Canada's immigration refusal letters will now explain why you're denied
Immigration refusal letters from Canada will now be more transparent with applicants.
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), as of July 29, refusal letters will include an officer’s decision note for certain applications.
These notes will explain why an applicant was refused and will come from the officer who made the final decision.
“This change makes it easier for clients to get their personal information on their application,” reads a notice from Tuesday. “This supports our commitment to delivering our services with greater transparency.”
Officer decision notes will be included on Canada immigration refusal letters, including applications for extension, for:
- Temporary resident visas, excluding electronic travel authorizations and temporary resident permits
- Visitor records
- Study permits
- Work permits
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The IRCC says it will add more types of applications in the future. For now, people who apply using the new version of the IRCC portal won’t receive officer decision notes.
“If an application is refused, we will proactively include officer decision notes with the refusal letter sent to the applicant or authorized representative,” reads the notice.
“We may decide to exclude certain portions of the notes on a case-by-case basis due to security, privacy or other concerns.”
This update comes after an Information Commissioner of Canada report last year found that 78 per cent of federal access-to-information requests were directed to the Department of Immigration in 2022 to 2023. Eight per cent went to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), while the rest went to other government departments.
“IRCC’s inability to implement an effective system that would allow its clients to retrieve immigration-related information continues to significantly impact the ATIP operations of both IRCC and CBSA,” reads the report. “Information related to immigration applications must be made available directly to these clients, outside of the access to information system.”
According to the report, IRCC and CBSA requests have more than doubled since 2017, from 71,700 to 203,476. It also found that the departments took an average of 90 days to respond to requests and had a backlog of 51,192 unanswered requests.