Where this stands, and why the dates come first
Protection is the one area of this site where the timing of a step can matter more than its merits. Two limits make a claim ineligible regardless of how well founded the fear behind it is, and a person who learns about them late has no remedy at all.
Two time limits that end a claim before anyone reads it
The one year rule. If you entered Canada after 24 June 2020 and you make a claim more than one year after entry, the claim is ineligible. The year runs from the day after your first entry, so leaving Canada and returning does not reset it. This catches people who held status lawfully for years, as students or workers, and claimed only when their situation at home changed or their status here ran out.
The fourteen day rule. If you entered across the Canada and United States land border away from a port of entry, and you claim once that fourteen day window has closed, the claim is ineligible. Claiming inside it engages the Safe Third Country Agreement instead, which since 2023 covers the entire land border including the waters along it, so a claim inside the window is likely to be returned to the United States unless one of the listed exceptions applies. Waiting is not a strategy here, it is the trap. We read the window as closing at the end of the fourteenth day and we plan to the earlier reading, because the statute leaves the boundary arguable and the cost of being a day late is the whole claim.
The agreement does not reach every arrival. It applies to the land border. It does not apply to a claim made on arrival at an airport, or at a harbour port including a ferry landing, apart from a narrow in transit situation. If you arrived from the United States by air or by ferry, do not assume you are barred, because assuming it and delaying can run you into the one year rule instead.
Both grounds apply to claims made on or after the day Bill C-2 was introduced in Parliament, which we understand to be 3 June 2025. The statute fixes that date by reference to the Bill's introduction rather than by printing it, so we confirm it against the parliamentary record on any file where a few days either way would decide the outcome. The one year ground applies only to someone who entered after 24 June 2020, and the transitional rule governs the date of the claim rather than the date of entry.
Withdrawing or abandoning a claim closes the door permanently
A claim that has been withdrawn or abandoned makes any future claim ineligible. There is no second attempt, and that is why a missed form deadline is so serious on this branch.
Withdrawal is also now immediate in its effect. Where notice is given that a claim has been determined to be withdrawn, the removal order takes effect that day rather than after a period of grace. Where a claim is found abandoned instead, the order comes into force fifteen days later. Health coverage is cancelled on withdrawal and on an abandonment finding, though we do not claim the dates coincide precisely, because that is not published. Withdrawing to pursue something else is sometimes the right decision, and it is never one to take without advice about what it forecloses.
- Nothing here is scored, and nothing here is quick. A claim is decided on its own merits by an independent tribunal. The sixty day hearing timeline in the Regulations is expressly qualified by the tribunal's operational limitations, so it is not a promise.
- The burden of showing your claim is eligible is on you. The Act places it there expressly, and requires you to answer all questions truthfully. That is a different question from whether your claim succeeds, and it is decided first.
- A removal order is issued at the outset, and it is conditional. Where your claim is found eligible the order does not come into force while the claim is alive. Where the claim is found ineligible on the Safe Third Country ground it comes into force the day you are notified, and on any other ground seven days after the decision.
- Part of the governing statute is enacted but not in force, and it is split rather than wholly dormant. Several sections of the relevant Part came into force on assent, including the change that makes a removal order effective on the day a withdrawal is determined. Others, including the repeal of the designated country of origin scheme and the rebuilt intake process, wait on an order in council. So that scheme's machinery remains law, no country has been designated since 17 May 2019, and nobody currently loses an appeal because of it, but nobody should be told the repeal is in effect either.
- Parliament has given itself power to create exceptions to the two time limits, and has not used it. The same statute added a power to make regulations creating exceptions to both the one year ground and the fourteen day ground. None has been made, including for unaccompanied minors, so today the grounds apply without them. The power is worth knowing about, because it is the route by which the position could change for a client without any change to the Act itself.
- Humanitarian applications do not stop a removal. Filing one has no effect on removal arrangements. Only a favourable decision on it does. That distinction is frequently misunderstood and it is the reason people are removed with an application pending.
The three routes, and which question each answers
| Refugee claim | Humanitarian and compassionate | Pre removal risk assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The question asked | Are you a Convention refugee or a person in need of protection | Do compassionate circumstances justify permanent residence, including the best interests of any child directly affected | Would removal expose you to risk, on evidence that is new |
| Who decides | An independent tribunal | The Minister | A delegate of the Minister, on paper |
| When it is available | While you are in Canada and inside the time limits, and not otherwise ineligible | Any time, subject to the bars, though not while a claim is pending before the tribunal or its appeal division | Only once you are under a removal order in force, and only after the department notifies you that you may apply |
| Can it rely on risk | Risk is the whole question | No. The Minister may not consider the risk factors a refugee claim considers, and must consider hardship instead | Yes. Where a claim of yours was rejected you are limited to evidence that arose after that rejection or was not reasonably available then. If you never had a claim decided, that limit does not apply |
| Does it stop a removal | The removal order is conditional while the claim is alive | No. Only a favourable decision does | Yes. Notification itself stays removal, until one of the listed events |
| Fee | None listed | $660, or $1,260 with the right of permanent residence fee | None listed |
| Hearing | Yes, before a single member | No | Discretionary, and rarely held |
These are not interchangeable and the order matters. A humanitarian application cannot be built on the same risk a claim would have addressed, and a risk assessment cannot be started at will.
Refugee claims
How and where a claim is made, every ground of ineligibility, the Safe Third Country exceptions, the tests, the deadlines and the appeal.
See requirements → CompassionateHumanitarian and compassionate
What the Minister must examine, every bar including the twelve month one, and why filing does not stop a removal.
See requirements →Pre removal risk assessment
Who may apply and who is barred, the fifteen day window, and how notification itself stays a removal.
See requirements → A different routeBring your family
Where the answer is a family relationship rather than protection, sponsorship is a separate and unrelated process.
See requirements →Are you inside the time limits
These are the questions that decide whether a claim can be referred at all, before anyone considers what you are afraid of. They are worth answering today rather than after a decision has been made to wait.
Your situation
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