Section 64 — Limitation on appeal — serious criminality
Text of provision
(1) No appeal may be made to the Immigration Appeal Division by a foreign national or their sponsor or by a permanent resident if the foreign national or permanent resident has been found to be inadmissible on grounds of security, violating human or international rights, sanctions, serious criminality or organized criminality.
(2) For the purpose of subsection (1), serious criminality must be with respect to a crime that was punished in Canada by a term of imprisonment of at least six months or that is described in paragraph 36(1)(b) or (c).
(3) No appeal may be made under subsection 63(1) in respect of a decision that was based on a finding of inadmissibility on the ground of misrepresentation, unless the foreign national in question is the sponsor’s spouse, common-law partner or child.
Plain English
Section 64 eliminates the right of appeal to the IAD for persons who have been found inadmissible on grounds of:
- security (s 34);
- violating human or international rights (s 35);
- serious criminality (s 36(1)) — where the person has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of at least six months; or
- organised criminality (s 37).
Section 64(3) also removes the sponsorship appeal right for a sponsor who is a permanent resident and has been found inadmissible on the above grounds.
Practical effect
The loss of appeal rights under s 64 significantly limits the options for affected persons. Without an IAD appeal, the options are: judicial review of the admissibility decision in the Federal Court; a pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA) under s 112; or a humanitarian and compassionate application under s 25.
The six-month sentence threshold in s 64(2) for serious criminality is lower than the 12-month threshold for criminal inadmissibility itself — meaning a person with a sentence between 6 and 12 months may be inadmissible and lose appeal rights but face a different calculation for inadmissibility itself.