Pre-Removal Risk Assessment: 15 Days to Apply (2026)

If a Canada Border Services Agency officer hands you a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment application and guide in person, canada.ca says you have 15 days to complete the form and submit it, and 22 days if you received the form and guide in the mail. Canada.ca states the consequence in one plain sentence: "We must receive your complete application before your application deadline, or you will be removed from Canada."

A Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, usually shortened to PRRA, is the last risk assessment IRCC carries out before a removal is enforced. According to canada.ca, IRCC uses a PRRA to make sure a person is not removed to a country where they would be at risk of persecution, in danger of torture, or at risk to their life or of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. It is not a second refugee hearing and it is not an appeal. It is a written risk submission with a very short clock on it.

I am Alisa Osipovich, a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, RCIC-IRB R1055424, practising in Toronto. Below are the deadlines and rules exactly as the Government of Canada publishes them, and the mistakes I see people make in the days after CBSA hands them the envelope.

How long do I have to apply for a PRRA?

Your deadline depends on how you received the application package, and canada.ca sets out both figures on its "Pre-removal risk assessment: How to apply" page. There is also a separate waiting period that decides whether you can apply at all, which canada.ca sets out on its "Who can apply" page.

Note what the 15 and 22 day periods are for. Canada.ca does not describe them as time to think about it. They are the time to complete the form, gather identity and relationship documents, get translations done, write your risk submissions, and have the complete package received by IRCC. Certified translation alone can eat a week.

Who can apply for a pre-removal risk assessment?

You can only apply for a PRRA if a CBSA officer tells you that you are eligible, according to canada.ca. Canada.ca explains that when CBSA starts the removal process, an officer checks whether you are eligible and, if you are, gives you the application form and instruction guide.

Canada.ca lists four situations where you cannot apply. You are not eligible for a PRRA if you made a refugee claim that was ineligible because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, if you were found to be a Convention refugee in another country to which you can return, if you are a protected person who already has refugee protection in Canada, or if you are subject to extradition.

What is the 12 month waiting period for a PRRA?

In most cases you must wait 12 months after the last negative decision you received before you may apply for a PRRA, according to canada.ca. Canada.ca says this applies where you received a negative decision from the Immigration and Refugee Board, where you received a negative decision from IRCC on a previous PRRA application, where you abandoned or withdrew your refugee claim or PRRA application, or where the Federal Court refused your attempt to have your refugee claim or PRRA decision reviewed. If the waiting period applies, canada.ca states you will not be eligible to submit a PRRA application until it is over.

There is an exemption, and it is narrower than most people assume. Canada.ca says you may be eligible for a PRRA before 12 months have passed if conditions in your country change suddenly, but to qualify you must come from a country on its published exempt list and have received your negative decision on or between the specific dates shown for that country. The most recent window on that list is Uganda, for negative decisions received on or between June 20, 2025 and June 19, 2026. Every other entry carries its own fixed date range, and many are marked archived.

What happens after you apply for a PRRA?

Canada.ca says IRCC will not remove you from Canada until one of four things happens: you tell IRCC you do not want to apply, you miss the application deadline, IRCC refuses your application, or you withdraw or abandon it. That is the practical value of filing on time.

Two rules catch people out. First, if you have had a refugee claim or a previous PRRA rejected, canada.ca says you may only provide new evidence which has arisen after the most recent rejection, meaning evidence that became known after the rejection, that you could not access, or that you could not reasonably have been expected to present in time for that decision. Resubmitting your old refugee file is not new evidence. Second, canada.ca states that if you leave Canada while waiting for a decision, your application will be declared abandoned and rejected.

Canada.ca's "After you apply" page gives two separate reasons IRCC may schedule a hearing: where an issue of credibility is key to deciding your application, and where the only reason your claim was not referred to the IRB is that you made an asylum claim in a country with which Canada has an information-sharing arrangement. The second one is not a credibility hearing at all, so the ground matters before you prepare.

Separately, canada.ca's "How to apply" page states that every family member in Canada aged 18 or over who is also applying must complete their own application, and that documents submitted in a language other than English or French without a translation will not be considered. Canada.ca's "Decision on your application" page says the CBSA will inform you in person of the decision, and adds that if you disagree with the decision you can apply to the Federal Court of Canada for a review.

What is the most common mistake in the first 48 hours?

The most common mistake is treating the package as paperwork rather than as a risk case with a deadline. People spend the first week looking for a lawyer or a consultant, then discover that translation, medical records and country evidence cannot be assembled in the days that remain. If you have a removal date and a PRRA form in your hand, the clock started when you received it, not when you found help.

The second most common mistake is writing the submissions as a life story. Canada.ca asks you to answer specific questions in your letter: why you would be at risk, what kind of risk and why, how the risk concerns you directly and personally, whether you could escape it by moving elsewhere in your country, and how your situation compares with that of the rest of the population. Answering those five questions, with evidence attached to each, is what an officer is reading for.

What should you do right now?

Write your exact deadline on the envelope the day you receive it, then work backwards. Get identity and relationship documents copied and, where needed, translated first, because that step depends on other people. Collect evidence that meets canada.ca's definition of new evidence: material that became known after the rejection, that you could not access, or that you could not reasonably have been expected to present in time for that decision. Evidence that predates the refusal can still qualify on those grounds, so do not discard it. If a hearing is scheduled, find out which of the two grounds it was called on before you prepare.

If you are not sure whether you are inside the 12 month bar, or whether your evidence counts as new, that is worth a professional opinion before the deadline rather than after it. A refused PRRA is much harder to fix than a well prepared one. If your claim was refused by the Immigration and Refugee Board and you have not yet reached the removal stage, read our explainer on what to do when a refugee claim is refused and whether you can appeal to the RAD. If you already hold a removal order, our guide to what to do after a removal order in Canada covers the three order types and the 30 day rule. For the wider picture on protection in Canada, see our refugee claims and protection services page.