Deportation from Canada: Orders, Appeals, and Return

Deportation from Canada is the end point of an inadmissibility finding under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), and it takes one of three forms: a departure order, an exclusion order, or a deportation order. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) enforces removals; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) handles the paperwork around who can come back and when.¹ Which order you receive controls how long you are barred, whether you need special permission to return, and whether you have any right of appeal. Get the type wrong and you make the wrong decisions about what to do next.

The Three Removal Orders

The orders are ranked by severity. The ground of inadmissibility and the facts of the case determine which one the CBSA issues.

Departure Order

A departure order is the least serious. You have 30 days after the order becomes enforceable to leave Canada, and you must confirm your departure with a CBSA officer at the port of exit to receive a certificate of departure.¹ Comply properly and you can return later under the ordinary entry rules.

Miss either step and the departure order automatically converts into a deportation order. No hearing, no notice. If you leave without checking in with CBSA at the border, or if you stay past 30 days, you have effectively upgraded your own removal to the permanent category. This is the single most avoidable mistake in the process.

Exclusion Order

An exclusion order bars you from returning to Canada for one year. If the exclusion order was issued for misrepresentation, the bar is five years.² Once the barred period ends, you can apply to return without special permission, provided you meet the ordinary entry requirements. If CBSA paid for your removal, you have to reimburse those costs before being considered for re-entry.³

Deportation Order

A deportation order is permanent. You cannot return to Canada at any point in the future without an Authorization to Return to Canada (ARC) issued by IRCC.⁴ Deportation orders are standard for serious criminality, security threats, organized crime, and cases where a departure order was not complied with. ARC approval is discretionary, not automatic.

Why You Can Be Found Inadmissible

Inadmissibility is the legal finding that you cannot remain in or enter Canada. The IRPA groups the grounds into categories, and the category matters because it drives which order you get and whether you have any appeal.

Criminality under Section 36 is the most common serious ground. Serious criminality applies to permanent residents and foreign nationals convicted of a Canadian offence carrying a maximum sentence of at least ten years, or where the actual sentence imposed was more than six months, and it extends to equivalent convictions abroad. General criminality, which applies only to foreign nationals, is triggered by a single indictable offence conviction or two separate convictions under any federal law.⁵ Serious criminality strips your right to appeal a removal order.

Misrepresentation under Section 40 is the ground that catches people off guard. Providing false information or withholding facts that could lead to an error in administering the Act carries a five-year ban, and the statute does not require the misrepresentation to be deliberate.⁶ Failing to disclose an old visa refusal, misstating employment dates, or omitting a family member from a form can all trigger it.

Non-compliance under Section 41 is the everyday ground for temporary residents. Overstaying a visitor visa, working without a permit, failing to attend a mandatory interview, or a student who stops attending their designated school all fall inside it.⁷

Other grounds cover health conditions that pose a public danger or excessive demand on health and social services (Section 38, with exemptions for spouses, common-law partners, and children of Canadian sponsors, and for Convention refugees and protected persons),⁸ financial inability to support yourself and your dependents (Section 39),⁹ security threats including terrorism and espionage (Section 34),¹⁰ human and international rights violations (Section 35),¹¹ and organized criminality including people smuggling, trafficking, and money laundering (Section 37).¹²

Fighting or Delaying a Removal Order

A removal order does not always mean immediate departure. What is available to you depends on your status and the ground.

Immigration Appeal Division

Permanent residents, foreign nationals holding a permanent resident visa, and protected persons can appeal a removal order to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board.¹³ The IAD can cancel the order, stay it on conditions, or dismiss the appeal.

The right disappears in serious cases. You cannot appeal to the IAD if you were found inadmissible for serious criminality (an actual sentence of six months or more, or an offence carrying a maximum term of ten years or more), organized crime, security, or human rights violations.¹³ Foreign nationals without permanent resident or protected person status generally have no IAD appeal right at all.

Federal Court Judicial Review

If the IAD is unavailable or has dismissed your appeal, you can seek judicial review in the Federal Court. You must apply for leave within 15 days of being notified of the decision if you are in Canada, or 60 days if you are outside Canada.¹⁴ Judicial review does not automatically pause removal. If the Refugee Appeal Division made the underlying decision, the removal order is paused; if the Refugee Protection Division made it, the order stays enforceable and you may need a separate stay.¹⁵

Pre-Removal Risk Assessment

If you fear persecution, torture, or a risk to your life in your home country, you may be eligible for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA). A CBSA officer provides the form. You have 15 days to submit it if you received it in person, or 22 days if it was mailed. Missing the deadline means you will be removed.¹⁶ If a previous refugee claim or PRRA was rejected, only new evidence that arose after that rejection is admissible.

Humanitarian and Compassionate Application

An H&C application asks IRCC to consider exceptional circumstances such as establishment in Canada, the best interests of children, or hardship in your home country. Filing one does not delay your removal. You still leave on the scheduled date, and IRCC processes the application and notifies you of the result in writing.¹⁷ The common assumption that H&C buys time is wrong.

