Blog Post.
A deportation order permanently bars you from Canada. It does not expire, and no amount of waiting will clear it.
The only route back is an Authorization to Return to Canada, known as an ARC. An officer decides whether to grant one, and the answer is not automatic.
At Kingwell Immigration Law, a deportation order is the kind of file we take on every week. Our Toronto based team works with people across Canada and around the world who have been removed, or who are about to be, and who want an honest answer about whether they can come back.
A deportation order is the most serious of the three removal orders in Canadian law. It bars you from Canada for life unless an officer gives you written permission to return.
That permanence is what separates it from the other orders. A departure order clears itself once you comply, and an exclusion order runs out after a set number of years.
The legal basis is section 52 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which says that once a removal order has been enforced, a foreign national cannot return unless an officer authorizes it.
Our lawyers read that provision against the facts of your file and tell you plainly what it means for your prospects. That assessment is the service, and it comes before any paperwork.
💡 Additional reading: removal order vs deportation order
We handle the full route back, not just the forms. Our lawyers assess whether an ARC is realistic in your circumstances, resolve the inadmissibility that triggered the removal, and prepare the written submissions the officer will weigh.
Founder Daniel Kingwell has practised immigration law since 2001 and is a Law Society of Ontario Certified Specialist in Citizenship and Immigration Law.
He describes his role in these files plainly. “I’m sort of the fire department,” he says, drawing the line between routine applications and the enforcement work that lands on his desk.
A large share of that work involves repairing damage done earlier. “A big part of my practice is really cleanup,” Daniel says, referring to files harmed by poor advice before the client ever reached him.
We represent clients throughout Canada and conduct all meetings and hearings remotely, so where you are now does not limit who can act for you.
Canada issues three types of removal orders, and each one carries a different consequence for coming back:
Removal order | Form number | How long the bar lasts | Do you need an ARC? |
Departure order | IMM 5238 | No bar, if you comply | No, provided you left within 30 days and hold a Certificate of Departure |
Exclusion order | IMM 1214B | 1 year, or 5 years if issued for misrepresentation | No, once that period has passed and you hold a Certificate of Departure |
Deportation order | IMM 5238B | Permanent | Yes, in every case, no matter how much time has passed |
One document that looks like a removal order is not one at all. A Direction to Leave Canada, form IMM 1217B, is issued when an officer cannot complete your examination at a port of entry, and it carries no ARC requirement.
We identify which document you actually hold before anyone assumes the worst. People come to us braced for a lifetime bar and leave the first meeting knowing they were never barred at all.
💡 Additional reading: types of removal orders
Most deportation orders are not issued as deportation orders. They start life as departure orders and convert automatically when the person does not comply.
A departure order requires you to leave Canada within 30 days of the order becoming enforceable. Miss that window and the order becomes a deportation order on its own, with no hearing and no fresh notice.
This is the single most common way people acquire a lifetime bar. Someone whose refugee claim fails, or who loses permanent resident status, may stay a few weeks past the deadline while trying to sort out a flight or a passport.
Where that conversion has already happened, we work out exactly when and why it occurred and build the explanation the officer will expect. Where it has not happened yet, we act quickly to keep a departure order from hardening into something permanent.
Before IRCC will even consider an ARC, the removal order has to have been enforced. Enforcement is a specific process, and skipping any part of it can leave you needing permission you would otherwise not have needed.
For a removal order to count as enforced, you must do all of the following:
Quietly boarding a flight is not enforcement. Someone who leaves within 30 days but never sees an officer has not met the terms of the order.
Our lawyers trace what happened at your departure and locate the certificate, or establish the record where none exists. That reconstruction is usually the first real step we take on the file.
💡 Additional reading: departure order
An ARC is written permission from an officer allowing you to come back despite a removal order. It is not a visa, not a status, and not something you receive by default once enough time has passed.
