Every few weeks, I get a call that starts the same way: “My RPD claim was refused. What now?” There’s always a pause after that sentence, the kind of pause that tells you someone has just found out the ground under them isn’t as solid as they thought. My job, in that moment, isn’t just to explain the law. It’s to slow the panic down long enough for the person to actually hear what I’m saying, because what happens in the next fifteen working days can decide the rest of their case.

That’s the world of the Refugee Appeal Division, or RAD one of the four divisions inside the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), and honestly one of the least understood parts of the entire refugee process. People know about the RPD hearing. They’ve usually heard of the Federal Court. But the RAD sits quietly in between, doing work that can either rescue a claim or close the door on it for good and most people don’t learn it exists until they desperately need it.

I wanted to write this not as a dry explainer but as the conversation I actually have with clients sitting across from me, worried and running out of time covering what the RAD actually is, the deadlines you cannot afford to miss and who is and isn’t eligible to appeal in the first place.

First, What the RAD Actually Is

Think of the RPD hearing as the first courtroom a refugee claimant walks into. A member listens to the claim, reviews the evidence and decides whether the person qualifies for protection in Canada. If that decision goes against the claimant or if the government disagrees with a decision that went in the claimant’s favour the case doesn’t just end there. It can move up one level to the RAD.

RAD’s job is to review that RPD decision on paper, checking for errors did the RPD misread the evidence, apply the wrong legal test or miss something important? In most cases, there’s no new hearing with witnesses. It’s a paper appeal built almost entirely on the written record and the arguments your representative puts together. This is exactly why so many appeals fail before they even get a fair look people treat it like round two of the same hearing when it’s really a completely different kind of legal exercise.

The Clock Starts the Moment You Get That Decision

If there’s one thing I drill into every client, it’s this, the deadlines are brutal and they do not bend for grief, confusion or bad luck.

You generally have 15 working days from the date you receive the RPD’s written reasons to file your Notice of Appeal and a total of 45 days to file the complete appellant’s record the document that lays out your legal arguments and any new evidence you’re relying on. Miss it and in most situations your appeal right disappears. Your only path forward becomes judicial review at the Federal Court, which is a much narrower and harder road.

I’ve seen people lose their appeal not because their case was weak but because they spent two of those precious weeks trying to process the shock of a refusal before calling anyone for help. I understand why but I always tell people grieve the decision and fight the deadline at the same time. You can do both.

Not Everyone Gets to Appeal

This part is hard to say, but I would rather clients hear it clearly than find out too late. Not every negative RPD decision can go to the RAD. If your claim was found to have no credible basis was deemed manifestly unfounded or falls under certain exceptions tied to the Safe Third Country Agreement, the door to the RAD may already be closed to you. In those situations, judicial review at the Federal Court is often the only remaining option and it works very differently it’s about whether the process was fair and lawful, not a full re-examination of your story.

This is exactly why I encourage people to ask their representative, right after an RPD hearing, “If this doesn’t go my way, what are my actual options?” Knowing the answer in advance removes a layer of panic later.

The One Piece of Advice I Give Everyone at This Stage

If your refugee claim has just been refused, don’t wait to feel ready before reaching out for legal help. The system doesn’t pause for you to catch your breath. Reach out the same week ideally the same day so we can map out the timeline, assess whether you even qualify to appeal and start building the record properly instead of scrambling in the final days.

Preparation, not panic is what actually moves an appeal forward. The sooner that shift happens, the stronger your case tends to be.

Deepti Gupta writes on Canadian immigration and refugee law, drawing on real client conversations to make IRB and IRCC processes easier to understand. This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for personalized legal advice from a licensed immigration lawyer or consultant.