Administrative Deferral of Removal

The CBSA occasionally imposes a temporary deferral for removals to countries hit by a humanitarian crisis that endangers the entire civilian population. These respond to sudden changes, not to long-standing systemic problems.¹ People with serious inadmissibility findings on security or criminality grounds do not benefit from these deferrals.

Before an Order Is Issued: Restoring Status

If your temporary status has expired but no removal order has been issued, you may be able to restore status rather than face removal. IRCC must receive the restoration application within 90 days of the date your status expired, and you must have met all the conditions of your original permit before it lapsed and not worked illegally during the gap.¹⁸ Foreign workers with a letter of support under the Provincial Nominee Program are exempt from the 90-day deadline. For everyone else, missing that window eliminates the option.

Detention During the Process

CBSA can detain you at any point during removal if an officer has reasonable grounds to believe you are a danger to the public, are unlikely to appear for removal, or if the officer is not satisfied of your identity.¹⁹ At a port of entry, officers can also detain you to complete an examination or on suspicion of inadmissibility for security, criminality, or organized crime.

The Immigration Division reviews the reasons for detention within 48 hours, again within seven days if you remain in custody, and at least every 30 days after that.²⁰ At each review, the member considers whether the original reasons still apply and whether alternatives such as a deposit or reporting conditions would work.

What the Removal Itself Looks Like

You need a valid passport for travel. If yours has expired or is unavailable, apply to your home country’s consulate for an emergency travel document. Bring your birth certificate, national identity card, or other government-issued proof of citizenship to the removal interview along with contact details, including a residential address and phone number, in the destination country.

At the interview, the CBSA officer reviews your departure plan and decides whether you travel unescorted or with a CBSA escort. If you have no flight booked, CBSA can arrange travel and seek reimbursement afterward.³

Failing to appear for the interview or the scheduled removal triggers a Canada-wide arrest warrant. Complying with the process keeps future options open. At the airport or border crossing, present yourself to a CBSA officer before boarding to have your certificate of departure signed and stamped. That certificate is your legal proof of compliance, and CBSA then updates its national database and notifies IRCC to close your file.¹

Coming Back After Removal

Being removed does not necessarily mean you can never return. The route back depends on the order and the ground.

Authorization to Return to Canada

If you have a deportation order, or an exclusion order still within its barred period, you need an ARC before applying to come back. The application requires a processing fee, and the reviewing officer weighs the reason you were removed, how much time has passed, and any change in circumstances.² If CBSA paid for your removal, reimburse those costs first.³

Criminal Rehabilitation and Deemed Rehabilitation

If your inadmissibility was based on a criminal conviction, two pathways can clear it. Formal criminal rehabilitation can be filed once five years have passed since the completion of your entire sentence, including fines, probation, and parole; approval removes the criminal inadmissibility.²¹

Deemed rehabilitation is automatic and requires no application. If you had a single conviction for an offence that would carry a Canadian maximum sentence of less than ten years, and at least ten years have passed since completion of the sentence, a border officer may treat you as deemed rehabilitated.²² The offence must not have involved serious property damage, physical harm, or weapons. If the officer is not satisfied, you would need formal rehabilitation instead.

If you have convictions inside and outside Canada, you generally need both a record suspension for the Canadian conviction and an approved rehabilitation application for the foreign one before the inadmissibility is resolved.²¹

Effects on Other Travel

A Canadian removal order does not stay inside Canadian borders. The five Migration 5 countries (Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) share immigration fingerprint data. When any of them checks your fingerprints, a match can reveal your full immigration history, including removal orders, failed asylum claims, and known identity documents.²³ A removal from Canada can surface when you try to enter the U.S. or apply for a U.K. visa, and the reverse holds too.

Inside Canada, a recorded IRPA violation cancels your NEXUS membership and disqualifies you from reapplying for ten years, measured from the date the enforcement action is recorded rather than the date of the underlying event.²⁴ Any trusted traveller plans go with it.

1
Canada Border Services Agency. Enforcing Removals from Canada
2
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Authorization to Return to Canada – Eligibility
3
Canada Border Services Agency. CBSA Updates Cost Recovery for Removing Inadmissible Individuals
4
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Authorization to Return to Canada
5
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 36
6
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 40
7
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 41
8
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 38
9
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 39
10
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 34
11
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 35
12
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 37
13
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Appeal Your Removal Order
14
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 72
15
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Apply to the Federal Court of Canada for Judicial Review
16
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Pre-Removal Risk Assessment – How to Apply
17
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Guide 5291 – Humanitarian and Compassionate Considerations
18
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Restore Your Status and Get a Work Permit
19
Justice Laws Website. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – Section 55
20
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Detention Review Process
21
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Rehabilitation for Persons Who Are Inadmissible to Canada Because of Past Criminal Activity
22
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Deemed Rehabilitation
23
GOV.UK. Biometric Data-Sharing Process (Migration 5 Biometric Data-Sharing Process)
24
Canada Border Services Agency. What Happens If You Lose Your NEXUS Membership