Refugee Protection Division (RPD)
The Refugee Protection Division decides refugee claims made in Canada. It is part of the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent tribunal, and it is not part of IRCC — the department processes applications, and this Division decides claims.
What the Division decides
One question, in substance: whether you are a Convention refugee or a person in need of protection. It is decided at a hearing, usually by a single member, on the account you give and the evidence you file. The Minister may take part in some claims and does not in most.
What it does not decide is anything about your immigration status generally. A claim is not an application for a permit, a visa or permanent residence, and making one neither renews nor replaces any status you already hold.
How a claim reaches it
A claim is made either at a port of entry as you arrive or at an office inside Canada. An officer decides whether the claim is eligible to be referred; if it is, the Division receives it and the timetable begins. Two things follow quickly — a written account of why you are claiming, and a hearing date — and both arrive with dates attached.
The timetable is measured in days
Every step here runs on a schedule set by regulation, counted in days from the referral or from the notice you were given, and the periods are not the same for every claim. The notice the Board sent you states yours. Read it the day it arrives and work from it: an extension is an application the Division decides, not a form you file.
What happens after a decision
A claim that succeeds makes you a protected person, which is the basis for applying for permanent residence. A claim that is refused may be appealable to the Refugee Appeal Division — not every refused claim is, and which route is open to you depends on how the claim was made and on what this Division found. Where the RAD is not available, the alternative is an application for leave and judicial review at the Federal Court, on a shorter clock again.
Where Skylam comes in
A refugee claim is decided on the account you give and the record you build around it, and the timetable starts as soon as the claim is made. Skylam helps you understand which process you are in, identify the deadlines that begin immediately, and prepare the history and the documents the Division will expect to see.
Where a matter calls for representation at a hearing, we will say so and work alongside immigration counsel. What we can do from the first conversation is make sure nothing is lost to a date nobody read.
Requirements
Who qualifies
The Refugee Protection Division is not a programme with eligibility criteria. What follows is what has to be true for a claim to reach it, and what it will expect from you once it has.
A claim can be referred where
- You are in Canada. A refugee claim cannot be made from abroad; resettlement from outside the country is a different route entirely.
- You have not already had a claim decided or found ineligible in circumstances that bar a further one.
- No provision of the law or agreement excludes your claim from being referred. Whether one does turns on where you entered, with whom, and what has happened before — and it is decided by an officer rather than by the Division.
What the Division will expect
- A written account of why you are claiming protection, filed by the date on your notice.
- Identity documents, or an explanation of why you do not have them.
- Supporting evidence — anything that corroborates the account — disclosed to the Division by its deadline rather than produced at the hearing.
- Certified translations of anything not in English or French.
- An interpreter, if you need one. Ask early; the Board arranges it.
- A designated representative, where the claimant is a minor or cannot appreciate the nature of the proceedings.
Before you do anything else
Find the notice the Board sent you and read the dates on it. Everything on this page is secondary to that. Then read the Division's own page, linked below: the rules governing these claims are set by regulation and revised, and that page is the authoritative statement of what is required and when.
Requirements change without notice. Check IRCC’s own page
Every case turns on its own facts. Book a consultation and a licensed consultant will tell you where you stand on Refugee Protection Division (RPD).
Book a ConsultationLast updated 26 September 2026
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