Under the provisions specified in Canada’s immigration law, individuals can approach the Federal Court of Canada for reviewing decisions pertaining to immigration. A lawyer would need to apply for judicial review on the individual’s behalf.
In some cases, the individuals will need to apply for review by the Federal Court within the specified deadlines. For instance, if the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) rejects the individual’s claim for refugee protection, the individual would need to file an application to ask for a Federal Court review within 15 days after the issuing of the decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
It is worth mentioning that any review carried out by the Federal Court remains a two-stage process. In the first stage, the Court will review the documents related to the case. The applicant would need to show the Court that the authorities made an error while giving their decision. Alternatively, the applicant would need to show that the decision given by the authorities was not fair or reasonable. If the Federal Court issues a leave, it signifies that the Court has agreed to examine the decision in depth. For this reason, the first stage also goes by the name of the ‘leave’ stage.
In the second stage, the applicant and the applicant’s lawyer would need to attend an oral hearing before the Court. In this hearing, they would need to explain why, in their view, the original decision given by the authorities was incorrect. People also refer to the second stage as the ‘application for judicial review’.
In the case of decisions made by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), a request for review by the Federal Court would automatically put a removal order on hold. Thus, the applicant can continue to stay in Canada until the Court makes its decision.
The applicant’s lawyer has the onus for arguing the case before the Federal Court. The Court can agree with the original decision. Alternatively, the Court could also return the case to the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) for re-hearing. However, this does not mean that the authorities would reverse the original decision.
In case the Court finds that there was no error in the decision of the case, the applicant would need to leave Canada within 30 days. This would place the applicant under a removal order.
