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Sundeep S. Grewal is a lawyer at Lawgical Law Corporation, called to the BC bar in 2018, and a member of the Law Society of British Columbia.
Updated November 9, 2026: filing, leave and pending figures checked that day on the Federal Court’s quarterly statistics pages (latest opened: June 30, 2026, modified July 29, 2026); deadlines checked on Justice Laws (current to October 19, 2026).
The numbers: new immigration and refugee judicial reviews in the Federal Court went from 6,424 in 2020 to 28,465 in 2025, and 14,053 more were filed in the first half of 2026 (Federal Court statistics).
The leave stage: in 2025 the court granted leave in 2,031 immigration files while closing 17,238, roughly 12 leave grants for every 100 files closed. Most files never reach a hearing.
The deadline: 15 days after you learn of a decision made in Canada, 60 days for a decision made outside Canada (IRPA s. 72(2)(b)). The court’s filing fee is $50.
What to do: because leave is refused far more often than it is granted, the application has to show a clear error in the officer’s reasons from the first filing. See the table · Book a consultation
The lawyers who handle these files
Sundeep S. GrewalBarrister and Solicitor
Prabhpreet Kaur SanghaBarrister and Solicitor
Pardeep S. GrewalBarrister and SolicitorAbout our lawyers
Sundeep S. Grewal founded Lawgical Law Corporation and argues immigration cases at the Immigration and Refugee Board and the Federal Court of Canada.
Prabhpreet Kaur Sangha focuses on refugee claims, immigration appeals, inadmissibility, detention reviews and Federal Court cases, and has presented at Continuing Legal Education seminars and the National Immigration Conference.
Pardeep S. Grewal is an immigration and estates lawyer known for clear communication and practical strategy.
If you are thinking about a Federal Court judicial review of an immigration refusal, the court’s own numbers tell you three things. Filings have more than quadrupled since 2020, so the court is busier than it has ever been. Leave, the first gate, is granted in a small share of files: in 2025, about 12 leave grants for every 100 immigration files the court closed. And the 15-day (in Canada) or 60-day (outside Canada) clock to file does not stop while you think it over. This page sets out the court’s figures year by year, explains what they do and don’t show, and walks through the steps, deadlines and costs.
Lawgical Law Corporation, an immigration law firm in Surrey, Abbotsford and Vancouver, BC, files and argues judicial reviews of immigration refusals in the Federal Court for clients across Canada.
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How many immigration judicial reviews are filed in the Federal Court?
The Federal Court recorded 28,465 new immigration and refugee proceedings in 2025, up from 6,424 in 2020, and 14,053 in the first six months of 2026. Immigration made up about 87% of everything filed in the court in 2025 (28,465 of 32,859 new proceedings). In June 2026 the court said new immigration filings “may exceed 30,000 in 2026”.
All figures below come from the court’s quarterly “Activity Summary” tables, which it updates after each quarter (March 31, June 30, September 30, December 31). Each row is the full calendar year, except the two 2026 rows, which are year-to-date. The “IMM” figures cover applications for leave under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (refugee and non-refugee); citizenship cases are counted separately and are not included.
| Period | New immigration proceedings | Files closed (dispositions) | Leave granted | Immigration files pending at period end | Immigration share of all pending files | Leave grants per 100 files closed* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 6,424 | 4,643 | 440 | 5,286 | 68.1% | 9.5 |
| 2021 | 9,761 | 8,440 | 1,890 | 6,388 | 72.1% | 22.4 |
| 2022 | 13,487 | 11,646 | 1,658 | 8,175 | 73.2% | 14.2 |
| 2023 | 16,726 | 15,100 | 1,722 | 9,759 | 75.2% | 11.4 |
| 2024 | 24,667 | 22,151 | 2,261 | 11,916 | 76.3% | 10.2 |
| 2025 | 28,465 | 17,238 | 2,031 | 23,099 | 82.2% | 11.8 |
| 2026, Jan 1 to Mar 31 | 6,650 | 4,354 | 543 | 25,352 | 82.3% | 12.5 |
| 2026, Jan 1 to Jun 30 | 14,053 | 8,737 | 964 | 28,366 | 83.5% | 11.0 |
Sources: Federal Court, Statistics pages for December 31, 2020, December 31, 2021, December 31, 2022, December 31, 2023, December 31, 2024, December 31, 2025, March 31, 2026 and June 30, 2026, opened November 9, 2026. *The court does not publish a leave “rate”. The last column divides leave grants by files closed in the same period; it is a rough guide, not an official success rate (see the next section).
