Help With Removal Orders

Help! I’ve received a Removal Order!

If you have received a notice from the government informing you that you must leave Canada, and giving conditions on when and how you must do this, you have received a removal order. A removal order is issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) or the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and they can be issued to any Canadian permanent resident or foreign national who is in Canada, whom they believe to be inadmissible for any reason. There are a variety of reasons you could receive a removal order, though, if this happens to you, it is very important to comply with the removal order, and try to understand why you were ordered to leave, to understand if there is any further action you can take to appeal the order, and eventually return to Canada. Therefore, this article will try to help you understand your situation if you receive a removal order, and explain the potential nest steps you could take, to be able to return to Canada again.

Types of Removal Order

1. Departure Order

If you receive a departure order, you must leave Canada within 30 days. You must also inform a CBSA officer that you are complying with a removal order, so that they can record the date you exit, and provide proof that you have complied with the order. If you do these two things, you will not have trouble entering Canada in the future.

2. Exclusion Order

If you receive an exclusion order, you must leave Canada immediately, and inform a CBSA officer that you are complying with the exclusion order, for the same reason as above. With an exclusion order, you cannot return to Canada for 12 months after departing. This is why it is so important to ensure you comply with your obligation to inform an officer. The date you left Canada cannot be determined if you do not report it as you leave, and you will have much more issue trying to re-enter Canada, because you cannot prove you remained outside of the country for at least 12 months. Please note, if an exclusion order has been issued for misrepresentation, you cannot return to Canada for five years. Once the time period of the ban has passed, if you complied with the exclusion order in the first place, you will be permitted to re-enter Canada without any special application.

3. Deportation Order

Unfortunately, if you receive a deportation order, you can never return to Canada, without first applying for an authorization to return to Canada document. You must leave Canada immediately if you receive a deportation order, and inform a CBSA officer as you leave.

Refugee Applications and Removal Orders

If you are applying for refugee status in Canada, you will always be issued a conditional removal order. This is not necessarily a removal order. Rather, if your application for refugee status is approved, the removal order will be lifted. Whereas, if you application is refused, the removal order will take effect. You have the right to appeal the decision and make an attempt to be permitted to stay in Canada, though, if you have exhausted all your options, you must leave Canada immediately to comply with the removal order.

Administrative Deferral of Removals (ADR)

This happens when an individual who is the subject of a removal order, but this individual is from a country which is in a state of crisis, and the individual would be subject to undue harm if forced to return to their country of origin. ADR is meant to be a temporary measure when immediate action is needed to temporarily defer removals in situations of humanitarian crisis in specific countries. ADR is not meant to protect individuals from their specific circumstance at home, it is to protect individuals from having to return to war-torn countries. An ADR is currently in place for certain regions in Somalia (Middle Shabelle, Afgoye, and Mogadishu), the Gaza Strip, Syria, Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Burundi. Once the situation in a country stabilizes the ADR is lifted and the CBSA resumes removals for individuals who are inadmissible to Canada and have a removal order in effect.

Temporary suspension of removals (TSR)

Very similar to the ADR program, the TSR program stops the enforcement of removal orders in countries where there is a risk to the entire civilian population. For example, armed conflict within or an environmental disaster resulting in a substantial temporary disruption of living conditions, would result in a TSR. Canada currently has a TSR in place for Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq. Essentially, the difference between the TSR and the ADR are that an ADR is generally put in place for a short period of time.

Please note, individuals who are not allowed into Canada as the result of criminality, international or human rights violations, organized crime, or security issues can still be removed despite the ADR or the TSR.

Claims for Protection

This is an avenue for avoiding your removal order which is geared towards providing individuals protection on the grounds they face specific and compelling circumstance, which should stop them from having to return to their country of origin, as they would face undue harm.

Appealing a Removal Order

Appeals happen at the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). Appeals must be filed within 30 days of receiving the removal order. At this point, a member of the IAD will review the appeal. If the appeal is credible, the removal will be suspended. This is referred to as a “stay.” If the removal is suspended, it will be re-considered at a later date. During this time, the individual must report regularly to the CBSA office.

A person may not appeal if they are inadmissible to Canada because of:

• a serious criminal offence punished in Canada by a term of imprisonment of at least six months
• involvement in organized crime
• security grounds, or
• violations of human or international rights

Contact Akrami and Associates

It is extremely important for you to abide by the requirements of the removal order given to you, in order for you to re-enter Canada. If you do not, then you will have to correctly analyze why you were issued a removal order and apply for an ARC if you feel like you are eligible to do so. Applying for an ARC can be extremely stressful and difficult to pursue on your own, given the certain circumstances. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you seek out professional and experienced help to understand the entirety of your removal order, and diagnose possible solutions. Here, at Akrami & Associates, we work and have experience with many different immigration issues. We have helped many of our clients with removal orders and applying for ARCs. If you need assistance, please feel free to contact Akrami & Associates at our office at 416-477-2545 for more information or if you would like to book a consultation with an immigration professional for more advise.

With Akrami & Associates, there is always a way!