Question Period Note: C-12 – The Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act

Legislative amendments are underway as part of the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act (Bill C-12) that aim to strengthen the integrity and modernize the visa and asylum system. IRCC has four parts: i) strengthening control over immigration documents, ii) modernizing the in-Canada asylum system; iii) creating new asylum ineligibilities; and, iii) domestic information sharing.

• The Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act proposes key changes to keep Canada’s immigration system fair and improve how visas and asylum claims are processed.

• The asylum measures would:
o improve how asylum claims are received, processed, and decided;
o propose new time limits for making a claim to prevent misuse and reduce pressures from potential surges.

• Integrity measures would:
o Expand the government’s ability to manage immigration documents such as visas, eTAs, work and study permits, and applications; and
o improve how we share information with federal departments, and with provinces and territories.

• IRCC has four legislative packages that were introduced in the House of Commons on October 8, 2025 as part of the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. These include strengthening control over immigration documents, asylum reform legislation, new asylum ineligibilities and domestic information sharing (based on the former Bill S-6).

Strengthening Control Over Immigration Documents
• In recent years, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has seen increasingly sophisticated fraud and a significant rise in the number of travellers arriving in Canada for reasons contrary to those stated on their immigration application. This rise in exploitation, alongside lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, points to key gaps in the authorities governing Canada’s immigration program. These gaps prevent the Government from effectively responding to emerging threats and to changing world conditions. Closing them will strengthen managed migration to Canada, and reinforce Canada’s commitment to a stronger Canadian border and to protect Canadians.

• IRCC currently does not have broad authority to cancel, suspend or change active immigration documents and applications in its inventory. Therefore, Canada is not well equipped to effectively respond to large-scale emergencies, safety and security threats, or other scenarios that could undermine the integrity and orderly management of migration and the security of its border.

• These proposed legislative amendments aim to strengthen our control over documents we issue and the applications we process, and they are key to improving the integrity of the immigration program. Among the proposed amendments are measures to authorize the Governor in Council to make two types of orders when determined to be in the public interest:
o (1) orders managing application intake, and suspension and cancellation of groups of immigration applications, and
o (2) orders relating to the cancellation, suspension and variance of any number of active immigration documents.
• To allow for flexibility, the legislation does not predetermine scenarios for use nor does it define the term “public interest”; however, any future use could be envisioned to address threats to Canada’s national security or public health, to safely manage the flow of people coming into the country, to protect relationships with key partners, or other matters of public interest.

• The use of these authorities would be limited to intervention on immigration documents and applications for those documents; they could not be used to block access to the asylum system or affect a person’s status. Any proposed use of these authorities will carefully consider the impacts, including on vulnerable populations, international relations and stakeholders, as well as any relevant considerations such as Charter considerations.

• The future use of these authorities will follow a rigorous assessment process that would be tailored to the unique considerations of each use, either as part of the OIC process if the use affects documents or applications en masse, or during the regulation-making process in the case of the case-by-case document and application control authorities. This assessment will include consultations with Department of Justice and other relevant stakeholders to carefully consider the impacts of the proposed measures including the impacts on vulnerable groups and any Charter considerations.

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• Given potential impacts the use of such authorities could bring beyond the immigration space, the Governor-in-Council would determine which situations require action based on public interest grounds, rather than leaving the decision to a single minister. This ensures a strong level of oversight and rigor commensurate with their impact.

• To better support the secure day-to-day delivery of the immigration program, this legislation also enables IRCC to bring forward future regulations that would detail circumstances in which individual active documents may be cancelled, varied, or suspended; and where immigration applications may be individually cancelled.

• With an evolving migration landscape, the legislative amendments also provide officers with the authority to examine document holders outside of Canada in the circumstances that would be specified in future regulations. This would support efforts to ensure that holders of immigration documents who are outside Canada continue to meet the requirements related to the document that they hold.

• These new authorities complement recently approved regulations that came into force in January 2025, which clarified when an officer may cancel a temporary resident visa (TRV), electronic travel authorization (eTA), work permit or study permit, on a case by case basis, strengthening the consistency and overall integrity of the cancellation process.

