SECU – Q-897―With regard to individuals who are current or former officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their agents or proxies, who are suspected of being in, or residing in Canada, since 2016 – April 30, 2026
Question
With regard to individuals who are current or former officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their agents or proxies, who are suspected of being in, or residing in, Canada, since 2016: (a) what is the total number of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials that the government (i) suspects, (ii) has reasonable grounds to believe, (iii) has determined, are living in Canada; (b) how many of the individuals referenced in (a) are currently (i) under investigation, (ii) subject to an inadmissibility assessment, (iii) subject to enforcement action; (c) how many inadmissibility reports under section 44 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act have been prepared or referred to the Immigration Division in relation to individuals referenced in (a), broken down by inadmissibility ground cited and by year; (d) how many individuals referenced in (a) are or were subject to removal proceedings, and, for each such case, what is the number that are (i) before the Immigration Division, (ii) before the Immigration Appeal Division, (iii) before the Federal Court, (iv) stayed or deferred; (e) how many individuals referenced in (a) have been issued (i) a removal order, including departure orders, exclusion orders, and deportation orders, (ii) a warrant; (f) of the individuals referenced in (e), how many have been removed from Canada, broken down by year; (g) how many temporary resident visas, study permits, work permits, permanent resident visas or electronic travel authorizations have been refused, cancelled or revoked on the basis of suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps affiliation or service, broken down by year; (h) for each department or agency involved, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, what resources were dedicated to identifying, investigating and removing individuals referenced in (a), including (i) employees or full-time equivalents, (ii) expenditures, both in total and by type, broken down by program and by year?
Response
This response was tabled in the House of Commons on April 13, 2026, as Sessional Paper 8555-451-897.
Tabled on: April 13, 2026
Sessional Paper 8555-451-897
House of Commons
Order/Address of the House of Commons
Question number: Q-897
Asked by: Vincent Neil Ho (Richmond Hill South)
Date asked: February 23, 2026
Presented by: Sherry Romanado - Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Reply by: the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Name of Signatory: Peter Fragiskatos, M.P.
Reply
g) how many temporary resident visas, study permits, work permits, permanent resident visas or electronic travel authorizations have been refused, on the basis of suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps affiliation or service, broken down by year?
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada undertook a preliminary review to assess the scope of the information requested and the time required to prepare a meaningful and accurate response. This review identified limitations within the processing database where the information is stored, which prevent the direct extraction of the data as requested. To provide a response, the information would need to be extracted from the database and then carefully reviewed and verified through a significant manual process. Given the time available, completing this work would not be feasible and may risk providing information that is incomplete or potentially misleading. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada aims to ensure that any information shared is accurate, complete, and reliable.
However, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada can confirm that, as of March 5, 2026, and as part of ongoing work with the Canada Border Services Agency related to the designation of the Iranian regime:
- approximately 17,800 applications were reviewed for potential inadmissibility.
- 239 visas were cancelled, and 245 applications were refused.
h) what resources were dedicated to identifying, investigating and removing individuals referenced in (a), including (i) employees or full-time equivalents, (ii) expenditures, both in total and by type, broken down by program and by year?
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada dedicates resources across its operations to identify, assess, and address potential inadmissibility concerns, including those related to possible membership in, or association with, listed terrorist organizations such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada staff, both in Canada and at missions abroad, are trained to assess all immigration applications for a range of inadmissibility grounds under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act , including national security concerns.
These functions are embedded within the Department's routine processing, screening, and program integrity activities and are carried out by employees across multiple programs and business lines. As a result, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada does not track or assign employees, fulltime equivalents, or expenditures exclusively to the identification, investigation, or removal of individuals with a confirmed or suspected connection to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Given the integrated nature of these activities and the level of granularity requested, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is unable to reliably isolate or quantify the time spent by employees or the expenditures incurred solely for the purpose of identifying or investigating applicants with suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps connections. Attempting to do so would require extensive manual analysis and could risk producing incomplete or inaccurate information.
