The First 72 Hours After a Bill C-12 Ineligibility Letter
If you are reading this because a letter arrived saying your refugee claim is ineligible under section 101(1)(b.1) or 101(1)(b.2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, or a procedural fairness letter marked "redetermination – ineligibility", two things are true at once: the letter is serious, and it is not necessarily final. Tens of thousands of these letters have gone out under the new one-year rule. What you do in the first three days matters more than anything you did before it arrived.
What the letter actually decides
An ineligibility determination means an officer decided your claim will not be referred to the Refugee Protection Division. That is the tribunal that would otherwise hear your case on its merits. Your claim has not been "cancelled" because you are not a refugee. Nobody has decided that. An officer has decided you don't get the hearing, and that you may instead be limited to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA), a much narrower process. That distinction is the whole reason judicial review exists: decisions of federal officers can be reviewed by the Federal Court for legal error, factual error, and unfairness in the process.
The clock: 15 days
For decisions made inside Canada, the application for leave and judicial review must generally be filed within 15 days of the day you were notified. Weekends count. Waiting to "see what happens" is the single most damaging thing a letter recipient can do. An extension of time can be requested, but it is discretionary, never a plan.
Three things to do first
- Preserve every document. The letter itself, the envelope, any procedural fairness letter that came before it, your response to it, and notes of every interaction with officials, with dates. The date of notification determines the deadline. Proof of when you received the letter can matter.
- Write down your timeline. When you entered Canada, when and where you made your claim, and every step since. Eligibility under the new provisions often turns on dates. Errors about dates are exactly the kind of mistake a court can fix.
- Speak to counsel who does Federal Court work, this week. Not every immigration practitioner litigates. Immigration consultants cannot represent you in Federal Court. Ask directly: "Have you filed applications for leave and judicial review on these provisions?"
What about removal?
Filing for leave does not automatically stop a removal in every circumstance. Where removal becomes imminent, a motion to stay removal can be brought in Federal Court, but stays are urgent, evidence-heavy motions that go far better with counsel already in place. This is another reason the first 72 hours matter.
Families
Each family member with their own determination generally needs their own application, including children, who act through a designated representative. A family that files for one member and waits on the others can lose deadlines they didn't know were running.
Once the immediate deadline is under control, the next question is what actually went wrong in the decision. See the officer errors that make a s.101(1)(b.1)/(b.2) decision reviewable, or the overview at Bill C-12 ineligibility and judicial review.
This article is general legal information about a new area of law, not legal advice about your case. Deadlines and procedures depend on your specific facts.