Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) Considerations – Assessment and Processing

Colin R. Singer
August 29, 2016

The Program Objectives

It is worth mentioning that discretion remains a valuable element of Canada’s immigration program. It benefits the clients who use this program. In addition, it is consistent with the objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

The authorities have provided officers with humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) discretion to enable them to demonstrate some flexibility for approving deserving cases that the legislation cannot typically cover. As such, officers would need to exercise this discretion without believing that it conflicts with other parts of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) or the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

It is worth highlighting that the humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) decision-making process is a highly discretionary one. As such, it leads to the consideration of whether the application warrants a special grant of an exemption from a requirement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

In addition, invoking sections A25 and A25.1 (refer to the sections that follow) is an exceptional measure. Thus, officers would not be able to view this as merely an alternate means of applying for permanent residence in Canada.

In most cases, a humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) assessment considers circumstances and / or factors that could be sufficiently compelling to allow the authorities to provide the requested exemption.