Prospective Canadian immigration applicants may decide to get a refund on their application. There might be many leading factors for the same, including refusal of application by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada or applicants deciding to withdraw their application. However, the IRCC has made it clear that a refund of an application for Canadian immigration is circumstantial.
If an individual is eligible for a refund, they can request a refund online. It might take up to eight weeks to process the refund. However, if an individual is waiting for longer than eight weeks for a refund, they are advised to submit a refund request to the IRCC.
Following are the cases in which foreign individuals are not eligible for a fee refund in the event that their application is rejected. The reason behind it is that IRCC begins with processing applications.
The exemptions to this rule include:
- Right of citizenship fee
- Employer compliance fee
- Right of permanent residence fee (RPRF)
- Open Work Permit Fee: Only workers exempt from requiring a Labour Market Impact Association will be eligible for this refund.
- International Experience Canada (IEC) fees
In the case of a withdrawn application, refunds are usually processed only if the application is not processed by the IRCC. Only five types of fees are refunded after the processing of an application, including:
- Right of citizenship fee
- Employer compliance fee (refunded to the employer)
- International Experience Canada (IEC) fees
- Right of permanent residence fee (RPRF)
- Open Work Permit Fee: Only workers exempt from requiring a Labour Market Impact Association will be eligible for this refund.
Moreover, if IRCC returns the application of an applicant, they will also receive a refund. Apart from this, there are cases when an applicant may decide to pay their application fees online but ultimately decide to submit their Canadian immigration application. In this case, an applicant can receive a refund from the IRCC.
Fee refunds are also possible in situations where an individual mistakenly paid too much for their application. This case is not applicable to an individual who has applied for an electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA).
Biometrics Regulations:
Apart from these, most applicants are unclear about the refund policy for biometrics. According to the IRCC, the key distinction between biometric fees and other application fees is that the biometric fee is categorised as a service fee rather than a processing fee. Therefore, the application cost recovery fee is not reimbursed in cases of application refusal or if biometrics are provided and the application is rejected. However, IRCC states that the biometric fee must be refunded if biometrics are not collected or if their collection was done in error, such as when the applicant is not obligated to provide biometrics or is exempt from the requirement.
