Interim measures: Issuing a Confirmation of Referral to refugee claimants in lieu of a Notice to Appear at the time the claim is referred to the Refugee Protection Division

For the duration of these interim procedures, refugee intake staff must issue a Confirmation of Referral (COR) document to refugee claimants in lieu of a Notice to Appear (NTA).

Like the NTA, the COR contains important information for claimants. There are 2 versions of the COR:

1. The COR for use at ports of entry, which is known as the ‘Confirmation of Referral and Notice to Appear,’ includes the deadline for submitting the Basis of Claim form and the Basis of Claim abandonment special hearing date.

   This version of the COR is also used by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada staff and Canada Border Services Agency inland enforcement officers whenever the claimant is responsible for submitting their “Basis of Claim” form to the Immigration and Refugee Board (that is, in certain irregular migrant cases).

2. The COR used in all other cases.

Instructions

The Hearing Booking Tool must not to be used for the duration of these interim procedures.

Staff must create the COR in GCMS on the refugee claims Outgoing Correspondence view. Please follow the online help instructions regarding how to create a letter/form.

Simply update the COR record as you would an NTA record in order to ‘Generate’, ‘Print’ and ‘Sent’. All the relevant data will populate on the form, as it does on an NTA.

The claimant and RPD must receive a copy of the printed COR.

Version 5 of the RPD Kit, which is distributed to eligible claimants, indicates that a hearing date is no longer provided at referral.