Bill C-12 policies and procedures: Clients impacted by retroactive provisions of Bill C-12

The new eligibility bars apply retroactively to refugee claims made on or after June 3, 2025.

IRCC has taken initial steps to terminate these claims by sending procedural fairness letters to counsel and claimants.
Roster lawyers who wish to reply to a procedural fairness letter and have exhausted the hours on a client’s certificate can obtain an additional two hours for written submissions.

To obtain these additional hours, upload the following in Legal Aid Online:

• The client’s completed Basis of Claim form using the Certificate Amendment page. Use document code 115 “Signed/Dated BOC and Narrative”.
• A copy of the procedural fairness letter in Legal Aid Online using the Certificate Amendment page. Use document code 102 “RPD Authorization Materials”. In the “description” field, type “requesting two hours for written submissions”.

These hours are only available on basis of claim preparation certificates that have not been amended to include hearing coverage. If a client’s certificate already includes hearing preparation coverage, the hearing preparation hours may be used to reply to the procedural fairness letter .

Once a procedural fairness letter has been received in a claim, the certificate is only eligible for the two-hour written submission coverage. Hearing coverage may no longer be requested.

Exception for families with different eligibility outcomes
Certificates will be eligible for both hearing coverage and the two-hour procedural fairness letter response coverage where family members receiving services on the same certificate have different eligibility outcomes. That applies when at least one family member remains eligible for RPD proceedings because they have different circumstances of entry to Canada.

In such cases, lawyers should add to coverage requests a brief letter with the names of those family members who remain eligible and those who are now ineligible. Lawyers should include these letters when they request:

• the two-hour procedural fairness letter response coverage where refugee hearing coverage is already included on the certificate; or
• hearing coverage where the two-hour procedural fairness letter response coverage is already included on the certificate