How often does the Federal Court grant leave in immigration cases?
The court does not publish a leave-grant percentage. Its tables give the number of leave grants and the number of files closed. Dividing one by the other gives about 10 to 12 leave grants for every 100 immigration files closed in each year from 2023 to mid-2026. In plain terms, leave is granted in roughly 1 file in 10, so how the application is prepared matters.
Two cautions before anyone quotes that figure:
- It is not a win rate. “Files closed” includes files the court refused leave on, files the applicant discontinued (often because the government agreed to send the decision back for a new decision before the court ruled), and files decided after a hearing. Leave granted is only the first gate; the judge at the hearing can still dismiss the application. The tables don’t split these outcomes out, so no one can work out a true success rate from them.
- The timing doesn’t line up. A file filed in one year is often decided the next, so a year’s leave grants and closed files are not the same set of cases. That is likely part of why 2021 (22.4) looks so different from the years around it.
The tables do show a difference between refugee and other immigration files. In 2025, the court granted leave in 465 refugee files against 2,485 refugee files closed (about 19 per 100), and in 1,566 non-refugee files against 14,753 closed (about 11 per 100). The non-refugee group is where study permit, visitor visa, work permit, spousal and PR refusals sit. (Federal Court, December 31, 2025)
How big is the Federal Court’s immigration backlog?
At June 30, 2026, the court had 28,366 immigration files pending, 83.5% of all its pending files, up from 11,916 at the end of 2024. On June 26, 2026 the court said it is “operating beyond capacity and facing a historic backlog” that “will take years to abate”, and that new filings can take up to eight weeks to process.
The court has changed its own deadlines to cope:
- May 14, 2025: a Special Order of the Chief Justice extended the Rule 10 deadline to file the applicant’s record by 45 days, from 30 to 75 days, for all unperfected immigration and citizenship leave applications (Federal Court notice, May 14, 2025).
- June 26, 2026: the court’s bulletin says a new Special Order “extends the deadline to file an Applicant’s Record from 45 to 90 days” and that the Consolidated Practice Guidelines were amended (paragraphs 4, 43 to 45 and Annex C) (Federal Court bulletin, June 26, 2026). The applicant’s record is now due 120 days after the application is filed (the 30 days in Rule 10 plus the 90-day extension).
- Registry delays: the court’s “Delays in processing documents” page says processing “can be up to eight (8) weeks”, against a normal 48-hour target, with immigration documents most affected (Federal Court, June 26, 2026).
None of this extends the 15-day or 60-day deadline to file the application for leave itself. That deadline is in the Act, and only a judge can extend it, “for special reasons” (IRPA s. 72(2)(c)).
What is an immigration judicial review?
A judicial review asks a Federal Court judge to decide whether an immigration decision was lawful: reasonable, fair and within the officer’s powers. The judge does not decide your application again. If the application succeeds, the usual result is that the refusal is set aside and sent back for a new decision by a different officer.
Every immigration judicial review starts with an application for leave (IRPA s. 72(1)). The court’s powers are in the Federal Courts Act, s. 18.1: it can set aside a decision “and refer back for determination in accordance with such directions as it considers to be appropriate” (s. 18.1(3)(b)), on grounds that include procedural unfairness, errors of law and findings made “without regard for the material before it” (s. 18.1(4)). Most decisions are reviewed on the reasonableness standard from Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65. Our digest of recent Federal Court refusal decisions shows what that means for study permits, visitor visas and work permits.
You can’t start a judicial review while an appeal is still open to you under the Act. For example, a refused family-class sponsor who can appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division must use that appeal first (IRPA s. 72(2)(a)).
