Pathway to permanent residence: Outside-of-Canada families of Canadian victims of air disasters – Admissibility

The applicant and their family members must meet admissibility requirements related to

• criminality
• security
• health
• finances

Certain exemptions are provided in the public policy for those who have specific inadmissibilities and comply with the eligibility criteria of the public policy.

Inadmissibilities should be considered at the stage at which the decision-maker learns about them.

On this page

• Determining admissibility
• Inadmissible applicant or family members

Determining admissibility

Once the delegated officer has determined that a principal applicant is eligible under the public policy and their application has received a positive eligibility decision, the principal applicant and their family members, whether accompanying or not, must

• complete medical examinations, if required
• pass criminal and security checks by IRCC
• meet the requirement of A39

The processing office will request a police certificate for the applicant’s current country of residence and for every country where they have lived for 6 months or more since they were 18 years of age. Officers may also make determinations on criminal inadmissibility using other reliable documents when police certificates are not available. See Police certificates for immigration and citizenship for more information.

To receive final approval under the public policy, the applicant and their family members outside Canada must not be inadmissible, and applicant’s family members in Canada must not be inadmissible other than for having

• entered Canada without the required visa or other document required under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR)
• failed to comply with conditions of their temporary stay related to overstaying a visa, visitor record, work permit, student permit or temporary resident permit
• worked or studied without being authorized to do so under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)

Inadmissible applicant or family members

Family members of the principal applicant eligible for a permanent resident visa under this public policy will be granted the same admissibility exemptions. Family members are defined as persons who meet the definition of a “family member” in subsection R1(3) as assessed by a delegated officer.

After an application has been reviewed, if an officer believes that the applicant or a family member (in Canada or overseas) of the principal applicant is inadmissible, the officer must

• outline their concerns to the applicant in a procedural fairness letter
• provide an opportunity for the applicant to submit additional information about the possible inadmissibility in order to address these concerns

If no additional information is provided by the deadline, or if the additional information does not resolve the inadmissibility assessment, the officer may refuse the application. See Making a final decision.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the National Security Screening Division of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) perform security screening and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducts screening for criminal records on behalf of IRCC. The IRCC office handling the clearances will request security screening from partners using the Global Case Management System (GCMS). Security screening results are valid for 48 months. If the results expire, the office must submit a new request for screening to partners through GCMS.

If, upon review, an applicant has passed eligibility but appears to be inadmissible under section A34, A35 or A37, decision-makers are to request a comprehensive screening from partner agencies in GCMS. If the screening activity returns concerns, decision-makers should transfer the application to the Centre of Expertise in Security Cases (CESC) at the Humanitarian Migration Office in Montreal for assessment. The CESC will render the final decision on the admissibility assessment.