Immigration Appeal Division (IAD)

The Immigration Appeal Division hears appeals about permanent residence and removal. It is part of the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent tribunal, so an appeal is heard by somebody who had no part in the decision being appealed.

What it hears

Refused family sponsorships. Where you have sponsored a relative and the application was refused, the appeal belongs to you as the sponsor in Canada rather than to your relative abroad. See Family Sponsorship for the application itself.

Residency obligation decisions. Where a permanent resident has been found not to have met the obligation — see Permanent Residents — the finding can be appealed here.

Removal orders made against permanent residents and certain other people.

Minister's appeals of some decisions of the Immigration Division.

Not everybody has an appeal here

Access to this Division is restricted, and the restrictions turn on your status and on the reason for the decision rather than on how strong your case is. Some people with a removal order have no appeal to the IAD at all, and their route is an application for leave and judicial review at the Federal Court instead. Establishing which of the two you are on is the first thing to do, not the second.

It can consider more than the law

This is what makes the IAD unusual, and it is the part most people do not know. On many appeals the Division can allow the appeal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds even where the original decision was correct in law, taking into account all the circumstances of the case and the best interests of any child directly affected. That is why an appeal that looks hopeless on the paperwork sometimes is not, and why the evidence about your life matters as much as the evidence about the rule.

The deadline is short, and it is strict

An appeal is started by filing a notice with the Division within a period counted in days from the day you received the decision, and that period is not the same for every kind of appeal. The decision you were sent states yours. Read it the day it arrives; an extension is something the Division decides, not something you claim.

Where Skylam comes in

An appeal to this Division follows a decision that has already gone against you, and the time to act on it is short. Skylam helps you read the decision you have received, assess whether an appeal here is the route that is open to you, and identify what has to be gathered before the time runs out.

Where a matter calls for representation at a hearing, we will say so and work alongside immigration counsel. Establishing the right forum quickly is the part that cannot wait, and it is the part we can start on today.