Authorization to Return to Canada (ARC)

The Application for the Authorization to Return to Canada is a special process that is reviewed by Senior officers on behalf of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada; this process happens when a person who has been in Canada before, left the country with a special order and wants to return before the stipulated period.

For example, there are three kinds of removal orders; 1) Departure Order, 2) Exclusion Order, 3) Deportation Order. Each removal order has different consequences.

In the case of an Exclusion Order, the restriction to come back to the country can be of a period of one or two years, depending on the action that motivated the removal order.  One year in case of having remained in Canada longer than the authorized period and/or having worked illegally in Canada. Two years is the penalty for a person who has misrepresented themselves before the Government of Canada in any immigration process, this last one also applies for those people who have not been in Canada but did some process and misrepresented in the information provided to the Canadian Embassy.

The Deportation Order is the one with the most serious consequences, because normally this removal order bans the person to come back to Canada for life.

The most common example where an Authorization to Return to Canada (ARC) is needed is when a person has applied for refugee in the past and wants to come back to Canada sponsored by a family member or an employer.

If someone has applied for refugee in the past and wants to come back to Canada this person needs an Authorization to Return to Canada (ARC) during their application process. If the person does not apply for an Authorization to Return to Canada, the process will be stopped at some point until an ARC is done.

In the practice, the Canadian Immigration Officers tend to inform foreigners that in the future they will be able to come back to Canada without any problem, but the reality is different. The ARC process is ignored by a lot of people.

The legal base is in Section 52 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that states as follows:

 ‘If a removal order has been enforced, the foreign national shall not return to Canada, unless authorized by an officer or in other prescribed circumstances. ‘

The ARC is a process that has to be done considering several facts, if you are currently about to start this process we can assist you with that.