Refugee Claim Rejected in Canada: Your Options and Deadlines

A rejected refugee claim is not always the end of the process, but the window to act is short and it starts running the day you receive the written reasons. Some options close permanently if a deadline passes. Others are barred for 12 months. A few are not available to you at all depending on how your claim was decided.

This guide sets out the five routes that may be open after the Refugee Protection Division refuses a claim, the deadlines attached to each, and, just as importantly, who is excluded from each one. If your hearing has not happened yet, our guide to refugee hearings in Canada covers that stage instead.

The first route most people should consider is an appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division, explained on our refugee appeals page. If you have no appeal right, or your appeal has already failed, the remaining options are judicial review, a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, an application on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, or a temporary resident permit.

What a Negative Refugee Decision Means

A negative decision means the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board decided you are not a Convention refugee and not a person in need of protection under sections 96 and 97 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Refusals usually rest on one of a small number of findings: the member did not accept your testimony as credible, your identity was not established to the member's satisfaction, the evidence did not establish a well founded fear of persecution, you did not seek state protection where it was reasonably available, or there was a part of your country where you could have lived safely, known as an internal flight alternative.

Which of these the member relied on matters a great deal for what you do next. A refusal turning on a legal error or a misreading of the evidence is very different from one turning on a credibility finding, and it changes both your prospects on appeal and the kind of new evidence that could help.

Deadlines After a Refugee Claim Is Rejected

Every deadline below runs from the day you received the written reasons, not from the day you found a representative. If the reasons were sent by regular mail, you are treated as having received them seven calendar days after the mailing date, even if the envelope sat unopened. Days are calendar days.

The 45 day figure for the appellant's record is the one most often reported incorrectly. The regulation itself sets 30 days, but a standing practice notice extending the time for perfecting an appeal has moved it to 45 days since September 2020. The 15 day deadline for the notice of appeal has not changed.

Appealing to the Refugee Appeal Division

The Refugee Appeal Division reviews the Refugee Protection Division's decision for errors of law, errors of fact, or errors of mixed law and fact. It is stronger than judicial review in one respect that matters: the Refugee Appeal Division can substitute its own decision and grant you protection outright, rather than sending the file back for another hearing.

It can do three things. It can confirm the refusal. It can set the decision aside and substitute the determination it considers should have been made. Or it can refer the matter back to the Refugee Protection Division for a new hearing, with directions.

Most appeals are decided on paper. An oral hearing is possible only where new evidence has been admitted and that evidence raises a serious issue about your credibility. The bar for admitting new evidence is high: it must have arisen after the rejection, or not have been reasonably available, or be evidence you could not reasonably have been expected to present. There is no government filing fee.

Who Cannot Appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division

Several categories of claimant have no appeal right at all:

• Designated foreign nationals.
• Claimants whose claims were withdrawn or declared abandoned.
• Claims found to have no credible basis, or to be manifestly unfounded.
• Claimants who entered under an exception to the Safe Third Country Agreement.
• Claims referred back after certain Pre-Removal Risk Assessment decisions.
• Decisions to cease or vacate protected person status.

If you fall into one of these groups, judicial review is your only challenge, and the consequences of that are covered directly below. It is worth confirming your appeal rights before assuming you have none, because the categories are narrower than they sound.

Filing and Perfecting Are Two Separate Steps

Filing the notice of appeal starts the appeal. Perfecting it means delivering the appellant's record, which contains the decision and reasons, any transcript you rely on, your documentary evidence, the legal authorities you cite, and a memorandum setting out the errors and pointing to exactly where in the reasons or transcript each one appears. The memorandum is capped at 30 pages typed on one side.

Missing the second deadline can end the appeal even though the notice was filed on time. If you need more time, the application for an extension has to include the document itself, so you cannot request extra time and send the record later.

Judicial Review at the Federal Court

Judicial review is not an appeal. The Federal Court does not decide whether you should have protection. It decides whether the decision under review was reasonable and whether the process was fair. If you succeed, the usual outcome is that the file returns to the board for a fresh decision by a different member.

You must apply for leave, meaning a judge's permission for the case to proceed. Leave is refused in the majority of immigration cases, and if it is refused the matter ends there with no reasons given. New evidence is generally not permitted, because the court reviews the record that was before the original decision maker.

One practical point that affects who you hire: only lawyers may appear before the Federal Court. A licensed immigration consultant can represent you at the Immigration and Refugee Board and can help you work out whether a court application is worth making, but cannot conduct the application itself.

When Removal Is Automatically Stayed and When It Is Not

This is the single most misunderstood point after a refused claim, and getting it wrong can be irreversible.

