Claiming asylum in Canada: the deadlines that now decide your claim
Since November 3, 2026, the regulations that reform Canada’s asylum system have been in force. Inside Canada, a claim now moves in two steps: first you send your information and documents through the IRCC Portal, then you formally make the claim before an officer at an in-person interview. If the claim is eligible, a 60-day time limit to complete it starts to run. And for the one-year rule, the date that counts is the date you submit in the portal, not the date of the interview.
This follows our October 16 article, written when the change had been announced but the text of the regulations was not yet known.
How asylum is claimed since November 3
The regulations set up a single online application process for all claims, with express time limits and a consequence for each failure to comply.
| Stage | What it requires | Consequence if you do not comply |
|---|---|---|
| 1. IRCC Portal | Enter your details and your family’s, answer the questions and upload an identity document for each person. If the application is complete, IRCC sets the date of the interview. | If IRCC asks for something and you do not send it by the deadline, it closes the file. Because no eligibility decision was made, you can apply again. |
| 2. Eligibility interview | Formally make the claim before an officer, who decides whether it is eligible. Everyone in the group brings original passports and documents. | If you miss it, IRCC closes the file. You can also apply again. |
| 3. Complete claim | Once the claim is found eligible, you receive a Notice of Application Due Date and have 60 days to complete it in the portal. | IRCC sends the claim to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) for abandonment proceedings. |
A person who claims asylum at a port of entry does so before the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and completes the claim in the same portal, with the same 60-day time limit. Previously, in that case, the limit was 45 days.
The time limit allows a single extension, of 30 days. You request it in the portal before the due date, and it applies to the whole family group.
The 60 days are not a formality. Along with the eligibility decision, the officer issues a conditional removal order, which is not enforced unless the claim is withdrawn, abandoned or rejected. And abandonment proceedings open on three grounds: not completing the claim by the due date, not sending what IRCC asks for, or missing an appointment with IRCC or the CBSA. As long as the IRB has not decided, you can stop them: by submitting the complete claim or the missing items, or by attending a new appointment.
The one-year rule: the portal date is what counts
The rule has a single time limit: one year from your first entry into Canada. A claim made after that year is ineligible. The three dates attached to it answer different questions:
- June 24, 2020: which entries count. The year runs from your first entry after that day.
- June 2, 2025: which claims it applies to. Those started after that day.
- March 26, 2026: when the Act became law. Although it is later, it reaches claims started after June 2, 2025.
An example: someone who first entered in March 2025 and starts a claim in May 2026 is outside the year, and the claim is ineligible.
Under the new process, the claim is only officially made at the interview. The regulations close that gap with an express exception, section 159.001: the ground does not apply to a claimant who, within the year, submits documents or information with a view to making a claim inside Canada. The official analysis published with the regulations gives the reason: the interview may be delayed, and someone who started the process in time should not be found ineligible because of the appointment date.
The exception has three limits:
- The year is counted from the first entry. If you entered more than once after June 24, 2020, the period runs from the day after the first.
- It applies only to the one-year rule. It does not reach the other grounds of ineligibility, and in particular it does not help someone who entered from the United States across the land border outside a port of entry. There, the 14 days are not a deadline to claim asylum but the line between two grounds: if you start the claim within 14 days of your entry, the Safe Third Country Agreement applies, the claim is ineligible and you are returned to the United States; if you make it after the 14 days, it is ineligible under the new rule. Both have specific exceptions.
- Minors have their own exception. A person under 18 who has no parent or legally responsible adult in Canada is exempt from both rules.
If the year is about to run out, what protects your eligibility against that ground is submitting in the portal within the time limit.
IRCC opens the process with a warning worth reading in full: claiming asylum is not a shortcut to staying in Canada longer, and if it is decided that you do not need protection, you may have to leave the country.
