2. Completing your appeal

2. Completing your appeal

Once you have filed your notice of appeal, you must complete (perfect) the process by submitting certain documents and information. ​

You must complete your appeal by providing your appellant's record to the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) no later than 45 days after the day on which you received the written reasons for the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) decision. ​You must provide two copies of your appellant’s record (or only one copy if submitted electronically) to the RAD Registry in the regional office that sent you your RPD decision.

Process

The RAD generally makes its decision without a hearing, on the basis of the submissions and the evidence provided by the parties (you and the Minister, if the Minister intervenes). In certain circumstances, the RAD may allow you to present new evidence that the RPD did not have when it made its decision. If the RAD accepts your new evidence, it will consider the evidence in its review of your appeal. It may also order an oral hearing to consider this new evidence. If so, you and the Minister will receive a notice to appear for a hearing.

The Minister is opposing my appeal. What do I do?

If the Minister decides to oppose your appeal, you will receive a notice of intervention along with any documents the Minister is providing as evidence. The Minister may also give you and the RAD an intervention record that includes documents like the ones listed in the appellant's record. The Minister can provide documents at any time before the RAD makes a decision on your appeal. You have the right to reply to the Minister's documents; you will be given 15 days to reply to them.

Replying to the Minister’s Documents

If you decide to reply to the Minister’s documents, you must provide a reply record. The reply record must have consecutively numbered pages (i.e. 1, 2, 3...) and contain the following documents, in this order:

  1. All or part of the transcript of the RPD hearing, if it supports your reply and you have not already provided it. Note that you must arrange to have the transcript produced from the recording that was provided to you with the RPD decision. You also need to provide a statement that the transcript is accurate, signed by the person who made it.
  2. Any additional documentary evidence that supports your reply and that you have not already provided. This evidence does not have to meet the requirements of subsection 110(4) of the IRPA.
  3. Legal authorities: This means any law, case law or other legal authority that supports your reply. For legal cases that are publicly available, you can provide references and links (for example, links from CanLII) instead of hard copies. If the case is not publicly available (for example, because it is from a foreign jurisdiction or it is very recent), provide a hard copy with the relevant portions highlighted.
  4. A memorandum: You are allowed to reply only to what the Minister wrote in the intervention documents. Your memorandum must not be longer than 30 pages if single-sided or 15 pages if double-sided.

All of the documents in your reply must be typed (not written by hand) in 12-point or larger font, on letter-size paper (216 mm by 279 mm, or 8½ inches by 11 inches). All photocopies should be clear and made on letter-size paper.

You must provide a copy of your reply to the Minister at the address shown in the notice of intervention, and then provide the reply to the RAD along with proof that you gave a copy to the Minister. Your reply must be received by the RAD no later than 15 days after the day on which you received the Minister’s documents.

What is the Minister’s address?

The address you need to use for the Minister depends on whether the Minister has intervened in your case:

  • If the Minister intervened at the RPD, you must send your documents to the address of counsel for that Minister. This address was provided to you during the RPD proceedings.
  • If the Minister intervened at the RAD, you must send your documents to the address in the notice of intervention.
  • If the Minister did not intervene at the RPD or at the RAD, then you must send your documents to the following address:

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
    Reviews and Interventions Office
    25 St. Clair Avenue East, Suite 200
    Toronto, Ontario M4T 1M2
    Fax: 416-952-2420

Completing the appellant’s record

The RAD Appellant's Record Form is the document in which the appellant presents his appeal to the RAD.

We strongly encourage appellants to use it in order to present the best possible appeal to the RAD.

If you choose not to use the Appellant's Record Form, then you must complete your appellant's record according to the instructions Preparing the appellant's record.