On December 10, 2020 the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) released a practice notice on “RPD and RAD processing for individuals applying under government of Canada public policies”.

​​​​​​​​​​​​This practice notice sets out how the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) and the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) will schedule and hear refugee claims and appeals for those individuals who have made applications under two temporary government of Canada Public Policies (the Public Policy).

This practice notice comes into force on December 14​, 2020.

(Excerpt from IRB Practice Notice)

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is administering a special program to recognize certain refugee claimants who were front-line health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these individuals have pending refugee claims or appeals before the IRB.

Processing the claims and appeals of these individuals at the IRB at the same time as IRCC is processing their applications under the Public Policy would result in an inefficient use of resources and a duplication of effort. It would also unnecessarily require those individuals to spend time and money pursuing two streams to obtaining status in Canada.

Therefore, as described below, the IRB has agreed to put these claims and appeals on hold pending the outcome of the application under the Public Policy.

More details – Learn more here >>