Refugee Immigration

Canada has signed a treaty to the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. Every year Canada provides permanent residence to 30,000 refugees in the refugee immigration program. It has two main components that are the Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program which run and administrated outside of Canada and the second one is In-Canada Refugee Protection Process.

By the convention, a refugee is a person who is being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, membership of a particular social group, nationality,  or political opinion.

This type of person needs protection in Canada whose background, removal to their country of nationality or residence would subject them to the possibility of tortured and bullied, risk of cruel or risk of life, and unusual treatment or punishment.

There is a majority of approved refugees are granted asylum status in Canada and they make their claim at a Canadian port of entry or at an inland Canada Immigration Centre office.

Once a CIC officer makes the decision that a refugee protection claimant is eligible to be passed, then the claim is given to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), here a hearing takes places before an independent tribunal comprised of Refugee Protection Division members who determine whether the claimant is a Convention refugee or a person in need of protection.

The hearing although non-adversarial in nature usually takes place in the presence of the applicant’s legal counsel and the government’s refugee claims officer. If approved the claimant may apply for permanent residence from within Canada. The process generally concludes in about 18 months.

Before the hearing in IRB, the claimants can be entitled under Canadian law to obtain student authorization and employment authorization. 

The claims referred to the IRB sometimes are not eligible for the individuals of certain categories.