Asylum in Canada: the IRCC Portal questions change on November 3 and only three groups need to act
What happens to your claim on November 3
On October 1, IRCC updated its two asylum claim pages, the one for people already in Canada and the one for claims made at the border, with the same notice: changes to the asylum application start on November 3, 2026 and affect how claims are submitted in the IRCC Portal. What happens to yours depends on where it stands at the cutoff.
| If at 11:59 p.m. ET on November 2 your claim is | On November 3 |
|---|---|
| Submitted in the IRCC Portal | Nothing changes. You only provide new information if IRCC asks for it. |
| Started in the Portal, not submitted | You have to answer new questions and review the old ones. Your personal information is saved. |
| Made to CBSA and linked to the Portal, not submitted | Same: new questions and a review. Your personal information is saved. |
| Made to CBSA and not linked to a Portal account | What CBSA collected is not saved. You have to link your claim and enter details about you and your family again. |
The only case where information is lost is the last one: you made the claim at the border, CBSA told you to complete it online, and you have not yet created or linked the account.
What changes in the questions
IRCC has not published them. The only official information is the direction of the change, described on the page for the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, which received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026: simplify the online application, remove duplicate questions and multiple forms, and refer to the Immigration and Refugee Board only complete, schedule ready claims. The regulations that implement this were published as a proposal in the Canada Gazette on June 20, 2026.
When IRCC launched the current form in 2022, it later published a Program delivery update with instructions for its officers; the same is likely this time, and that is where the detail will appear.
What does not change
November 2 is the cutoff for the current form, not a deadline to claim asylum in Canada.
The two eligibility rules in effect do not change either. They apply to claims made on or after June 3, 2025:
- A claim made more than one year after the person’s first entry into Canada after June 24, 2020 is not referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board, even if the person left and came back.
- A claim made 14 days or more after entering between ports of entry along the US land border is not referred either.
Unaccompanied minors are exempt. For anyone who first entered Canada after June 24, 2020 and is already more than a year past that entry, whether they left or not, that rule matters far more than the new questions.
What to do
- Claim started and not submitted: sign in to the IRCC Portal and see what is missing. If it is complete, submit it before November 2.
- Claim started at the border: confirm it is linked to your Portal account. That is the only thing that avoids entering everything again.
- Claim already submitted: do nothing unless IRCC contacts you.
If you are considering an asylum claim and want to know whether the eligibility rules reach you before you start, Megrez Immigration Consultants, operating in Vancouver since 1996, reviews your situation and tells you which path makes sense. Book a consultation with our regulated consultants.
Source: IRCC, on canada.ca: Claiming asylum from within Canada and Claiming asylum at the border when you enter Canada, modified October 1, 2026; Understanding the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act; Canada Gazette, Part I, June 20, 2026, Regulations Amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (Asylum System Reform); Program delivery update of January 11, 2023 on the launch of the asylum eApp. Consulted October 15, 2026. Illustrative image generated with AI.
Verification: texts taken verbatim from the official pages. Whether a final version of the regulations has appeared in the Gazette, Part II, was not verified. 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.