Need advice on your immigration status?
Immigration lawyer Fershen Llanes, from FL Legal.
Getting accurate advice about immigration and visas can be a challenge for Pacific people.
Immigration lawyer Fershen Llanes, from FL Legal, is working to change that.
She visits the Vaka Tautua Auckland office every second week to meet with Pacific individuals and families who have questions about immigration.
She says making herself available free of charge comes down to doing what makes her happy.
“Even after all these years of practice, I still love my job. I think it’s because I know I can make a difference.”
“I know with the experience that I have, a variety and even the most complex of cases. It’s what I enjoy and it’s what I do a lot,” Llanes says.
Born in the Philippines, Llanes graduated from Otago University in 1998, was admitted as a New Zealand lawyer in 1999, and started her full-time practice in 2000.
She began her career as an immigration, refugee, and family lawyer, but over the last six years, she has focused mainly on immigration cases.
A few years ago, she met a social worker from Vaka Tautua while working on a case with an immigration issue.
This led her to ask if she could come to Vaka Tautua to see if others needed help.
“Normally once they become unlawfull, they don’t know where to go, or if they do go (somewhere) it depends on who they meet,” Llanes says.
“It can be someone from the community or someone from the church, or even a consultant and some of them don’t get the answer they want. And that’s the aim of me (Llanes) coming to Vaka (Tautua), me closing that gap.”
The cost of visas and legal advice can be high for Pacific people who want to move to New Zealand or have their case reviewed by a lawyer.
But Llanes encourages anyone with questions about their own or other Pacific peoples’ immigration to contact Vaka Tautua and book a time to see if she can help.
“Some people are happy to leave it as is, being unlawfull. But us humans, we want the freedom.”
Media: For any interview requests about this story please contact Aaron Ryan – aaron.ryan@vakatautua.co.nz / 0221006951