SECD – Strengthening Document Control – February 9, 2026

Strengthening Canada’s Immigration and Border Systems Act

Key Messages

• Securing the Canadian border starts when someone submits an immigration application and continues past document issuance, all the way until travel to Canada. The proposed legislation authorizes strengthening control over immigration documents and applications and will strengthen Canada’s immigration system, ensuring the government has the tools needed to manage migration integrity and protect Canada’s public interests.
• The legislation would expand the Government of Canada’s ability to cancel, change or suspend immigration documents and to cancel, suspend or stop accepting new applications—both individually and on a large scale for groups of documents and applications. This would help us better respond to emergency situations that could undermine the management of migration into our country and the safety of Canadians while having strong safeguards in place to protect people’s Charter rights and due process.
• Large-scale authorities would only be used in limited and exceptional circumstances when determined by the Governor in Council to be in the public interest. These could include another pandemic or other regional health crisis; a safety or national security threat; or even in response to large-scale fraud.
• These authorities cannot be used to block people in need of protection from accessing the asylum system, and they don’t give the government new powers to cancel asylum claims and to grant or take away a person’s status in Canada.

Key Figures and Objectives of Legislation

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) receives a high volume of applications and issues millions of immigration documents each year.
• Most foreign nationals need either a temporary resident visa (TRV) or an electronic travel authorization (eTA) for travel to Canada. These documents are issued for up to five or 10 years, or until their passport expires. With the view to reducing operational burden and facilitating genuine travel to Canada, IRCC typically issues documents for multiple entries.
• In 2025, IRCC has received nearly 7.3M applications for temporary residence (TRVs, eTAs, study and work permits) and has issued nearly 5.7M temporary immigration documents as of November 30, 2025.

Strengthening Document Control (Mass Authorities)

• In recent years, IRCC has seen increasingly sophisticated fraud and a significant rise in the number of travellers arriving in Canada for reasons contrary to those stated on their immigration application. This rise in exploitation, alongside lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other large-scale emergencies, points to key gaps in the authorities governing Canada’s immigration program.
• These gaps prevent the government from effectively responding to emerging threats and changing world conditions. Closing them will strengthen managed migration to Canada, and reinforce Canada’s commitment to a stronger Canadian border and to protecting Canadians.
• IRCC currently does not have the authority to cancel, suspend or change groups of active immigration documents or groups of applications in its inventory. The proposed legislative amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act contained in Bill C-12 aim to close these gaps. These authorities will strengthen our control over immigration documents we issue and the applications we process. They are key to improving the integrity of the immigration system.
• The proposed amendments would:
  • Authorize the Governor in Council to make two types of orders when needed to protect the public interest: (1) orders managing application intake, suspension and cancellation of groups of immigration applications, and (2) orders relating to the cancellation, suspension or variance of any number of active immigration documents.
  • Provide officers the authority to examine document holders outside Canada for the purposes of carrying out the terms of an Order; and,
  • Include authorities to make regulations that would allow an officer, on a case-by-case basis, to cancel, suspend or vary an immigration document or cancel an immigration application in prescribed circumstances. This would also include authorities for officers to examine document holders outside of Canada, in prescribed circumstances.
• The authorities are not being sought with a particular set of circumstances in mind and the legislation does not pre-determine scenarios for use. Rather, the authorities would be available for use in exceptional circumstances if there is strong justification that it’s in the public interest. An amendment was made in the House of Commons to clarify the intended scope of “public interest” which includes scenarios such as: administrative errors, fraud, public health, public safety and national security.
• Given potential impacts that the use of such authorities could bring beyond the immigration space, the Governor in Council would determine which situations require action based on public interest grounds, rather than leaving the decision to a single minister. This ensures a stronger level of oversight and rigor commensurate with their impact.
• Each Order in Council would be published in the Canada Gazette, ensuring public transparency. The Minister would also be required to appear in Parliament and table a report within seven sitting days.

Impacts of Mass Authorities

• The legislation does not target any specific cohort of clients for immediate action. No immigration documents would automatically be cancelled as a result of this bill becoming law. The use of these authorities would be a separate and subsequent process.
• Any use of these authorities in the public interest will be subject to a rigorous, whole-of-government process, including an assessment of all relevant considerations.
• The use of these authorities would be limited to interventions on immigration documents or applications for those documents—not status. The use of these authorities for a person in Canada would not result in an immediate loss of status, meaning they would not need to leave Canada right away, nor in the granting of a new status, meaning they cannot be used to grant permanent resident status or grant new work/study permits.
• In addition, an amendment was adopted by the House of Commons that specifies that the authority to vary immigration documents en masse cannot be used to grant or extend study or work permits.
• Furthermore, the use of these authorities could not be used to block access to the asylum system. Claims for refugee protection before the Immigration and Refugee Board are not applications for documents and thus are not subject to mass intervention under these authorities.
• All existing processes and protections relating to the removal of foreign nationals from Canada remain unchanged, including for refugee claimants. No changes are proposed to existing removal processes as a result of these new authorities.

Potential Uses of Mass Authorities

• The Mass Authorities were not designed with a specific use case in mind. These authorities are meant to be used to respond to exceptional circumstances when needed to protect the public interest, including for matters such as administrative errors, large-scale fraud, public health, public safety or national security.
• An example might include a pandemic, where the government may want to suspend visas for clients abroad to pause travel to Canada and protect Canadian public health. The suspension may then be lifted, after the risk subsides, or after clients provide evidence of a vaccine or health test.
• Other examples could include a cybersecurity attack where a vast number of fraudulent immigration documents were issued in the system, potentially requiring mass cancellation of the documents to ensure that nefarious actors cannot use them to travel to Canada. Where large-scale fraud trends were observed, these authorities could also be used to cancel or suspend documents and applications based on known fraud indicators. Such actions would be grounded in objective indicators linked to fraud.
• Lastly, these authorities could also be used to address a situation where thousands of immigration documents were issued as a result of suspected foreign interference by hostile state or non-state actors, creating national security risks. The authorities could suspend documents while investigations are completed. This would eliminate the risk that such nefarious actors could travel to Canada.

Existing Authorities to Cancel Immigration Documents

• The proposed document control authorities will further strengthen IRCC’s control over immigration documents and applications in its inventory, including when necessary in the public interest. These authorities build on existing cancellation authorities:
  • The Canada Border Services Agency made amendments to the provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations that came into force on March 15, 2024, which provide for the automatic cancellation of eTAs, TRVs, and temporary resident permits after a foreign national who is in Canada is found inadmissible and is issued a removal order. This ensures that these documents are not re-used for entering Canada after receiving the removal order.
  • IRCC also made regulatory amendments that came into effect on January 31, 2025, which strengthened immigration and border officers’ authority to cancel TRVs and eTAs, and, in more limited circumstances, study and work permits on a case-by-case basis. However, these individual cancellation authorities are limited, as they can be exercised only on a case-by-case basis and in prescribed circumstances.