An automatic stay of removal applies when you seek leave and judicial review of a Refugee Appeal Division decision that rejects or confirms the rejection of your claim, and even that is subject to exceptions. It runs until the court process concludes.

There is no automatic stay when you seek judicial review of a Refugee Protection Division decision, a negative Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, or a refused humanitarian and compassionate application. In those cases, filing at the court does not stop a removal that has been scheduled. You would need a separate stay motion, argued on urgency, showing a serious issue, irreparable harm and a balance of convenience in your favour.

The effect of this is uncomfortable but important to understand. The claimants with no appeal right, who are pushed straight to judicial review, are also the claimants without the automatic stay that protects everyone else during the court process.

Pre-Removal Risk Assessment After a Failed Refugee Claim

A Pre-Removal Risk Assessment looks at whether you would face risk if returned now. Because your risk has already been assessed once, the assessment is largely restricted to evidence that arose after the rejection or that you could not reasonably have presented at your hearing. A threat received after the decision is the kind of evidence it contemplates.

Three limits shape it. You cannot apply on your own initiative: the Canada Border Services Agency notifies you when you become eligible, generally once removal is being arranged, and you then have 15 days to apply and a further 15 days to file evidence. A failed claimant is barred for 12 months from the final negative decision, subject to limited ministerial exemptions where country conditions have seriously deteriorated. Claimants refused under the Safe Third Country Agreement cannot apply at all.

A first application generally carries a statutory stay of removal while it is decided. Repeat applications usually do not. Approval rates for failed claimants are low, because the officer is reviewing risk that a board member has already considered, which is a reason to treat it as one part of a strategy rather than the strategy. Current program details are published on the government's Pre-Removal Risk Assessment guidance.

Humanitarian and Compassionate Application After a Refused Claim

An application on humanitarian and compassionate grounds asks for permanent residence based on your circumstances rather than on risk: establishment in Canada, family and community ties, the best interests of any children directly affected, and the hardship removal would cause.

The same 12 month bar applies from the final negative refugee decision. There are two exceptions. An application may proceed within the 12 months where it involves the best interests of a child directly affected, or where there is a risk to life because the country of origin cannot provide adequate health or medical care.

The critical thing to understand is that filing does not pause anything. A humanitarian and compassionate application does not stay removal, and processing takes long enough that a person can be removed from Canada while the application remains open. It is a genuine route to status, but it is not a shield.

Temporary Resident Permit for Failed Refugee Claimants

A temporary resident permit allows someone who does not meet the requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to remain in Canada temporarily, for anywhere from one day to three years. It is entirely discretionary: an officer weighs your reasons for staying against the reasons you are inadmissible or ineligible.

Failed refugee claimants face the same 12 month bar here as they do for the other two applications. Permits can be cancelled at any time and must be renewed before expiry. In some circumstances, continuous residence in Canada as a permit holder can eventually open a route to permanent residence, which is worth assessing rather than assuming.

What Happens to Your Removal Order After a Refused Claim

A conditional removal order was issued against you when you made your claim. It does nothing while the claim is alive. Once the claim is finally rejected and the time to appeal has passed, it comes into force.

Most failed claimants hold a departure order. If you leave Canada within 30 days of it becoming enforceable and confirm your departure with the Canada Border Services Agency, the order is satisfied and you are not barred from applying to return in future. If you do not, it automatically converts into a deportation order, and a deportation order means you need an Authorization to Return to Canada before you can come back at all.

That conversion is silent and automatic. It is one of the most consequential things that can happen to someone who simply stops responding after a refusal, and it is a common reason people later find themselves dealing with a CBSA call-in notice or, in more serious cases, an admissibility hearing or detention review.

Common Mistakes After a Refugee Claim Is Rejected

• Counting from the wrong date. The clock runs from receipt of the written reasons, and mailed reasons are deemed received seven days after mailing.
• Treating the appeal as one deadline. The notice at 15 days and the record at 45 days are separate, and missing the second ends the appeal.
• Assuming a court filing stops removal. The automatic stay covers judicial review of a Refugee Appeal Division decision only.
• Waiting out the 12 month bar without a plan. The bar does not pause removal, so a person can be removed long before the bar lifts.
• Filing a weak appeal to buy time. An appeal that identifies no locatable error is dismissed, and it consumes the months you had.
• Going quiet after the refusal. Non-compliance converts a departure order into a deportation order and adds an admissibility problem to a status problem.

How SEP Immigration Helps After a Refused Refugee Claim

The first thing we do is read the reasons properly, because what the member actually relied on determines which of these routes is realistic and which would waste the only time you have. We handle appeals and applications before the Immigration and Refugee Board directly, and where a Federal Court application is the right answer we say so plainly and refer you to a lawyer rather than taking a file we cannot finish.