A refusal is not the end. Missing the deadline is.
Every refused application carries a clock, and most are counted in days — not weeks. Find yours in under a minute, whatever was refused.
To file for judicial review of a decision made in Canada, or a RAD appeal after a refused refugee claim.
What changed
Refusals are more transparent than they were a year ago. If you know what to ask for.
Extended to most permanent residence decisions, filed from inside or outside Canada. H&C remains excluded.
The “high-risk environment” limit was deleted. Six months of bank statements is now the working standard.
Visitor, super and transit visas, visitor records, study permits and work permits — including extensions.
Know the difference
An appeal is not a judicial review. Confusing them is the expensive mistake.
The distinction decides everything: whether anyone will look at new evidence, whether you get a hearing, and whether the decision-maker can substitute their own judgment for the officer's.
The IAD and RAD re-decide the merits. They hear testimony, weigh humanitarian factors, and can allow an appeal on facts that arose after the refusal — an income that has since risen, a relationship that has since deepened.
The Federal Court asks a narrower question: was the decision reasonable, and was the process fair? It generally cannot receive new evidence and does not substitute its own decision — a win sends the file back to a different officer.
A fresh application built around the recorded concerns. For most temporary resident refusals this is not the fallback — it is the strongest route, because it is the only one where new evidence gets full weight.
What decision-makers actually write
The reasoning behind the checkboxes. Filter by stream.
Refusal letters tick categories; the notes explain them. These are the findings that appear most often, and what each really means once it is in your file.
Procedural fairness
A fairness letter is not a refusal. It is your one chance to prevent one.
IRCC issues a procedural fairness letter when a concern is serious enough that deciding without hearing from you would be unfair — document authenticity, a possible misrepresentation, an eligibility problem, or an inadmissibility finding. The letter sets a deadline, usually between seven and thirty days. Everything turns on what you file inside it: the specific allegation answered point by point, primary documents where authenticity is doubted, and nothing extraneous. Volume is not persuasion, and a late response is generally treated as no response at all.
Why a misrepresentation allegation is different from every other ground
Most refusals cost you an application. A finding of misrepresentation under IRPA s. 40 costs you 5 years — inadmissible to Canada, every application in that period refused on that basis alone, and the finding visible to other countries that ask.
It does not require an intention to deceive. An omission an officer considers material is enough. If your letter uses that word, treat the response as the most consequential document you will ever file — and do not write it alone.
What a refusal review includes
We rebuild around what the officer wrote. Not around what we'd prefer they had.
A refusal is evidence. It tells you precisely where a decision-maker stopped being satisfied — and a second application that doesn't move that specific line is a second fee for the same answer.
We start from the officer’s own notes, not the checkbox letter — and order records only where the notes are absent, redacted, or the file predates the transparency change.
Which forum, which clock, and the date it closes. If judicial review is the right route, we say so and refer you to counsel rather than let the window lapse.
What is fixable with evidence, what needs a changed plan, and what means you should not refile yet. The third category is the one that saves money.
New evidence answering each recorded concern, exhibits an officer can navigate, and a submission letter that walks them through it.
Every prior refusal declared, in every future application. Non-disclosure is treated far more seriously than the refusal itself.
Sometimes the right advice is to wait, strengthen the underlying facts, and file once. We will tell you when that is the case.
By stream
Refused in a particular category? Start where the rules live.
Purpose, ties and funds — with the document finder and stay calculator.
Visitor visaProof of funds, the source-of-funds rules, PAL/TAL and PGWP consequences.
Study permitWhere a refusal carries a real appeal rather than a judicial review.
SponsorshipWhere the refusal turns on admissibility rather than the strength of the file.
TRPBring the letter. We'll tell you what it actually says.
A refusal review reads the decision-maker's notes against what was filed, confirms your forum and your deadline in writing, and tells you plainly whether to appeal, respond, reapply, or wait. Brampton, London, or remotely anywhere in Canada.
Reviewed August 2026 — general information only, not legal advice, and no consultant–client relationship is created by reading this page. Deadlines shown are the statutory defaults and run from when you were notified, which is not always the date printed on the letter; several forums deem receipt a set number of days after that date. Confirm your own dates before relying on them. Appeals to the IAD and RAD and applications to the Federal Court are conducted by lawyers — where that is the right route we will say so and refer you. Source: canada.ca, officer decision notes.
Refusal review
Refused? Find out why before you reapply.
Send a few details. A licensed RCIC reads your profile personally, then replies with the routes that genuinely fit, the ones that do not, and the consultation fee and next available times.
- Read personally by a CICC-licensed consultant — never a bot, never a salesperson
- A written shortlist of the programs you realistically qualify for
- Consultations are fee-based; you get the fee and available times by reply
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.