The Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) hears appeals on immigration-related matters, including sponsorships, removal orders and residency obligations.
Making an Appeal before the IRB
- Sponsorship Appeals
If Citizenship and Immigration Canada has refused the application of a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident to sponsor the immigration of a close family member to Canada, the sponsor may appeal to the IAD.
- Removal Order Appeals
A permanent resident of Canada, a refugee, or a foreign national with a permanent resident visa who has been ordered removed from Canada, may also appeal to the IAD.
- Residency Obligation Appeals
The law requires permanent residents to be physically present in Canada for at least 730 days out of every five years. If a permanent resident is outside Canada and a visa officer with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) finds that he or she has not met this residency obligation, the person may lose permanent resident status. The permanent resident may appeal the CIC decision.
Public Proceedings
Information which is used in IAD proceedings is treated as public information and will appear in IAD decisions. The decisions may be published on the Internet. The public and the media will be given a copy of the information and the decisions, upon request, unless a confidentiality order is obtained or unless exceptional circumstances apply.
Initiatives
In order to make the immigration appeal process simpler, faster and more efficient, the IAD is testing new ways of managing immigration appeals. It has launched a number of pilot projects in the regions. If, in the assessment of the pilots, it is determined that one or more of these initiatives would help the IAD achieve its goals of processing appeals more efficiently, they will be adopted as part of the regular IAD process. The Initiatives section provides information on each initiative.