Appeal

Immigration Appeal Division of the Immigration Refugee Board

The Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration Refugee Board is a court of justice, or tribunal, to take refused applications for permanent residents including refused spouses, dependent children, and parents. Similarly, some Immigration Refugee Board (Appeal Division)’s cases are filed after a sitting at a related tribunal, the Immigration Division of the Immigration Refugee Board. Such cases may include cases where material misrepresentation or criminal activity was determined to have occurred. There is a time limit to file at the Immigration Refugee Board (Appeal Division). This can be 30 or 60 days from the (usually) refused decision.

Types of Appeals for Permanent and Temporary Residents

Some cases at the IAD are presented with the option of alternative dispute resolution, an informal meeting. The goal of ADR is to try to settle a case without the need for a formal hearing. Formal hearings are adversarial which means that a government lawyer may question witnesses for the purpose of showing a witness’ answers are not genuine. A good lawyer should be able to understand the issues as seen by the Member at the IAD, and also, provide the client with some understanding of how the Member views the case.

Another type of appeal includes that of residency obligation. These types of appeals are sometimes triggered at a Canadian port of entry when a person with a permanent resident card may have failed to prove that they acquired the minimum days of residency required to maintain permanent resident status. Other times a visa office disposing of an application for a travel document negatively may trigger a right of appeal to the IAD. Parent sponsorships that are refused (due to lack of money, or health problems) also end up at the IAD. Similarly refused spousal/common-law sponsorships can be appealed to the IAD. Similarly, divorces of convenience (i.e. divorcing your sponsor and then marrying another person) comprise part of the IAD’s caseload.

The best advice is to avoid the need to proceed to the Immigration Refugee Board (Appeal Division); do not roll the dice on your application by doing it yourself (unless your case is extremely straightforward). DIY’ers often waste time by having to take their refused case to the IAD where extended discussions of a DIY application consist of interrogation about the origin of information that ended up on a government form.

Legal Appeal Process

The process of an immigration appeal involves a few steps after receiving a refusal letter. In general, the process includes the following steps:

1. consulting an immigration appeals lawyer to help determine the legal grounds and documents needed for an immigration appeal,
2. writing an application and immigration appeal letter within 30 days of receiving the refusal letter,
3. submitting the application for a review,
4. awaiting a response to be admitted (or not) for a hearing,
5. completing the hearing itself and,
6. receiving the hearing decision.

To know more, consult us here about how to appeal an immigration decision in Canada.

Canadian Immigration Appeal Division Processing Time

canada immigration appeal processing timeGiven the multiple steps involved in the appeal process, (writing a legal brief for an appeal, submitting an application, awaiting admissibility for a hearing, attending the hearing, and receiving a decision) the processing time can take approximately 180 or more.