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Immigrate to the US


EXPIREDUSER

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EXPIREDUSER
  • Law School Admit

Hello, 

I have recently decided that I would like to immigrate to the US, and I will be speaking with a lawyer next week about my plan. I wanted to know if anyone could give me some advice on the topic because I am 23 years old and I'm only starting my first year of law school in Quebec (Civil law) this year. I know that some states like the New York Bar recognize our degree, however I would like to move to California, Texas, or Florida. I wanted to know if anyone of you know if I should try to finish my degree in civil, do an extra year to get my JD for common and then apply for a sponsored job does this seem doable? Maybe I have to apply for a LLM in a American university, then do the bar exam and then find a job? I really don't know how it works. 

I would appreciate any information that could help me in this process! Also, if anyone could recommend a good lawyer that could help me with this process as well.

Thank you :) 

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epeeist
  • Lawyer

@MRA Be very careful and do research! US states that accept foreign law degrees accept common law degrees, NOT civil. And my unresearched recollection is that Texas and Florida are very unfriendly to foreign law degrees. And will even California accept a common law degree earned through a single extra year of study? I doubt it, but I don't know, it's up to YOU to figure out.

EDIT: also, and again don't rely on anything I say check yourself, my recollection is that California is the "friendliest" IF you've been admitted to the bar somewhere, you then apply in a different category than if you only have a law degree. So if everything works out with what you want to do, it may still be much, much better to get called in a Canadian common-law jurisdiction first?

Edited by epeeist
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EXPIREDUSER
  • Law School Admit
16 minutes ago, epeeist said:

@MRA Be very careful and do research! US states that accept foreign law degrees accept common law degrees, NOT civil. And my unresearched recollection is that Texas and Florida are very unfriendly to foreign law degrees. And will even California accept a common law degree earned through a single extra year of study? I doubt it, but I don't know, it's up to YOU to figure out.

Thank you very much for your information! I will try to contact the bar associations to try to figure that out! 

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Florida is kind of a closed market. They require US JD or membership in another US bar I think. Everyone has to take the bar - which is closed book and pretty brutal.

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On 2/19/2022 at 12:33 AM, Dood said:

Florida is kind of a closed market. They require US JD or membership in another US bar I think. Everyone has to take the bar - which is closed book and pretty brutal.

To follow-up on this, the Florida Bar actually amended the rules recently for foreign-educated bar applicants. It’s still a hassle - but slightly less so:

 

https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-news/court-amends-admission-rules-for-foreign-educated-bar-applicants/

tl/dr: if no ABA-approved J.D., you’ll need 5 years experience in another U.S. jurisdiction to be eligible to take the bar (instead of 10 years). If you get a U.S. LLM, then it’s 2 years experience in another U.S. jurisdiction. I would imagine it’s better to grind it out in NY for 5 years instead of wasting time with the LLM (and still needing 2 years, “post call,” experience).

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  • 4 weeks later...
nocturnalrelativism
  • Law Student

I'm pretty sure New York, Massachusetts, and California accept civil law degrees. At least that's what my professors told me. There's definitely 3 states that accept the civil law degree and I THINK it's these ones.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Conge
  • Lawyer
On 3/23/2022 at 12:04 PM, nocturnalrelativism said:

I'm pretty sure New York, Massachusetts, and California accept civil law degrees. At least that's what my professors told me. There's definitely 3 states that accept the civil law degree and I THINK it's these ones.

I don't think that is correct, at least for NY: 

https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/NY Bar Exam Elibility 2020-21 UPDATED.pdf

"Those who have completed a traditional law degree of 3 or more years in common law in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Israel have typically been approved to take the NY bar exam based on their foreign law degree alone and without a US LLM because their first law degrees meet the durational, substantive and other requirements.

...

Foreign legal education in civil law does not meet NY BOLE’s substantive requirement."

If you study at McGill, or do the one year JD at a civil law school, then NY might consider your degree as "mixed", and let you sit for the exam, but I don't think a pure civil law degree will qualify.

 

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nocturnalrelativism
  • Law Student
20 minutes ago, Conge said:

I don't think that is correct, at least for NY: 

https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/NY Bar Exam Elibility 2020-21 UPDATED.pdf

"Those who have completed a traditional law degree of 3 or more years in common law in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Israel have typically been approved to take the NY bar exam based on their foreign law degree alone and without a US LLM because their first law degrees meet the durational, substantive and other requirements.

...

Foreign legal education in civil law does not meet NY BOLE’s substantive requirement."

If you study at McGill, or do the one year JD at a civil law school, then NY might consider your degree as "mixed", and let you sit for the exam, but I don't think a pure civil law degree will qualify.

 

Oh interesting, seems like you're right! It's weird though the dean at UdeM and a couple professors said NY... maybe they meant if you tack on another year to finish with a JD then, like you said

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  • 8 months later...
OceanBlue
  • Applicant

My advice is to just apply and go to a law school for your JD in the state where you want to practice, and do everything in your power so that a law firm there will sponsor you to work post-graduation. 

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