Hold a work permit? Since 4 September 2026 you can take a course of six months or less without a study permit.
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Work permit refusal — what to do next — document checklist
Prepared by CHK Immigration Services Inc.
Work permit refusal — what to do next — document checklist
The deadline is the thing, and work permits carry the trap most often sprung: an extension refused inside Canada can leave you 15 days, not 60. There is no appeal for you and none published for your employer. A positive labour market assessment was never a guarantee — IRCC assessed you separately.
9 documents 8 that decide it Cost Free · $50 if you go to the Federal Court
Preserve the clock
How long do you actually have?Where files fail here: Assembling evidence for weeks while the judicial review limit quietly expires.
Fifteen days if it was an in-Canada extension
This is the category where the limit is most often blown, because people assume a foreign national always gets 60 days. The test is where the matter arose, not where the applicant is.
Neither you nor your employer has an appeal
The Act gives no appeal right for work permits, and the employer is not the applicant. On the ESDC side there is no published review or appeal of a negative labour market impact assessment either.
Recover the real reasons
What did the officer actually think?Where files fail here: Working from the tick-boxes on the refusal letter, which say almost nothing.
Read the officer’s decision note
Released with the refusal since 29 July 2025. It tells you whether IRCC refused on the assessment, on your ability to do the job, or on whether you would leave — three entirely different fixes.
Request your GCMS notes under the Privacy Act
Free and in your own name. Shows whether the officer doubted the genuineness of the job offer or your capacity to perform it.
Diagnose the defect
Was something missing, missed, or wrongly decided?Where files fail here: Skipping straight to “reapply” without knowing which of the four it was.
A positive assessment never guaranteed the permit
The labour market assessment and the work permit are two decisions by two departments. IRCC assesses you separately and refuses on valid assessments routinely — usually on whether you can actually do the work, or whether you will leave.
Choose the route
Reapply, reconsider, review, or fix the facts first?Where files fail here: Picking the route by habit rather than by what the diagnosis supports.
Check whether the assessment is still valid
Positive decisions run six months, and the permit application has to be filed inside that window. An assessment can quietly expire while a refusal is being worked on, which changes the problem entirely.
Answer the ground actually cited
Does the response meet the reason given?Where files fail here: More bank statements against a refusal that was never about money.
Qualifications and licensing, if that was the ground
“Cannot perform the work” is answered with credential assessments and provincial licensing — not with more reference letters from the same employer.
Employer documentation, if genuineness was the ground
The employer has no standing to appeal but supplies the evidence that cures a genuineness finding: payroll remittances, financial statements, the real shape of the business.
Ties and intention to comply
Work permit refusals still turn on whether you will leave when required. Open permit holders are not exempt from that.
General information, not legal advice. This checklist is prepared by CHK Immigration Services Inc. and was checked against the Government of Canada’s published requirements on the date shown. Requirements change and vary by case, and IRCC generates a personalised document list for many applications — where that list or canada.ca differs from this document, they govern.
Lead times are planning estimates, not guarantees. Police certificates and credential assessments in particular vary widely by country and provider. IRCC makes all final decisions.
CHK Immigration Services Inc. is an immigration consultancy with offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Our consultants are regulated by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC). Nothing in this document creates a client–consultant relationship.
Current version: https://chkimmigration.ca/checklists/work-refusal
Checked against the official IRCC page for this application in September 2026. Where that page disagrees with anything here, it wins. General information, not legal advice. Lead times are planning estimates, not guarantees — police certificates and credential assessments in particular vary widely by country and provider. IRCC also generates a personalised checklist for many applications, and that list governs. IRCC makes all final decisions.
Having the documents is not the same as having a persuasive file.
Every item above can be present and correct and the application can still be refused — on intent, on a date that does not reconcile, or on a lead time that ran out. A licensed consultant reads it the way an officer will.
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CHK Immigration Services — Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (CICC). Offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Submitting this form does not create a client–consultant relationship; IRCC makes all final decisions.