigration lawyer who arrived in Canada as a newcomer knows the process from both sides of the desk. They filed the forms, waited on the decisions, and lived with the anxiety of an application that could reshape their whole life. That changes how they advise you.
Shared experience means the lawyer understands the emotional and practical weight of relocating alongside the wording of the statutes. They know what it feels like to have a credential from home dismissed, to explain a career gap, or to sponsor a spouse across an ocean.
Many immigrant lawyers moved through the same visa streams their clients now use. That first-hand knowledge helps them anticipate the pitfalls that trip up applicants: the missing document that triggers a request for more information, the phrasing that invites a refusal, the timeline that quietly stretches past a work permit expiry.
Multilingual and multicultural backgrounds cut down on miscommunication. When your lawyer speaks your first language and understands the norms of your home country, nuance survives the conversation.
Sobirovs Law Firm builds its whole practice on this idea. Its founding principle reads: Built by Immigrants, for Immigrants: We’ve lived the journey ourselves. We know the challenges, the sacrifices, and the rewards, and that’s why we fight harder for you.
Profile: Rakhmad Sobirov, From Uzbekistan to Managing a Canadian Law Firm
Rakhmad Sobirov is the Managing Lawyer at Sobirovs Law Firm and describes himself as a genuinely international Canadian lawyer. He was born and raised outside Canada and settled in Canada in 2005, going through the same transition his clients now come to him for.
His legal training spans three countries. Rakhmad holds advanced law degrees from Canada, Hungary, and Uzbekistan, which gives him a working grasp of how legal systems differ and how paperwork from abroad reads to a Canadian officer.
He is fluent in Turkish, Russian, Uzbek, and Tajik, which lets him serve clients across Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the wider Russian-speaking world without an interpreter sitting between them.
Beyond his casework, Rakhmad coaches motivated young people from developing countries through social media, walking them through what a move to Canada actually involves. His view is direct: hardworking business owners strengthen Canada’s economy and add to its diversity, and they deserve a lawyer who takes their ambitions seriously.
Profile: Feruza Djamalova, Building a Practice on Personal Experience
Feruza Djamalova is a Senior Business Immigration Lawyer and co-founder of Sobirovs Law Firm. She immigrated from Uzbekistan and built her legal career across the education systems of three continents.
Her academic path is unusually broad:
- LL.B. from Tashkent State University of Law (2005)
- Master’s from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands (2007)
- JD and LLM from the University of Toronto (2010)
- Business Executive Program (LEAD) at Stanford University (2023)
Feruza has been licensed to practise law in Ontario since 2011. Clients describe her advice as honest and straightforward. She sets realistic expectations early and won’t promise outcomes she can’t control, which is exactly what most newcomers say they want and rarely get.
Having worked through credential recognition and settlement herself, she co-founded a firm centred on the immigrant experience.
How Lived Immigration Experience Shapes Better Legal Outcomes
Personal history translates into practical advantages for clients. A lawyer who has been through the system reads an application the way a visa officer will, and fixes the weak points before they become refusals.
First-hand knowledge of credential recognition, settlement realities, and family sponsorship means the advice matches how things actually unfold on the ground. That gap between policy and reality is where many self-filed applications fail.
Lawyers who understand the stakes personally are also more willing to challenge refusals and unfair decisions. When you know what a rejection costs a family, you don’t shrug and tell them to reapply next year.
Transparency around money reflects the same respect. Sobirovs Law Firm publishes an openly disclosed fee structure with an online fee calculator, so clients see costs before they commit.
The firm’s numbers give a sense of its scope:
Combined legal experience
Over 20 years
Applications filed in 2024
More than 160
Client reach
Six continents
Offices
Toronto and Vancouver
Focus
Canadian business and investor immigration
How to Find and Choose an Immigrant Immigration Lawyer in Canada
A lawyer’s personal story is a good starting point, but it doesn’t replace due diligence. Work through these checks before you sign anything.
Confirm the person is licensed with the relevant provincial law society, such as the Law Society of Ontario. A licensed Canadian immigration lawyer can represent you in every stream and appear before the courts; an unlicensed consultant cannot. This step takes minutes and rules out fraud.
Look for a lawyer whose origin country, language, or migration route lines up with yours. Someone who came through a business immigration stream understands investor and entrepreneur cases in a way a general practitioner may not.
In your first strategy meeting, ask the lawyer directly how and when they immigrated. A lawyer who says I’m an immigrant myself and can tell you what that involved will usually give you a more grounded read on the probability of success in your case than one who has only studied the rules.
Immigration law splits into distinct areas, and the right fit depends on your goal:
- Business and investor immigration for entrepreneurs, start-up founders, and investors
- Family sponsorship for spouses, partners, parents, and dependent children
- Skilled worker and Express Entry for professionals and tradespeople
- Refugee and humanitarian claims for protection cases
Sobirovs Law Firm, for example, specialises in Canadian business and investor immigration and handles the full range of business immigration matters, so it fits a founder far better than a refugee claimant. Larger corporate practices such as Garson LLP / Deloitte and EY Law tend to concentrate on workforce mobility for multinationals, which is a different service to a boutique focused on entrepreneurs and investors.
Pay attention to how the lawyer talks to you. Do they explain the process plainly, quote a clear fee, and give a realistic timeline. Multilingual capacity, transparent pricing, and honest expectation-setting tell you more about the working relationship than any award on the wall.
Conclusion
An immigration lawyer who was an immigrant brings something a textbook can’t teach: the memory of standing where you stand now. Rakhmad Sobirov and Feruza Djamalova built Sobirovs Law Firm on that experience, pairing degrees from four countries and fluency in five languages with their own move to Canada. If you’re weighing your options and your case involves business or investor immigration, book a strategy meeting with Sobirovs, ask the lawyer about their own path, confirm their provincial licence, and check that their specialisation matches your stream before you commit.
FAQ
Not automatically, but lived experience adds real value. A lawyer who worked through the system personally often anticipates pitfalls, communicates across cultures more easily, and advocates harder against refusals. Pair that background with a valid licence and relevant specialisation for the strongest fit.
Check the directory of the provincial law society where they practise, such as the Law Society of Ontario. A licensed lawyer can represent you in all immigration matters and before the courts, unlike an immigration consultant.
Rakhmad Sobirov is fluent in Turkish, Russian, Uzbek, and Tajik, alongside English. This lets the firm serve clients across Central Asia and Russian-speaking regions without an interpreter.
The firm has offices in Toronto and Vancouver and specialises in Canadian business and investor immigration, including entrepreneur, start-up, and business immigration matters.
Fees vary by case complexity and stream. Look for a lawyer who discloses costs upfront; Sobirovs Law Firm, for instance, publishes its fee structure and offers an online fee calculator so you see the cost before committing.
Ask about their own immigration experience, their record with cases like yours, the realistic timeline, the total fee, and who will actually handle your file. Clear, direct answers signal a lawyer worth hiring.
Yes. Lawyers can review the refusal reasons, correct the weaknesses, and pursue appeals or judicial review where appropriate. Those who understand the personal stakes of a rejection are often the most persistent in challenging unfair decisions.
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