Refugee Appeal Division (RAD)

The Refugee Appeal Division is where a refused refugee claim is reviewed. It is part of the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent tribunal, and not part of IRCC.

What the RAD does, and what it does not

It reads the decision the Refugee Protection Division made on your claim and decides whether that Division got it right. It can confirm the decision, substitute its own, or send the claim back to be heard again. Most appeals are decided on the written record, by a single member, without anyone appearing.

It is not an appeal in the sense most people mean. You are not starting again and you are not usually retelling your story. You are arguing, in writing, that a decision already made was wrong — in law, in fact, or in how it read the evidence.

New evidence is the narrow part

The RAD will only consider evidence that arose after the RPD's decision, that was not reasonably available at the time, or that you could not reasonably have been expected to have presented. That test is stricter than it sounds, and it is where most appeals are won or lost: documents you had and did not file are generally not admissible now.

Not every refused claim can be appealed here

The law places several categories of claim outside the RAD altogether. Two of them are visible in the decision itself — a finding that the claim had no credible basis, or that it was manifestly unfounded — and either closes this route. Where the RAD is not available the alternative is an application for leave and judicial review at the Federal Court: a different forum, a different test and a different timetable. Establishing which of the two you are on is the first question, and it is not one to answer from a general description, including this one.

Two deadlines, not one

An appeal is started by filing a notice, and it is then perfected by filing the record that supports it. Those are two separate deadlines, both counted in days from the date on the decision, and both strict. The notice the RPD gave you states yours. Missing a step does not always end an appeal, but it turns a straightforward filing into an application to extend time.

After the RAD

A RAD decision is final within the Board. What follows is an application for leave and judicial review at the Federal Court, which is a different process in a different forum on a shorter clock again.

Where Skylam comes in

A refused claim is a short window and a technical one, and the first question is whether an appeal is the right route at all. Skylam helps you read the decision you have received, identify which review route is open to you, and work out what has to be assembled before the time runs.

Where a matter calls for representation at a hearing, we will say so and work alongside immigration counsel. Whichever route it turns out to be, we help you see clearly where you stand and what happens next.