Deportation Defence
Facing removal from Canada is among the most serious consequences in immigration law. Our litigation team deploys every available legal tool to protect your right to remain.
Book My Consultation →Facing removal from Canada is among the most serious consequences in immigration law. Our litigation team deploys every available legal tool to protect your right to remain.
Book My Consultation →Defending against deportation with urgency, precision, and unwavering commitment.
Contact an immigration lawyer immediately. The type of removal order (departure, exclusion, or deportation) and the ground of inadmissibility determine your legal options. You may be entitled to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division, apply for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, pursue humanitarian and compassionate relief, or seek judicial review. Acting quickly is essential because certain deadlines are very short and missing them can permanently limit your options.
Tell us briefly what is going on. A lawyer reviews every enquiry and replies within 24 hours on business days.
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Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), there are three types of removal orders: departure orders (section 224 IRPR), exclusion orders (section 225 IRPR), and deportation orders (section 226 IRPR). Each carries different consequences regarding re-entry to Canada. A departure order requires you to leave within 30 days and confirm your departure with CBSA; failure to comply converts it into a deportation order. An exclusion order bars re-entry for one year (or five years in misrepresentation cases). A deportation order permanently bars re-entry without written authorization from the Minister.
Removal orders may be issued on various grounds of inadmissibility under sections 34 through 42 of IRPA, including security concerns (s. 34), human or international rights violations (s. 35), serious criminality (s. 36(1)), criminality (s. 36(2)), organized criminality (s. 37), health grounds (s. 38), financial reasons (s. 39), misrepresentation (s. 40), non-compliance (s. 41), and inadmissible family members (s. 42).
Our lawyers analyze the specific ground of inadmissibility and the type of removal order to determine the most effective defence strategy. This may involve challenging the inadmissibility finding itself, appealing to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) where jurisdiction exists, applying for a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA), pursuing humanitarian and compassionate (H&C;) relief, or seeking a stay of removal through the Federal Court.
When a client faces imminent removal, a stay of removal may be the only means of preventing deportation while legal proceedings are pursued. Under section 18.2 of the Federal Courts Act, the Federal Court may grant an interlocutory injunction staying a removal order pending the determination of a judicial review application. The applicant must satisfy the tripartite test from Toth v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration) (1988), 86 NR 302 (FCA), which incorporates the RJR-MacDonald framework.
A stay motion must demonstrate: (1) a serious issue to be tried, typically that there is a fairly arguable case that the underlying decision is unlawful; (2) irreparable harm, that the applicant will suffer harm that cannot be remedied if removed before the judicial review is heard, including risks to life, liberty, or security of the person; and (3) the balance of convenience, that the harm to the applicant from removal outweighs any prejudice to the Minister from maintaining the status quo.
In addition to Federal Court stays, our lawyers pursue administrative deferrals of removal by making representations directly to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) enforcement officer. Section 48(2) of IRPA requires removal "as soon as possible," but CBSA officers retain limited discretion to defer removal in compelling circumstances, as recognized in Baron v. Canada (Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2009 FCA 81. We prepare comprehensive deferral requests supported by medical evidence, family considerations, and pending proceedings.
A Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) under sections 112 to 116 of IRPA provides a final opportunity to present evidence of risk before removal. The PRRA officer assesses whether the applicant faces a risk to life, a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, or a danger of torture if returned to their country of origin. For individuals who had a prior refugee claim, the PRRA is limited to new evidence that arose after the RPD or RAD decision, pursuant to section 113(a).
Our lawyers prepare PRRA applications with comprehensive country condition evidence sourced from the UNHCR, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Department of State, and the IRB's National Documentation Packages. We include personalized risk assessments, expert reports, and evidence of changed country conditions to demonstrate that the applicant faces new risks not previously considered.
A positive PRRA decision results in protected person status under section 114(1)(a) of IRPA, allowing the applicant to apply for permanent residence. A negative PRRA decision may be judicially reviewed to the Federal Court. Critically, the filing of a PRRA application does not automatically stay removal, a separate stay must be obtained if the client faces imminent deportation while the PRRA is pending.
Mîra v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2026 FC 603 In this Federal Court judicial review, Jia Junaid of Lexaltico LLP successfully challenged the Refugee Appeal Division’s decision to exclude the applicants from refugee protection under Article 1F(b) of the Refugee Convention.
Justice McHaffie found the RAD’s decision unreasonable on two grounds: the RAD improperly excluded new evidence about corruption within Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), and the RAD’s exclusion analysis relied on foreign convictions without meaningfully grappling with the applicants’ credible evidence that the charges were politically fabricated.
The application for judicial review was allowed. The Federal Court set aside the decision and remitted the appeal to a differently constituted panel, which is the relief sought on judicial review: the exclusion finding no longer stands and the appeal is heard afresh.
Article 1F(b) exclusions are hard to displace, and harder still where the conviction comes from a European Union member state with a functioning court system. The argument required persuading the Court that evidence of corruption inside the prosecuting authority was relevant and had been wrongly shut out, and that a conviction from such a state could not simply be taken at face value.
What made the exclusion unusual. The Minister raised Article 1F(b) in 2020 and then withdrew that intervention in October 2023 after reviewing the evidence. The Refugee Protection Division found our client generally credible and not excluded. The Refugee Appeal Division then raised exclusion on its own motion and excluded her, without the Minister intervening. The finding under review was one the Minister had already abandoned.
On the exclusion itself, the Division reasoned that a conviction from Romania could be relied on because it is a country where the rule of law prevails, citing Arevalo Pineda for that proposition but not the passages of the same decision requiring an objective assessment of the claimant’s own evidence and satisfaction that the issuing authority itself respects the rule of law. The Court held that reliance on authority stripped of its qualifying context does not meet the standard, and observed that no assessment of the issuing authority was ever carried out. Read the full decision on CanLII.
This result demonstrates Lexaltico’s commitment to thorough preparation, evidence-driven advocacy, and holding administrative decision-makers to the standard of reasonableness the law requires.
Our lawyers offer a initial consultation for most matters. Call, email, or book online. Do not sign anything before speaking with us.
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Toronto, ON M5J 2H7
2 Sheppard Ave East, Suite 303, Toronto, ON M2N 5Y7
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Lexaltico LLP
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