An appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) starts when the Division receives a notice of appeal together with the decision being appealed. For a refused sponsorship, a removal order or a Minister's appeal, that has to happen within 30 days. For a residency obligation decision made outside Canada, the limit is 60 days. Whether a person has a right of appeal at all is a separate question, set out in who can appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division.
The filing deadline is only the first of three time limits. Once the notice is in, someone else has to produce the appeal record, and the record's arrival starts a disclosure period for both sides. All three come from the Immigration Appeal Division Rules, 2022, in force since 14 January 2023, and the rule numbers below refer to them.
How long does each step take under the 2022 Rules?
Each lane below is one kind of appeal. The three bars in a lane are the three clocks, drawn to the same scale of days. The time between them, such as the days the Division takes to send its request for the record, is not drawn.
Sponsorship appeal
Removal order made at an admissibility hearing
Removal order made at an examination
Residency obligation appeal
Minister's appeal of an Immigration Division decision
The record periods are much shorter than they used to be. Under the old rules the Minister had 120 days to produce a sponsorship or residency record and 45 days for a removal order record, and some guides still quote those figures. The old periods apply only where the notice of appeal reached the Minister or the Immigration Division before 14 January 2023.
When is a notice of appeal on time?
Rule 16 counts to the day the Division receives the notice and the documents that go with it, not the day they were sent. Rule 40(1) then says how receipt is fixed:
- a paper document is received on the date the registry office stamps on it;
- an electronic document is received on the date and at the time shown by the electronic means used to send it.
Under rule 41, a time limit that ends on a Saturday, a Sunday or another day the Board's offices are closed moves to the next working day. A notice mailed on day 28 that is stamped on day 33 is late, even though it left in time.
One route has no countdown at all. Rule 14 lets a person appeal a removal order made at an admissibility hearing by handing the notice of appeal to the Immigration Division member who made the order, at the end of that hearing. The Immigration Division then passes the notice and the order to the IAD.
What goes in with the notice of appeal?
Rule 13(1) ties each kind of appeal to one document that has to travel with the notice:
- A sponsorship appeal: the officer's decision refusing the permanent resident visa, and the written reasons if there are any.
- A removal order appeal: the removal order.
- A residency obligation appeal: the officer's decision on the residency obligation, and the written reasons if there are any.
Three other requirements sit in the same envelope. Rule 7(3)(a) requires the appellant's contact information, and that of counsel if there is one, to arrive with the notice. Rule 18(1) requires the notice to state whether the appeal will run in English or French. Rule 13(2) allows anything else that could help the Division resolve the appeal quickly. The IRB's own filing page adds that the Division can dismiss an appeal or declare it abandoned if the appellant or counsel does not answer its letters, which is why a change of address is reported on the Notification of Client Contact Information form.
Who prepares the appeal record, and what is in it?
The appeal record is the file the IAD works from: the decision and the papers behind it. The appellant does not build it. Rule 20 assigns it to the Minister or to the Immigration Division, depending on where the decision was made, and rule 21 requires a copy to go to the appellant as well as to the Division.
| Kind of appeal | Prepared by | What the record holds, besides a table of contents |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsorship | The Minister, r. 20(1) | The refused permanent resident visa application; the sponsorship application and the sponsor's undertaking; any document the Minister has that bears on the applications, the refusal or an issue in the appeal; the written reasons |
| Removal order made at an admissibility hearing, and Minister's appeals | The Immigration Division, r. 20(2) | The removal order, if any; a transcript of the admissibility hearing; every document accepted as evidence at that hearing; the written reasons |
| Removal order made at an examination | The Minister, r. 20(3) | The removal order; any document the Minister has that bears on the order or an issue in the appeal; any written reasons for making the order |
| Residency obligation | The Minister, r. 20(4) | Any document the Minister has that bears on the residency decision or an issue in the appeal; the officer's decision and written reasons |
For a sponsorship or residency record, the Minister's clock only starts once the Division asks for the record in writing. When the Minister sends the record to the Division, rule 21(2) requires a written statement of how and when the appellant was given a copy.
What can the IAD do when the record is late?
A late record does not freeze the appeal. Rule 23 gives the Division two options:
(a) require the Minister or the Immigration Division, as the case may be, to explain why the appeal record is late and give reasons why the appeal record should be accepted late; or (b) schedule and start the hearing and decide the appeal without the appeal record or with only part of the appeal record.
Immigration Appeal Division Rules, 2022, r. 23
The second option means a hearing date can be fixed even while part of the file is still missing. The choice belongs to the Division, and neither party can require it.
What happens after the appeal record arrives?
The record's arrival is the moment the parties' own evidence starts to count. The rules set the order of what follows:
- Each party that intends to rely on a document provides it to the other party and to the Division, with a written statement of how and when the other party received it (rules 24(1) and 25).
- A party with no documents to use files a written statement saying so (rule 24(2)).
- Both of those have to be received within 60 days after the party receives the appeal record (rule 26).
- A document that answers the other side's evidence can come later, but must be received at least 30 days before the date fixed for the proceeding (rule 27).
- Anything in another language goes in with an English or French translation and the translator's signed statement (rules 33 and 34).
A document that misses those limits cannot be used at the hearing unless the Division allows it. Under rule 29(2) the Division weighs its relevance and probative value, whether the limit could have been met with reasonable effort, any prejudice to the other party, and how quickly the request to use it was made. If an appellant provides neither documents nor the written statement within the 60 days, rule 30 lets the Division find the appeal abandoned, start the proceeding on the material it has, or hold off on fixing a date until the appeal is ready.
For many spousal and other sponsorship files, the next stop after disclosure is an informal resolution meeting; the order of that meeting is described in the ADR conference at the IAD, turn by turn. Karb Law's pages on sponsorship appeals and residency obligation appeals describe the firm's work at that stage and at the hearing.
Can the IAD accept a notice of appeal after the deadline?
The Rules give the Division the power to. Rule 4(d) lets it extend or shorten a time limit before it has passed, and rule 4(e) lets it extend any time limit after it has passed. Rule 4 does not list the factors the Division weighs, and the request is made to the registry office like any other communication under rule 6. An extension after the fact is the Division's decision and not a right, which is why the IRB's filing page presents the 30 days as the time in which the notice and the required documents have to reach the IAD.
Karb Law is led by Angelina Shuster, a paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. Representation before the Immigration Appeal Division, a tribunal of the Immigration and Refugee Board, is within a licensed paralegal's scope of practice. This article is general information about IAD procedure, not legal advice, and reading it does not create a paralegal-client relationship. To have a refusal letter, a removal order or an appeal record reviewed, the firm offers a free assessment.