An ARC is a discretionary application, judged on its merits. It can be refused for reasons that have nothing to do with how long ago you left.
Because the decision turns on discretion rather than eligibility, our role is to shape the record the officer sees. We advise on what to put forward, what to leave out, and how to present a history that will not read well on its own.
IRCC publishes the factors an officer considers, and the list is short enough that every one of them carries weight. If the circumstances that led to the removal order have not changed, permission is less likely.
An officer will consider factors including:
Notice what is absent from that list. There is no threshold you cross, no number of years that entitles you to anything, and no box you tick that obliges an officer to say yes.
This is where written submissions do the real work, and it is the part of the file we take on directly. We gather the evidence behind each factor and argue them together, so the officer is reading a case rather than a form.
Here is the point almost nobody makes clearly. IRCC will not issue an ARC until you have resolved the inadmissibility that caused your removal in the first place.
These are two separate problems requiring two separate solutions. The ARC deals with the removal order; it does nothing about the ground of inadmissibility sitting underneath it.
A strong ARC application can still fail on this alone. Someone removed for criminal inadmissibility who has never applied for criminal rehabilitation has solved one of the two problems, however well the rest of the file is prepared.
Depending on the ground, resolving the underlying issue may mean a criminal rehabilitation application, a record suspension, a legal opinion letter, or waiting out a five year misrepresentation bar. Each has its own criteria, its own fee, and its own timeline.
There is one alternative worth raising. If your inadmissibility genuinely cannot be resolved and you have a compelling reason to come to Canada temporarily, a Temporary Resident Permit can override both the inadmissibility and the ARC requirement for a limited period.
A TRP is temporary relief, not a cure. It does not remove the inadmissibility, and officers grant them only where your need to enter outweighs the risk to Canadian society.
We map both problems at the outset and sequence them in the right order. Clients who come to us mid-application often find the sequencing is what went wrong.
You generally do not file an ARC by itself. It travels with the application for whatever you actually want to do in Canada, and the sequence depends on your situation.
Every ARC application must include a letter, in English or French, setting out in detail why you should be allowed to return. It has to be typed or printed in black ink, and if your departure order became a deportation order, it must explain why you did not leave within the 30 days.
You apply for the ARC and the temporary residence document at the same time. Your visitor visa, study permit, or work permit application goes in online with the ARC letter and both fees included.
IRCC assesses your eligibility for temporary residence first. Only if you clear that stage will they process the ARC.
The order is reversed here. You apply for the eTA, study permit, or work permit first, and IRCC will ask for your ARC documents once they have confirmed you are eligible.
Sending the ARC letter unprompted in this stream does not speed anything up. The request comes when the department is ready for it.
You are the only group that can approach IRCC directly. Contact the nearest visa office before travelling to Canada rather than presenting yourself at the border and hoping.
The ARC goes in alongside your permanent residence application. Include the ARC documents and pay both sets of fees, which may mean submitting more than one receipt.
We prepare the submission letter, assemble the supporting evidence, and file everything in the correct sequence for your stream. A returned application costs months, and our job is to make sure the package arrives complete the first time.
The ARC processing fee is CAD $492.50 and it is not refundable, whatever the outcome. If you are refused and want to try again, you pay it a second time.
The larger cost catches people by surprise. Where CBSA paid to remove you from Canada, you must repay those costs before an ARC will be issued, on top of the processing fee.
Cost | Amount (CAD) |
ARC processing fee | $492.50 |
Removal before April 1, 2025, to the USA or St. Pierre and Miquelon | $899.00 |
Removal before April 1, 2025, to any other country | $1,799.00 |
Removal on or after April 1, 2025, escorted by air | $13,098.96 |
Removal on or after April 1, 2025, unescorted, escorted other than by air, or under medical escort by air | $3,905.28 |
Criminal rehabilitation, criminality | $246.25 |
Criminal rehabilitation, serious criminality | $1,231.00 |
Temporary Resident Permit | $246.25 |
Two details soften this. You are exempt from repaying removal expenses if you were under 18 when the removal order was issued, and IRCC only asks for the removal costs once your application has been approved.
