What is the Federal Court of Canada?

The Federal Court of Canada is the Canadian federal trial court with jurisdiction over judicial review of decisions made by federal administrative bodies — including IRCC, the IRB (RPD, RAD, ID, IAD), ESDC, and CBSA on most immigration matters.

Federal Court is the judicial review route for negative immigration decisions. Unlike the IAD (which can substitute decisions and consider H&C), Federal Court reviews administrative decisions on the standard of reasonableness (or, narrowly, correctness for jurisdictional matters). The Court generally does NOT substitute its own decision — instead, it can quash a decision and refer back for re-determination.

What Federal Court reviews

For immigration matters, Federal Court typically reviews:

• IRCC refusals that exhaust administrative appeal rights (no IRB appeal available).
• Negative RAD decisions (refugee appeals).
• Negative IAD decisions (sponsorship appeals, residence-obligation appeals).
• Negative PRRA decisions.
• Negative H&C decisions.
• Other federal-immigration decisions without administrative appeal pathways.

The leave-to-apply requirement

Most Federal Court immigration applications go through a two-stage process:

1. Leave application — the applicant must first obtain "leave" (permission) from a Federal Court judge to proceed to the full hearing. The judge reviews written submissions and decides whether the case has sufficient merit to be heard.
2. Full hearing — if leave is granted, the case proceeds to oral argument on the merits.

Many applications are refused at the leave stage. Only a fraction proceed to full hearing.

Critical deadlines

• 15 days from notification of the decision for in-Canada applicants to file Application for Leave and Judicial Review (ALJR).
• 60 days for overseas applicants.
• These deadlines are strict — missing them forfeits the JR route permanently.

Federal Court remedies

If the Court grants the JR:

• Set aside the decision (most common) — the IRB/IRCC decision is quashed and the matter is referred back for re-determination by a different decision-maker.
• Order a specific outcome (rare) — Court can order positive determination in narrow cases.
• Mandamus — Court can order IRCC to make a decision when processing has been unreasonably delayed.
• Costs — Court can award costs (modest, typically $2,000-$5,000) against the Minister.

Representation at Federal Court

• Lawyers and Quebec notaries can represent at Federal Court.
• RCIC-IRBs (Class L3) cannot appear directly at Federal Court — but can coordinate with lawyer co-counsel.
• Self-representation is permitted but very disadvantageous given the Court's procedural complexity.

Common gotchas

• Deadlines are unforgiving: missing 15/60 days = permanent loss of JR route.
• No automatic stay of removal: filing JR doesn't stop removal automatically. A separate stay motion is required for imminent removals.
• Limited evidence: JR is a review of the existing decision record, not a new hearing. New evidence is generally not admitted except in narrow procedural-fairness contexts.

See also

• IRB — most JR cases are from IRB decisions.
• PRRA — common JR subject.
• H&C — also commonly JR'd.