Will Tao* (pronouns: he/him) is a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer and the founder of Heron Law Offices who lives and works on the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish – sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.

Will provides legal services in all areas of Canadian immigration and refugee law with a focus on complex applications, overcoming refusals, inadmissibility matters, appeals, and judicial reviews. Will regularly appears before the Immigration and Refugee Board and the Federal Court of Canada. His focus is on international students, families, and temporary foreign workers.

Will also provides strategic advice and consultation to government, media, educational institutions, and businesses on immigration/refugee, decolonization, and race equity related issues. He is the founder and creator of the award-winning Vancouver Immigration Blog, where he hopes to make immigration and refugee law more accessible to the general public. He also has significant past teaching experience as an instructor for University of British Columbia’s Certificate in Immigration Laws, Policies, and Procedures (CILPP) program.

Outside of the law, Will is a blogger, podcaster, poet, writer, and often can be found in the back aisles of local ethnic grocery stores and sweating profusely in hole-in-the-wall restaurants/eateries asking for the ‘extra spicy.’ His most important job now is father to young diasporic daughters, Esmeranda and Almeria, and cheerleader for his incredible spouse, Olivia.