What are the steps and deadlines in an immigration judicial review?
There are two stages. First, the leave stage, decided on paper: you file and serve the application, then the applicant’s record, the government answers and you may reply. If leave is granted, a hearing is set 30 to 90 days later. The time limits come from IRPA ss. 72 and 74 and the Federal Courts Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection Rules.
| Stage | Time limit | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| File and serve the application for leave and for judicial review (Form IR-1) | 15 days after you are notified of, or otherwise learn of, a decision made in Canada; 60 days for a decision made outside Canada | IRPA s. 72(2)(b); Rule 5 |
| File proof of service | Within 10 days after the application is served | Federal Court practice guide |
| Government files a notice of appearance | Within 10 days of service of the application | Federal Court practice guide |
| If you have no written reasons: the Registry asks the officer for them | “Without delay” | Rule 9 |
| File the applicant’s record (affidavit, decision, memorandum of argument) | 30 days after filing (or after receiving the reasons) under Rule 10, currently 120 days in total under the June 26, 2026 Special Order (it was 75 days from May 14, 2025) | Rule 10; Special Orders |
| Government’s memorandum (if it opposes) | 30 days after service of the applicant’s record | Rule 11 |
| Your reply | 10 days after service of the government’s memorandum | Rule 13 |
| Leave decision | A judge decides on the written record, without a hearing; no appeal from the leave decision | Rule 14; IRPA s. 72(2)(d) and (e) |
| If leave is granted: order sets the hearing date and deadlines, and the officer sends the certified tribunal record | Hearing no sooner than 30 days and no later than 90 days after leave, unless the parties agree to an earlier date | Rules 15 and 17; IRPA s. 74(b) |
| Judgment | Appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal only if the judge certifies a serious question of general importance | IRPA s. 74(d); Rule 18 |
For study permit refusals, the court ran a Study Permit Pilot Project from October 1, 2024. Where both sides opted in, the file was not complex and no affidavits were filed, leave and the merits were decided together, in writing, in about 5 months instead of the usual 14 to 18 months. The pilot was paused on June 30, 2025, so new study permit cases follow the normal two-stage process.
Worked example: counting the 15-day and 60-day deadlines
The clock runs from the day you are notified of the decision or otherwise become aware of it, not from the date printed on the letter if you saw it later.
- Decision made in Canada (for example, an inland work permit extension refused): you read the refusal in your IRCC account on Monday, June 1, 2026. Fifteen days after June 1 is Tuesday, June 16, 2026. The application must be filed and served by then.
- Decision made outside Canada (for example, a visitor visa refused by a visa office abroad): you read it on June 1, 2026. Sixty days after June 1 is Friday, July 31, 2026.
If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day (Federal Courts Rules, rules 2 and 6; Interpretation Act, s. 26). Under the Rules, days from December 21 to January 7 are not counted for filing or serving documents (rule 6(3)). If the deadline has passed, you can ask a judge for more time, but you have to show “special reasons” (IRPA s. 72(2)(c)), and it is never automatic.
How much does an immigration judicial review cost in the Federal Court?
The court’s filing fee for an application for leave and for judicial review is $50. The usual rule is that neither side pays the other’s legal costs: no costs are awarded unless the court, “for special reasons”, orders them. Your main cost is your own lawyer’s fees.
- Filing fee: $50.00 (Federal Court practice guide; Federal Courts Rules, Tariff A, s. 1(1)(d), notice of application).
- Costs between the parties: none, unless the court finds special reasons (Rule 22). So if you lose, you normally don’t pay the government’s costs, and if you win, the government normally doesn’t pay yours.
- Legal fees: our firm handles many judicial reviews and charges a flat fee, so there are no surprise costs.
Who can represent you in a Federal Court judicial review?
In the Federal Court, an individual may act in person or be represented by a lawyer (Federal Courts Rules, r. 119). Immigration consultants can’t represent you there. A judicial review is legal argument: the officer’s reasons, the record that was before the officer and the case law on what makes a decision unreasonable.
