This page provides general legal information. Your eligibility and best next step depend on your facts and the rules in force when action is taken.
Start with the reasons
IRCC now provides officer decision notes with refusal letters for most temporary-resident applications and, since May 26, 2026, most permanent-residence applications. Those notes can provide a more useful starting point for understanding the decision.
Reapply, reconsider or review?
The right response depends on the legal and factual problem. A new application may make sense if evidence was missing or circumstances changed. Reconsideration may be appropriate only in some situations. Judicial review asks the Federal Court to review the lawfulness or reasonableness of the administrative decision; it is not simply another application.
Deadlines can be critical
Court deadlines and other procedural time limits can be short. Anyone considering judicial review should obtain advice promptly rather than waiting for a new application to be prepared.
Preserve the record
Keep the refusal letter, officer decision note, complete filed application, uploaded documents, webform correspondence and any other communication. The quality of the post-refusal analysis depends on knowing what was actually before the decision-maker.
What to bring
Complete refused application; refusal letter; officer decision note; submissions and exhibits; correspondence; application timeline; prior immigration history; and any new evidence that did not exist at the time of decision.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (Canada.ca)