Receiving a rejection on a spousal sponsorship or partner sponsorship application can be very disappointing and stressful. However, it does not mean that all hope is lost! An individual may still have a chance to have the decision re-assessed by appealing to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).

The role of the IAD is to hear appeals on various immigration matters involving Canadian citizens or permanent residents. These include matters relating to sponsorship applications, removal orders and residency obligations.

If your spousal or partner sponsorship has been rejected and you wish to appeal this decision, the following 7 steps will guide you through the process of appealing to the IAD.

Starting a Spousal or Partner Sponsorship Appeal

A sponsorship appeal can be brought to the IAD by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who made an application to sponsor a spouse/partner to immigrate to Canada following a refusal of the application by an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officer.

There are bars to appealing a sponsorship application to the IAD in situations of inadmissibility, which is where an applicant has been found to be unable to enter Canada on grounds of serious criminality, organized crime, misrepresentation, violations of human rights or other security grounds as assessed by the immigration authorities.

Step 1: Filing the Notice of Appeal

An applicant will be notified that the sponsorship application has been refused by way of a refusal letter sent by the IRCC outlining the written reasons for the refusal. The Canadian sponsor has 30 days from the day of receiving the refusal letter to appeal to the IAD. The Canadian sponsor will then be required to complete the Notice of Appeal Form found on the IAD website. Once the form is completed, it must be submitted along with a copy of the IRCC refusal letter to the IAD office that serves the province or territory where the Canadian sponsor resides.

You can either send the completed form and refusal letter through email or through mail. Either way, you must ensure that the IAD office receives the required documents before the 30-day deadline. If the IAD requests further information from you regarding your appeal, you must ensure that you respond to the requests within the timeframe provided by the Division.

Step 2: Receiving the Appeal Record

The Appeal Record is a set of all documents containing all relevant information relating to the decision made by the IRCC officer in your application. The IAD will request the Appeal Record from the Minister who must provide the record to you or your counsel and to the IAD within 120 days of requesting the record.

Step 3: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Conference

ADR conferences are informational meetings where the parties (in this case you, your counsel, and the Minister’s counsel) meet to discuss issues relating to the appeal including obtaining any clarification on unclear matters. ADR conferences provide parties with an avenue to reach a mutually beneficial resolution with the purpose of avoiding taking the matter to a hearing. The IAD may decide to refer your matter to an alternative dispute resolution conference if it finds that your matter can be resolved without the need to attend a hearing.

Step 4: Scheduling a Hearing Date

If your appeal matter involves more complex issues of facts and law, it might not qualify for an ADR conference. Instead, the IAD will schedule a hearing date that you would be required to attend before the IAD.

The IAD hearing will provide the parties with an opportunity to present oral and documentary evidence. You will also be able to call any witnesses to testify to your case. If you have retained a legal representative, the IAD will contact your counsel to schedule a hearing date. You and your counsel will receive a Notice to Appear which contains important information such as the time, date and place of your hearing. If you have been scheduled for a virtual hearing, the Notice to Appear will also provide information on accessing the virtual hearing. If you have not retained a legal representative, the IAD will contact you directly for any matters regarding schedule and an IAD officer will be available to explain the process to you.

Step 5: Preparing for your Hearing

This stage of the process involves preparing for your case, which should begin as soon as you have your hearing date. You and your counsel, if available, will be required to gather any documentary evidence that supports your case. All supporting documents and evidence are gathered in a documentary disclosure package.

As per the IAD rules, all documentary evidence provided in the disclosure package must be in either English or French. If your documents are not in English or French, you will be required to have the documents translated by a certified translator. The IAD provides additional rules for disclosure packages which you will be required to comply with.

The documentary disclosure package must be submitted to the IAD and to the Minister’s counsel no later than 20 days before the hearing or by the date indicated on the Notice to Appear. You will be able to send the documentary disclosure package either through mail or email. It is recommended that you allow an extra 20 days if you will be mailing your disclosure package.

Step 6: Attending your Hearing

It is important that you and any witnesses that will be attending arrive ahead of the hearing time and are prepared to begin. The hearing will begin with an introduction from the panel who will then call the sides to begin their testimonies. As a general rule, the appellant (Canadian sponsor) will be the first to testify. The appellant will be asked questions by the Panel or the Appellant’s representative. After the questions are completed, the Minister’s counsel will also have an opportunity to ask the appellant further questions. After the appellant and the witnesses have all been questioned, the parties will be given a chance to make their submissions providing an explanation of why the evidence shows or does not show that the appeal should or should not be allowed. Sometimes, the panel requests that further submissions are made in writing and submitted at a later date.

Step 7: Receiving your Decision

After the conclusion of your hearing and after all submissions have been made, the Panel will generally provide an oral decision regarding the case. At times, the Panel will reserve a decision after a hearing, in which case you will receive the decision and reasons by mail no more than 60 days after the hearing ends.

The IAD panel may decide to allow or dismiss an appeal. If your appeal is allowed, this means that you have won your case and the IRCC’s decision to refuse your case is overturned. Your matter will then be referred back to the IRCC to continue processing your sponsorship application. If your appeal is dismissed, this means that the IRCC’s decision to refuse your application stands as is. If this is the case, you may wish to contact a legal representative to discuss the availability of other options to challenge the refusal decision.

How can we help?

Due to the varying complexity of appeal cases, it can be difficult to navigate one’s way around such matters. As a result, hiring an experienced immigration lawyer can be an important matter to consider. The Immigration Law Firm of Matthew Jeffery has over 20 years of experience and specializes in handling immigration appeals with high success rates. Fill out the Free Sponsorship Appeal Assessment form to see if we can help you with your sponsorship appeal.