Declare all your family, wherever they are
Leaving a family member out of the claim can close the door on them years later. Three official texts say so:
- The asylum application. IRCC’s guide requires you to tell it about all your children, regardless of their age or where they live, even if you do not know where they are. And it warns that if you do not include them, they may not be able to immigrate to Canada later on. Your children’s age is locked in on the day you submit the claim: that date is used to assess whether they qualify as dependent children if you later apply for permanent residence as a protected person.
- The application for permanent residence. IRCC requires you to declare all your family members, even if they are not coming with you, so that they can be sponsored in the future: spouse or common-law partner, dependent children and their dependent children. They must also complete medical exams and pass background and security checks.
- The consequence. Paragraph 117(9)(d) of the Regulations excludes from the family class, subject to the exceptions it sets out, a family member who was not accompanying you and was not examined when you applied for permanent residence. The government itself describes it as a lifetime bar on sponsoring that family member. The public policy that allowed it in certain cases, including for protected persons, ended on September 10, 2026.
The underlying rule is broader than family. Section 40 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) penalizes misrepresenting or withholding material facts with five years of inadmissibility, a period during which you cannot apply for permanent residence. And section 109 allows refugee protection already granted to be vacated if it was obtained that way.
Work permit: in the same application
The regulations make permanent the current approach to issuing work permits to asylum claimants. You ask for one when you complete the claim, by answering Yes to the question “Would you like to request a work permit?”, with no separate application and no fee.
The permit has two conditions: you have submitted the complete claim and you have passed the immigration medical examination. The 60 days are a maximum, not a waiting period. The sooner you complete the claim, the sooner the permit can be issued.
A 365-day limit before the claim reaches the IRB
Once the claim is complete, IRCC and the CBSA carry out their checks before referring it to the IRB. According to the official analysis of the regulations, they look for issues of program integrity, credibility, misrepresentation, criminality and inadmissibility.
Section 159 sets a limit for that stage: 365 days from the day the Minister receives all the documents and information. If the Minister cannot meet it because of operational limitations, it must be done as soon as feasible.
During the public consultation, several organizations asked for it to be cut to four to six months. The government kept the 365 days and expects to complete the checks within that limit or sooner. It is a maximum, not an estimate, and that is why the work permit matters so much: it is what lets you support yourself while the claim waits.
What to do
- If you submitted your claim before November 3: IRCC processes it as usual.
- If you started it before November 3 and did not submit it: sign in to the portal. You need to answer new questions and review the old ones. Your information was saved.
- If you are considering an asylum claim: check the grounds of ineligibility first. A previous claim that was rejected, withdrawn, abandoned or found ineligible is already one of them.
- If someone is helping you with the process: a paid representative must be authorized. They cannot open the account on your behalf, sign in with your username or sign for you. And using a representative does not mean IRCC will approve the claim.
In this process, what you declare at the start follows you all the way to permanent residence. If you are considering an asylum claim and want to know whether a ground of ineligibility applies to you before you start in the portal, at Megrez Immigration Consultants, operating in Canada since 1996, we review your situation and tell you which path makes sense. Book a consultation with our regulated consultants.
Source: IRCC, on canada.ca: Changes to Canada’s asylum process in 2026; Canada modernizes the asylum system to support timely decisions, backgrounder of November 3, 2026; Who can apply; Start a claim from inside Canada; Start a claim at a port of entry; Complete your eligible claim; Guide 0174; Public policy for undeclared family members, Expired. Regulations: Regulations Amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (Asylum System Reform), SOR/2026-218, Canada Gazette, Part II, November 4, 2026. Legislation, on the Justice Laws Website: IRPA, section 40 and section 109; IRPR, section 117. Consulted November 12, 2026. Illustrative image generated with AI.
Verification: text taken from the IRCC pages, the regulations published in the Canada Gazette and the Act, using a browser. The one-year rule example and the reading that the 60 days are not a formality are ours. No secondary sources.
Megrez is a regulated immigration consultancy and does not arrange or sell job offers. Informational article on general processes. It does not constitute legal advice. Requirements change: always confirm on canada.ca.