Appealing Rejection of Refugee Claim

Appealing the refusal of your refugee case and the lawyer that you choose for doing your refugee appeal is one of the most important decisions.

First, you must be aware that you only have 15 days from the date you receive the refugee refusal decision (on your refugee claim) to initiate the appeal process in Federal Court.

If you do file your refugee appeal within the 15 days window, your removal order is automatically stopped. If you fail to file the appeal in time, your removal order becomes enforceable, which means that the Immigration people can now contact you and put you in Pre-Removal Risk Assessment process.

The second most important thing to remember is the fact that many refugee lawyers, to our knowledge, do not bother to get a transcript of what happened and what was said during the hearing. The Refugee Board records everything on a disk. It is your (or your lawyer's job) to contact the Board and get the disk from them and have it transcribed on paper through a professional agency.

The transcription is important because quite often mistakes are made by the Board Member in rejecting your case and you would not be able to prove these without having the disk transcribed into written format so you can use it as evidence. It is frequently the case that you can find contradictions between what was said during the hearing and what you see on the refusal decision.    

Procedure - Appealing Refusal of Refugee Claim

The process starts with filing the initial Notice of Application (commonly known as Notice of Appeal). Once the Notice is filed, your lawyer then has 30 days (there are exceptions) to file what is called an Application Record - the booklet which contains all the evidence you want to use including the Transcripts (attached to your affidavit) and all the arguments your lawyer wants to make.

Upon filing of the Application Record, the lawyer for the Government (Department of Justice) then has 30 days to file their evidence and opposing arguments.

Both sides' arguments and evidence are then sent to a Judge of the Federal Court who reviews the file and decides if your case is strong enough to merit an oral hearing. If the Judge decides so, your lawyer (and the opposing lawyer) will then be given a date to appear and make oral arguments.

If the Judge agrees with your lawyer, your case will then be sent back to the Refugee Board for a new hearing.

For more details on general information about appeals refer to the Immigration Appeals section of our site as many things are common in both because both type of appeals are made to the Federal Court.

How Long Appeal Process Takes?

Refugee appeals, generally speaking, take about 4 to 6 months, depending on how busy the Court is.

Your Best/Last Chance 

You should remember that the refugee appeal is your best chance of success (obviously second to the Refugee Hearing itself).

If you lose the appeal, you will be put into the Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) process, where your chances are lower.

By choosing an experienced refugee appeal lawyer, you will be doing yourself a great favour. Think about it!!! If your case is rejected twice, the PRRA officer, who will be the third person to review your case, will say "this person was rejected twice; why should I do it any differently. The Federal Court rejected his case, why should I act any different." 

Therefore, choose your refugee appeal lawyer carefully. If you win your appeal, you dont have to pay anymore for PRRA and/or a Humanitarian & Compassionate application.

For a free half hour consultation and a preliminary evaluation of your refugee appeal, call us at (416) 365-9473 or in emergencies only (416) 454-0068 or click on contact us.