How to make a refugee claim in Canada depends on where the person is. A claim can be made at a port of entry, or from inside the country. Both routes lead to the same test, but the forms, deadlines and eligibility rules differ.
A refugee claim asks Canada to recognize that a person cannot safely return home. It is decided by the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board. Eligibility is screened first, and a claim that fails that screening never reaches a hearing.
This guide sets out the two ways a claim can be made and the deadlines that follow. It also covers the rules that make a claim ineligible before it is heard, including one that changed in 2025.
Two ways to make a refugee claim in Canada
A refugee claim can be made in two ways: at a Canadian port of entry, or from inside Canada after already entering. A port-of-entry claim is made to a CBSA officer at an airport, land border or seaport. An inland claim is made afterward, by someone already in the country.
An inland claim starts with an online application on the IRCC Portal, followed by an appointment at an IRCC office. Once that online application is started, it has to be completed within 90 days or it has to be started over.
Either route leads to the same body deciding the claim. What differs is the paperwork that comes first and the deadlines attached to it.
What is the deadline for the Basis of Claim form?
The Basis of Claim form has to reach the Refugee Protection Division within 45 calendar days of a port-of-entry referral, under the RPD's current practice notice. At a port of entry, a CBSA officer first decides whether the claim is eligible. An eligible claim is referred to the RPD, and the clock on the form starts from the day of referral.
The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations set 15 calendar days for this form, but the practice notice extends it to 45. The extension does not change the eligibility screening that happens first — only an eligible claim is referred onward to be heard.
The one-year rule for claims made since June 2025
For claims made on or after June 3, 2025, there is a one-year limit. A claim is ineligible if it is made more than one year after the person first entered Canada. Many people already in Canada on a study or work permit will not know about this change. It applies whatever status they held while here.
The rule reaches back to anyone who first entered Canada after June 24, 2020, even if they left the country and came back since then. It is the date of first entry after that point that starts the one-year clock, not the date of the most recent arrival.
Unaccompanied minors are exempt from this one-year rule. Everyone else covered by the rule is held to the one-year limit. A claim made more than a year after that first entry, where the entry was after June 24, 2020, cannot go forward.
Other reasons a claim can be ineligible
A claim can also be found ineligible on several other grounds, separate from timing. One is already holding Convention refugee status in another country the person can return to. Others are already having protected person status in Canada, or being subject to a removal order. A claim is also ineligible if the person has already claimed asylum in another country, or is inadmissible on security, criminality or human rights grounds.
An earlier Canadian claim that was found ineligible, rejected, abandoned or withdrawn also makes a new claim ineligible. So does entering from the United States along the land border, where the Safe Third Country Agreement applies.
That agreement was expanded across the whole Canada-US land border in 2023. Under it, a person entering from the United States at a land crossing is returned to the US. So is someone who crosses between official crossings and then claims within 14 days of that crossing. Four exceptions apply: having a family member in Canada, being an unaccompanied minor, holding certain documents, or a public interest exception.
If a claim is found ineligible, the person is referred to the CBSA for removal from Canada. The CBSA tells them whether they can apply for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment instead.
What does a claimant have to show at a hearing?
An eligible claim proceeds to a hearing, where the claimant has to show they meet one of two legal definitions. The first is a Convention refugee. That is someone who cannot return home because they have a good reason to believe they will be persecuted. The reason has to be their race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a social group.
The second is a person in need of protection. That means facing a danger of torture, a risk to life, or a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment on return. The guide to what happens at an RPD hearing explains how that hearing itself proceeds.
After an eligible inland claim's appointment, IRCC issues a confirmation of referral letter and a Refugee Protection Identity Document. That document proves the claim was made and gives access to the Interim Federal Health Program. IRCC holds the claimant's travel documents until a final decision is reached.
Representation and honesty in a claim
A refugee claimant has the right to be represented by counsel at their own expense. Someone who cannot afford counsel can apply to a provincial legal aid office for help. Representation is not required to make a claim.
A claimant does not have to hire anyone. Where paid representation is used, only members of a professional body may charge a fee. Those are lawyers, immigration consultants, notaries in Quebec, and paralegals in Ontario. The guide to checking an immigration consultant's licence explains how that status can be checked.
Claiming asylum is not a way to extend a stay in Canada without meeting the legal test. If Canada decides a person does not need protection, they have to leave. Giving false information on a claim can lead to a ban on returning.
While a claim is being decided
A refugee claim can take time to be decided. What a claimant can do while it is pending, including work, is governed by separate rules. The guide to working while a refugee claim is pending sets those out. The refugee services page has more on the process as a whole.
The eligibility rules above decide whether a claim is heard at all. Once a claim is eligible and referred, it moves into the hearing process described elsewhere in this series.
The short version
- A refugee claim can be made at a port of entry or from inside Canada, and each route has its own forms and deadlines.
- Claims made on or after June 3, 2025 are ineligible if made more than one year after first entering Canada, where that entry was after June 24, 2020. Unaccompanied minors are exempt.
- A claim can also be ineligible for reasons unrelated to timing, including prior protection elsewhere, a removal order, or the Safe Third Country Agreement.
- An ineligible claim is not heard; the person is referred to the CBSA, which advises on a possible Pre-Removal Risk Assessment.
- Representation by counsel is a right, not a requirement, and only licensed members of a professional body can charge a fee for it.
Every figure on this page is cited to the government source it was read from, and was checked on September 19, 2026. Rules change, and a source is the authority where this page and the source disagree. This guide is general information about how the process works, not immigration advice about your own situation, and reading it creates no consultant-client relationship.