Applicants for Canadian permanent residence who rely on temporary public policies can no longer obtain humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) exemptions for unmet policy requirements. Effective July 22 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued instructions that prohibit officers from granting H&C relief when the short‑term policy itself imposes a condition the applicant does not satisfy.
- Legal basis – Subsection A25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act obliges officers to consider H&C exemptions only for requirements within the Act itself, not for conditions created by temporary public policies.
- Mandatory refusal – If an applicant requests an H&C exemption to overcome a requirement of a temporary public policy, the officer must refuse the application. No separate “H&C‑only” decision is provided.
- Next steps for refused applicants – A rejected applicant must submit a completely new permanent‑residence application that is assessed on H&C grounds, rather than as a continuation of the original public‑policy filing.
- When H&C may still apply – For permanent‑residence streams that expressly allow H&C considerations, officers may grant exemptions if they are convinced the applicant—or a dependent child—would suffer “considerable hardship.”
- Nature of temporary public policies – These are ad‑hoc, time‑bound directives issued under the immigration minister’s executive authority, offering specific exceptions to the standard immigration rules for applicants who meet the policy’s defined criteria.
The new IRCC operational bulletin, titled “Humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) considerations: In‑Canada permanent residence (PR) granting public policies where H&C requests were also made,” outlines the above procedures and clarifies that the public‑policy framework now overrides any H&C relief for unmet temporary‑policy conditions.
Source article: www.cicnews.com
