Program directory · Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
Immigration Appeal Decisions
- Department
- Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada
- Program code
- BGC04 (IRB)
- Core responsibility
- Adjudication of immigration and refugee cases
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
Render quality decisions and resolve cases in a timely manner regarding: sponsorship applications refused by the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship; certain removal orders made against permanent residents, refugees and other protected persons and holders of permanent resident visas; permanent residents outside of Canada who have been found not to have fulfilled their residency obligation; and appeals by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness against a decision on admissibility at the first level
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immigration Appeal Decisions | This program | 2018-19 – 2028-29 | $117M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Indicators added: Percentage of cases finalized within 12 months | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2019-20 | Indicators dropped: Percentage of cases pending beyond time standards | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2020-21 | Indicators added: The percentage of cases that meet high quality standards | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2020-21 | Indicators dropped: The average score of proceedings measured on a 1-3 scale for being respectful and focused, and of decisions that are clear, concise and complete | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Indicators added: Annual final or stay decisions; Less than XX% of inventory pending over 12 months | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Indicators dropped: Annual finalizations; Percentage of cases finalized within 12 months | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2026-27 | Indicators added: Annual volume of final or stay decisions; Average wait time for final decisions on immigration appeals; Percentage of Immigration Appeal cases that meet or exceed the quality standard; Percentage of Immigration Appeal Decisions overturned by the Federal Court; Time within which 80% of final or stay decisions on Immigration Appeals are issued | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2026-27 | Indicators dropped: % of decisions overturned by the Federal Court; Annual final or stay decisions; Less than XX% of inventory pending over 12 months; The percentage of cases that meet high quality standards | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≤ 1% | 2019 | 0.6% | Met |
| 2019-20 | ≤ 1% | 2020 | 0.8% | Met |
| 2020-21 | ≤ 1% | 2021 | 0.7% | Met |
| 2021-22 | ≤ 1% | 2022 | 1.2% In 2021–22, the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) percentage of decisions overturned by the Federal Court exceeded by 0.2% the target (or 7 cases). Due to pandemic-related delays, many decisions overturned by the Federal Court could not be completed in 2020–21 and were only returned to the IAD in 2021–22 resulting in an increased rate for the reporting year. | Not met |
| 2022-23 | ≤ 1% | 2023 | 0.6% | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≤ 1% | 2024 | 0.6% | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≤ 1% | 2025 | 0.3% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 2,700 – 3,300 | 2023 | 3,216 | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 2,700 | 2024 | 3,311 | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 3,000 | 2025 | 3,973 | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≤ 20% | 2023 | 5% | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≤ 10% | 2024 | 5% | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≤ 10% | 2025 | 3% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | ≥ 75% | 2021 | — An assessment of the quality of decisions at the Immigration Appeal Division will be conducted in 2021–22. | No result reported |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 75% | 2022 | — The quality review for the Immigration Appeal Division is underway, however, results were not available at time of DRR publishing. The delay in 2021–22 is in part due to a shift in focus following the move from in-person hearings to virtual hearings and included an Access to Justice Review of Virtual Hearings which concluded that a strong majority of stakeholders had an overall positive experienc… | No result reported |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 80% | 2024 | 94% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≥ 6,500 | 2019 | 7,064 | Met |
| 2019-20 | ≥ 6,800 | 2020 | 5,808 Due to limits in actionable inventory, lower than anticipated intake volumes and the elimination of the case backlog. Additionally, in-person operations were suspended as of March 17, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. | Not met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 4,500 | 2021 | 2,715 Target for annual finalizations identified prior to COVID-19 was not met due to pandemic-related disruptions to operations, including the temporary suspension of in-person hearings, and the lower intake of appeals throughout the year. The Immigration Appeal Division finalized more appeals than it received and reduced the appeal inventory by 25%. | Not met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 3,000 | 2022 | 3,162 | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | ≥ 80% | 2020 | 81% | Met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 80% | 2021 | 65% Target for timely decisions was not met. Disruptions to operations related to the COVID-19 pandemic was a key contributing factor, including the temporary suspension of in-person hearings and delays with receiving key documents from other parties including overseas visa offices. | Not met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 80% | 2022 | 76% In 2021–22, the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) achieved 76% compliance with the target of deciding 80% of immigration appeals within 12 months. The IAD fell short of its target due to pandemic-related disruptions in receiving appeal records from overseas visa offices that had been closed or operating at reduced capacity. | Not met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 2 – 3 | 2019 | 0 This is a biennial measurement and will next take place in fiscal year 2019-20. | Not met |
| 2019-20 | 2 – 3 | 2020 | 2.7 | Met |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 3,500 | 2027 | — | Planned |
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≤ 6 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≤ 1% | 2027 | — | Planned |
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≤ 12 | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 80% | 2028 | — | Planned |
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | $19.5M | $17.4M |
| 2019-20 | $20.2M | $17.9M |
| 2020-21 | $20.7M | $13.9M |
| 2021-22 | $20.9M | $13M |
| 2022-23 | $21M | $14.3M |
| 2023-24 | $21.5M | $18.7M |
| 2024-25 | $22.7M | $22.2M |
| 2025-26 | $22.2M | — |
| 2026-27 | $20.8M | — |
| 2027-28 | $20.5M* | — |
| 2028-29 | $20M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 81 | 127 |
| 2019-20 | 157 | 126 |
| 2020-21 | 153 | 113 |
| 2021-22 | 167 | 102 |
| 2022-23 | 167 | 112 |
| 2023-24 | 165 | 133 |
| 2024-25 | 170 | 145 |
| 2025-26 | 160 | — |
| 2026-27 | 143 | — |
| 2027-28 | 141* | — |
| 2028-29 | 141* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $19,474,815 | $19,474,815 | $19,474,815 | ||||||||
| 2019-20 plan | $20,210,131 | $20,713,569 | $20,349,101 | ||||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $20,672,362 | $20,366,136 | $20,366,998 | ||||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $20,926,425 | $20,950,955 | $20,950,955 | ||||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $20,978,054 | $20,978,054 | $20,978,054 | ||||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $21,481,016 | $21,629,285 | $21,272,529 | ||||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $22,682,132 | $21,999,394 | $21,829,981 | ||||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $22,197,290 | $22,026,434 | $22,026,434 | ||||||||
| 2026-27 plan | $20,822,863 | $20,490,649 | $19,978,578 | ||||||||
| Actual | $17,365,426 | $17,886,473 | $13,947,180 | $13,044,667 | $14,296,449 | $18,660,206 | $22,217,783 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