Public Safety Canada
Name of Signatory: Jacques Ramsay, Parliamentary Secretary
Reply
Canada Border Services Agency
- what is the total number of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials that the government (i) suspects, (ii) has reasonable grounds to believe, (iii) has determined, are living in Canada; (b) how many of the individuals referenced in (a) are currently (i) under investigation, (ii) subject to an inadmissibility assessment, (iii) subject to enforcement action; (c) how many inadmissibility reports under section 44 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act have been prepared or referred to the Immigration Division in relation to individuals referenced in (a), broken down by inadmissibility ground cited and by year; (d) how many individuals referenced in (a) are or were subject to removal proceedings, and, for each such case, what is the number that are (i) before the Immigration Division, (ii) before the Immigration Appeal Division, (iii) before the Federal Court, (iv) stayed or deferred; (e) how many individuals referenced in (a) have been issued (i) a removal order, including departure orders, exclusion orders, and deportation orders, (ii) a warrant; (f) of the individuals referenced in (e), how many have been removed from Canada, broken down by year; (g) how many temporary resident visas, study permits, work permits, permanent resident visas or electronic travel authorizations have been refused, cancelled or revoked on the basis of suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps affiliation or service, broken down by year?
The level of detail of the information requested is not systematically tracked in a centralized database. The information exists in individual case files, and would require manual counting. Although the Canada Border Services Agency cannot produce this subset of information in the time allotted, the Canada Border Services Agency does publish information on actions taken to date in relation to enforcement efforts against senior officials in the Iranian regime, which includes former officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This information is available on the Canada Border Services Agency's website Border measures to keep war criminals out of Canada.
As of March 5, 2026, under the designation of the Iranian regime, approximately 17,800 applications were reviewed for potential inadmissibility, 239 visas have been cancelled by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and 174 investigations have been opened by the Canada Border Services Agency. Additional investigations will be opened as new information becomes available.
79 investigations have been concluded by the Canada Border Services Agency, which means that the individuals in question were either not in Canada or determined not to be a senior official in the Iranian regime and therefore not inadmissible for this reason. The remaining cases are subject to ongoing investigations or enforcement action.
32 persons have been reported inadmissible by the Canada Border Services Agency for being a senior official in the Iranian regime. 23 cases involving individuals in Canada have been or will be sent to the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada for an admissibility hearing. Three referrals were withdrawn by the Canada Border Services Agency before the case proceeded any further*. The Canada Border Services Agency has requested the scheduling of 17 of these cases, while the rest continue to undergo preparations prior to being sent for scheduling.
Of these 17 cases, eight admissibility hearings have been concluded, resulting in decisions by the Immigration Division (three individuals were found inadmissible for being prescribed senior officials and issued deportation orders. One has been removed from Canada. Five individuals were found not inadmissible by the Immigration Division. The Canada Border Services Agency has filed their appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division in four of these cases. In two of these cases, the appeal was dismissed by the Immigration Appeal Division which the Canada Border Services Agency has filed for judicial review of the decision.); one case has been subsequently withdrawn by the Canada Border Services Division*; eight cases are ongoing.
* A case may be withdrawn for several reasons, including but not limited to, the foreign national departing Canada prior to a scheduled hearing.
(h) for each department or agency involved, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, what resources were dedicated to identifying, investigating and removing individuals referenced in (a), including (i) employees or full-time equivalents, (ii) expenditures, both in total and by type, broken down by program and by year?
The Canada Border Services Agency prioritizes immigration enforcement against individuals inadmissible on security, international human rights violations and organized criminality grounds. The Canada Border Services Agency does not have specific resources dedicated solely to this cohort, however, it has approximately 530 officers dedicated to immigration enforcement, which includes identifying, investigating and removing potential former officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; additionally, these officers are responsible for conducting immigration investigations, managing detained individuals, representing the Minister at Immigration and Refugee Board hearings and enforcing removals.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Given its mandate and specific operational requirements, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service does not generally disclose details related to operational activity.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(h) for each department or agency involved, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, what resources were dedicated to identifying, investigating and removing individuals referenced in (a), including (i) employees or full-time equivalents, (ii) expenditures, both in total and by type, broken down by program and by year?
In order to ensure the safety of our members and those we protect, as well as to ensure the integrity and security of Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigations and operations, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police does not disclose information that could expose specific details about any investigation, nor do we comment upon the number of personnel assigned to any specific investigation.