Strengthening asylum integrity
• Bill C-12 (Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act) will improve and modernize the In-Canada Asylum System by making it more efficient and easier for claimants to navigate. This initiative simplifies the online application process and standardizes it whether a claimant applies at a port of entry or at an in-land IRCC office, ensuring a more accessible system for all.
• These legislative changes will provide the Minister with clear authorities to specify the information and documents required when an asylum claim is initiated, including requiring that the information be submitted to the Minister online.
• These changes will ensure that claimants are subject to the same requirements whether they made their claim inland or at a port of entry. As a result, all claimants will have the provided the same information, making it easier to process their claims.
• These legislative amendments will increase program integrity and reduce delays at the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) by allowing the Minister (IRCC and Public Safety) to analyze and review claims and prepare ‘schedule ready’ files prior to referral of claims to the Refugee Protection Division for determination.
• These legislative amendments will ensure the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) has authority to determine that a claim is abandoned when a claimant fails to comply with certain requirements related to their refugee protection application prior to the claim being referred to the RPD (in addition to their existing authority to abandon claims after referral). Abandonment of a claim has serious consequences, it is a ground of ineligibility of a future claim. As a result, the decision to abandon a claim is with the IRB.
• This legislative proposal will clarify that the Ministers of IRCC and Public Safety have the authority to appoint and remunerate a representative for persons who are unable to appreciate the nature of proceedings, including minors.
• This legislative amendment will provide clear statutory authority for the IRB Chairperson to require members to render reasons for decisions in a specified format. This codifies the Chairperson’s authorities in legislation and allows the IRB to have stronger oversight of their members’ decision making. This is intended to help simplify the decision-making process and make it more efficient for IRB members.
• This legislative change will clarify that in-Canada asylum claims may only be adjudicated by the IRB while the claimant is physically present in Canada. Similarly, legislative amendments will clarify that admissibility hearings may only be held while persons are in Canada.
New Asylum Ineligibilities
• In order to counter sudden increases in claims, two ineligibility provisions are proposed:
o Asylum claims made more than one year after arriving in Canada after June 24, 2020, would not be eligible to be referred to the IRB. This would apply to anyone, including students and temporary residents, regardless of whether they left the country and returned.
o Asylum claims made 14 days or more after entering Canada from the US along the land border between official ports of entry would not be eligible to be referred to the IRB.
• The proposed ineligibility provisions are not a ban on claiming asylum, but it will prevent these claims from being referred to the Refugee Protection Division of the IRB . This will help avoid bottlenecks and allow the IRB to continue to address new claims as well as the significant inventory of pending claims.
• Once in force (applicable to claims made after Tuesday, June 3, 2025), affected individuals may still apply for a pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA) to ensure they are not returned to a country where they could face harm.
• The PRRA process will still take into account each claimant’s situation and may still result in refugee protection being granted. The PRRA process prevents people from being sent back to a country where they face risks like persecution, torture or other harm. When a person applies for a PRRA within the regulatory timelines, they benefit from a stay of removal until a decision is rendered on their application.
Improving Domestic Information Sharing
• As part of Bill C-12, Canada aims to strengthen border security and immigration by seeking new authorities to improve how client information is shared within IRCC and with domestic partners (federal, provincial, and territorial governments).

• The new legislation would facilitate the sharing of immigration, citizenship and passport information with our domestic partners to help improve the integrity of government programs and provide better client service.

• IRCC takes privacy seriously and continues to protect the personal information of applicants. All information-sharing agreements or arrangements between domestic government partners would be in writing and include strong safeguards to protect people’s privacy and Charter rights.

• The proposed authorities were designed with a limited scope and a specific purpose, namely to enable IRCC and domestic partners to perform their lawful duties and functions and to administer or enforce laws.

• Furthermore, safeguards are in place to protect personal information and ensure Charter compliance. For example, the proposed authorities in the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act limit the information that can be shared with domestic partners to identity, immigration status and document details, with the express legal requirement to enter into written agreements or arrangements that set limits on use, onward transmission, secondary use purposes. This requirement reflects recommendations formulated by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner when the proposed authorities were in the Senate as part of Bill S-6.

• Under existing authorities, IRCC can share applicant information with its domestic partners in limited circumstances and, in most cases, needs to complete case-by-case assessments to share this information. IRCC also needs to do these assessments when sharing client information across its own programs (for example; using permanent residence application data to process citizenship applications). Creating clear and direct legal authorities would address these gaps, allow information sharing to be systematic, reduce administrative burdens and improve the integrity of our programs.

• The Bill proposes legislative changes to both the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act to improve information sharing within the Government of Canada and with provincial and territorial partners. These changes would:
o authorize IRCC to share client information, such as identity, status and immigration documentation, with domestic government partners through signed information-sharing agreements;
o make it easier for IRCC to share client information between different immigration programs (for example; using permanent residence application data to process citizenship applications); and
o allow for regulations to be developed to share client information across federal departments for the purpose of cooperation.

• These proposed changes would close gaps in how we share client information, saving both time and money. Federal, provincial and territorial partners would receive more rapid access to this information, which they may use to:
o confirm the identity of people who arrived in Canada through the immigration system, which is needed to deliver and give people access to a variety of public services and to support their successful integration into Canada;
o detect people defrauding benefit programs and other services by using different identities; and
o carry out law- and border-enforcement activities and investigations.

• IRCC would also be able to share client information across its immigration, citizenship and passport programs more easily to reduce the amount of information that applicants need to resubmit if they’ve already applied to a different IRCC program, lower the risk of discrepancies between case files belonging to the same person, and improve efficiency for decision-making. Ultimately, it would improve the integrity of our programs and better detect fraud.

• To protect personal information and privacy, the legislation requires IRCC to create written information-sharing agreements or arrangements with domestic partners that outline the personal information to be shared, its purpose, and the limits on further use or transfer of that information to additional parties

• It also prohibits provincial and territorial governments from sharing IRCC’s client information with foreign entities, except
o with the written consent of IRCC, and
o if the disclosure complies with Canada’s international obligations concerning mistreatment, as defined in the Avoiding Complicity in Mistreatment by Foreign Entities Act

• Any new use or disclosure of personal information under these new authorities would follow existing privacy laws, policies and best practices. IRCC can disclose personal information only to partners who are legally allowed to collect it through clear, written agreements or arrangements.

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