These are the current published fees, and IRCC revises them periodically.
A file that looks like a $492.50 application can turn into a five figure commitment. We work out the real number with you before anyone spends money on forms, so the decision to proceed is made with the full picture in front of you.
IRCC notifies you in writing at each stage. That notice may tell you a decision has been made, or it may ask for more documents, or it may call you to an interview.
There is no published processing standard for ARC applications, and IRCC states directly that there is no guarantee one will be issued.
Incomplete or illegible applications are returned without any assessment at all. That is not a refusal you can build on, it is simply lost time.
An interview request is usually a sign the officer is engaging with the file. We prepare clients for that interview and respond to document requests on their behalf, so nothing sits waiting while a deadline runs.
We act on enforcement files at every stage, including the ones where a removal order has already been issued. Two examples from our own casework show what that looks like in practice.
Family from Iran allowed to remain in Canada after appeal to Immigration Appeal Division. Family of permanent residents from Iran.
After acquiring PR status, they were only in Canada for a few weeks to a year in their first four years, and so IRCC issued removal orders against them for failure to meet their residency obligation. We successfully appealed the decision to the Immigration Appeal Division, explaining that Canada would benefit from their professional experience, and they would suffer hardship in Iran, in particular the children who faced disruption of their education and required military service.They were allowed to remain in Canada as permanent residents.
J.R. v Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (2018 CanLII 54731)
Refugee Protection Division ordered to redetermine refugee claim from Albania because of wrongful criminal conviction. Refugee claimant from Albania.
For a decade, he fought his case with the Minister at the Refugee Protection Division, who argued that he should be excluded from protection because of a criminal conviction. We successfully appealed the decision to the Federal Court on the basis that he was wrongfully convicted in his absence, and the RPD was ordered to redetermine his claim.
Doresi v Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (2022 FC 1300)
Past results depend on their own facts and do not predict the outcome of any other case. What they show is the ground our lawyers are willing to fight on, and how far we will take a matter when the decision under challenge is wrong.
A lifetime bar sounds like a closed door, and for people who face it alone it often behaves like one. The route back runs through a discretionary application, a separate inadmissibility problem, and an officer who owes you nothing.
That is the ground our team works on. We tell clients honestly whether an ARC is worth pursuing, we resolve the inadmissibility sitting underneath the removal order, and we put the case in front of the officer in a form that gives it a real chance.
Daniel Kingwell reviews enquiries himself and decides, case by case, whether the firm can help. If we can, you will have a lawyer who has spent his entire career on exactly this kind of file.
An approved Authorization to Return to Canada removes the legal bar from your deportation order, but a border services officer still examines you on arrival in every case, so entry is never guaranteed. Kingwell Immigration Law prepares clients for that examination so their arrival matches the application.
A refused Authorization to Return to Canada carries no tribunal appeal right, but you can apply to the Federal Court of Canada for judicial review within the applicable deadline. Kingwell Immigration Law litigates immigration matters in the Federal Court, where a flawed discretionary assessment is often reviewable.
A deportation order in Canada does not automatically bar your spouse or children, since each applicant is assessed separately, though it can affect applications where you are the sponsor or an accompanying dependant. Kingwell Immigration Law reviews how that history surfaces for each family member.
You can request your Canadian immigration file from IRCC or CBSA through an access to information request, which usually confirms the removal order type, the date it was issued, and whether a Certificate of Departure exists. Kingwell Immigration Law obtains and interprets those records for clients.
No, using a new passport or changed name to re-enter Canada does not defeat a deportation order and creates a misrepresentation finding carrying its own separate five year bar. Kingwell Immigration Law follows Daniel Kingwell’s stated position that concealment almost always surfaces because government systems routinely share information.
