Meet the requirements
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reviews asylum claims made at the border to determine whether they are eligible.
If your claim is eligible, CBSA sends it to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). They decide if you meet the definition of a refugee.
If your claim is ineligible, you will be referred to CBSA for removal from Canada. CBSA will tell you if you’re eligible to apply for a pre-removal risk assessment.
-
Confirm your claim is eligible Updated requirements
Your asylum claim is ineligible if you:
- are recognized as a Convention refugee by another country that you can return to
- already have protected person status in Canada
- are subject to a removal order
- have already made an asylum claim in another country
- are inadmissible to Canada on security or criminality grounds or human rights violations
- made a previous asylum claim in Canada that was determined to be ineligible
- made a previous asylum claim in Canada that was rejected, abandoned or withdrawn
- entered Canada from the United States (US) along the land border
New rules for asylum claims made on or after June 3, 2025
Your claim is ineligible if you made it:
- more than 1 year after you first entered Canada
- This applies if you entered after June 24, 2020, even if you’ve left since then.
- more than 14 days after you entered Canada in between ports of entry along the Canada-US land border
If you enter Canada from the US
The Canada–US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) helps both governments manage asylum claims along our shared border.
Your claim may not be eligible if you entered Canada from the US
- at an official land border crossing
- anywhere along the border, including rivers, lakes and other waterways, and made an asylum claim within 14 days of the day you entered
If you try to make an asylum claim in Canada within 14 days of entering from the US, you will be returned to the US unless you meet an exception or exemption to the STCA.
Learn more about what it means to enter Canada from the US, and how the STCA may affect you.
-
Show that you meet the definition of a refugee
If your claim was eligible and sent to the IRB, they schedule a hearing with you. During the hearing, you will need to prove that you meet the definition of a Convention refugee or a person in need of protection.
Convention refugee
To meet the definition of a Convention refugee, you must show:
- that you are in Canada
- that you can’t return to your home country or the country you normally live in because you have a good reason to believe you will be persecuted because of:
- your race
- your religion
- your political opinion
- your nationality
- you belonging to a social group, such as women or people of a particular sexual orientation
Person in need of protection
To meet the definition of a person in need of protection, you must show:
- that you are in Canada
- that you can’t return to your home country because you will face a
- danger of torture
- risk to your life
- risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment