What are removal orders?

When a permanent resident, a protected person or a foreign national inside Canada is found inadmissible, he/she may be issued a removal order. There are three types of removal orders:

• Departure order: A person issued a departure order must leave Canada within 30 days after it becomes enforceable. If a persons does not leave within 30 days, the order becomes a deportation order. If the person leaves within 30 days, he/she may return to Canada without first obtaining an authorization. The 30-day period is suspended if the person is detained during the period or the order is stayed.

• Exclusion order: A person issued an exclusion order must leave Canada and cannot return to Canada without a written authorization in one year. If the order is issued as a result of misrepresentation, he/she cannot return to Canada without a written authorization in two years. The requirement to obtain an authorization is waived for a person who is issued an exclusion order because he/she is an accompanying member of an inadmissible person.

• Deportation order: A person issued a deportation order must leave Canada and cannot return to Canada without a written authorization at any time. The requirement to obtain an authorization is waived for a person who is issued a deportation order because he/she is an accompanying member of an inadmissible person.

A security certificate that has been found reasonable by the Federal Court is equivalent to a deportation order.

Most removal orders are issued by the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board after an inadmissibility hearing referred from the Minister after a report from an officer. In some cases, the Minister may issue removal orders directly:

• A permanent resident who has failed to comply with the residency obligation;

• A foreign national who has been convicted of any crime in Canada;

• A foreign national whose refugee protection has been vacated due to misrepresentation;

• A foreign national who fails to obtain an authorization to return to Canada;

• A foreign national who does not appear at an admissibility hearing or an examination;

• A foreign national who does not have a visa or other required document;

• A fore gin national who has failed to leave Canada at the end of the period authorized for their stay.

The Immigration Appeal Board may also make removal order when it allows an appeal from the Minister against a decision of the Immigration Division.

A removal order may be stayed:

• When a removal order is stayed if its enforcement would directly contravene a court decision.

• When a foreign national serving a term of imprisonment in Canada.

• When there is a generalized risk in a country or place due to an armed conflict, an environmental disaster or any temporary or generalized situation unless the person is inadmissible on grounds of security, violating human or international rights, organized criminality, serious criminality, criminality or is subject of the Refugee Convention Article 1F.,

• When a failed refugee claimant has applied to the Federal Court for leave for judicial review unless the Refugee Protection Division's decision is there is no credible basis for the claim (in which case the order will be stayed only if the Federal Court has made an order to stay it) or the person is inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality.

• When a person who has made an application for PRRA within 15 days of notification. A positive PRRA decision may stay a removal order until a change of circumstances when the applicant is inadmissible on grounds of security, violating human or international rights, organized criminality or serious criminality (for convictions in Canada, punished at least two years; for convictions outside Canada, punishable at least 10 years if committed in Canada), has been rejected for his/her refugee claim on the basis of the Refugee Convention Article 1F or is named in a security certificate.

• When there is a positive first-stage decision of the humanitarian and compassionate considerations.

• When the Immigration Appeal Division is satisfied that humanitarian and compassionate considerations warrant special relief in light of all the circumstances of the case taking the best interests of a child into account. It will impose some prescribed conditions such as no committing any criminal offence, informing any change of address and applying for an extension of a foreign passport and may impose some non-prescribed conditions. What is more, the stay of a removal order against a person inadmissible on grounds of serious or regular criminality will be cancelled by operation of law if the person is convicted of another serious offence.

When leaving Canada, a foreign national who has been issued a removal order should appear before an officer at the point of entry for verification and obtain a certificate of departure before leaving Canada. This process is called enforcement of the removal order. If a removal order is not enforced, the foreign national will not be issued a visa to return to Canada in future unless a visa officer enforces the removal order abroad by verifying that the person has been lawfully admitted into the country and is not admissible on grounds of security, violating human or international rights, serious criminality or organized criminality.

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