The court’s own guide notes that if you are not represented by a lawyer you will need to attend the hearing yourself, and that proceedings “can be complicated”. With one lawyer on the file, the same person reads the refusal, decides whether there is an arguable error, prepares the record, answers the government and, if the government agrees to settle, deals with the redetermination.
Mistakes I have seen
- I have seen applicants wait for an answer to a reconsideration request to IRCC while the 15-day Federal Court deadline ran out. A reconsideration request does not stop the clock.
- I have seen applications for leave filed with only a general complaint that the decision was “unfair”, without pointing to the sentence in the officer’s reasons that is wrong. At a stage where about 1 file in 10 gets leave, that rarely works.
- I have seen applicants attach new documents to the court record that the officer never saw. The court generally reviews the decision on the record that was before the officer, so new evidence usually belongs in a fresh application or a redetermination, not the judicial review.
- I have seen people count the deadline from the date on the letter instead of the day they actually learned of the decision, or the other way round, without keeping proof of when they first saw it.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of immigration judicial reviews succeed in the Federal Court?
The court doesn’t publish a success rate. Its tables show about 10 to 12 leave grants for every 100 immigration files closed in 2023 to mid-2026, but files closed include settlements and discontinuances, and a file granted leave can still lose at the hearing.
How long does an immigration judicial review take?
It depends on the court’s backlog and on whether the government settles. In September 2024 the court described the usual process as taking 14 to 18 months; it has since reported record filings and registry delays of up to eight weeks, so treat any timeline as an estimate, not a promise.
Is the 15-day deadline in calendar days?
The Act says 15 days for a matter arising in Canada and 60 days for a matter arising outside Canada, after the day you are notified of or otherwise become aware of the decision. Count from the day after you learned of it, and file well before the last day.
Can I file a judicial review myself?
Yes, an individual may act in person in the Federal Court (r. 119). The court’s own guide warns that the proceedings can be complicated and that you will have to argue your case at the hearing yourself if leave is granted.
Does a judicial review let me stay in Canada?
No. Filing an application for leave does not by itself stop a removal. If you face removal, a separate motion for a stay of removal is needed; see our stay of removal page.
Is a judicial review the same as an appeal?
No. An appeal (for example to the Immigration Appeal Division) can look at the merits again; a judicial review asks whether the decision was reasonable and fair on the record. Where an appeal exists under the Act, you must use it before going to the Federal Court.
What should I do right now?
Write down the day you first saw the refusal, download the refusal letter and request the officer’s notes if you don’t have them, and keep a copy of everything you sent to IRCC. Then have the decision reviewed before the deadline: fifteen days passes fast, and the leave stage turns on what is filed at the start. Related reading: a writ of mandamus for IRCC delays, how to appeal an immigration decision in Canada, and what happens after a judicial review is granted or settled.
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Sources (official)
- Federal Court, Statistics (main page, date modified 2026-10-28), and the quarterly Activity Summary pages: December 31, 2020 (modified 2022-01-26), December 31, 2021 (modified 2022-01-27), December 31, 2022 (modified 2023-02-07), December 31, 2023 (modified 2024-03-12), December 31, 2024 (modified 2025-01-27), December 31, 2025 (modified 2026-02-27), March 31, 2026 (modified 2026-04-27), June 30, 2026 (modified 2026-07-29).
- Federal Court, Consolidated Practice Guidelines for Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection Proceedings (bulletin, June 26, 2026).
- Federal Court, Notice and Special Order on applicant’s record deadlines (May 14, 2025).
- Federal Court, Delays in processing documents (June 26, 2026).
- Federal Court, How to file an Application for Leave and for Judicial Review (Immigration) (date modified 2022-06-22).
- Federal Court, Notice: Study Permit Pilot Project (September 26, 2024).
- Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, ss. 72 to 75 (current to 2026-10-19).
- Federal Courts Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection Rules, SOR/93-22, rules 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 and 22 (current to 2026-10-19).
- Federal Courts Act, s. 18.1 (current to 2026-10-19).
- Federal Courts Rules, SOR/98-106, r. 119 and Tariff A.
- Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65 (December 19, 2019).
This article is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its own facts.