Humanitarian and compassionate grounds (H&C) may be considered for applications for permanent residency under Family, Economic and Refugee Classes. The H&C class provides discretion to grant permanent or temporary residence to applicants who would otherwise not be eligible under Canadian Immigration laws.

This applies to those who wish to go to Canada and those who wish to remain there, but are inadmissible for technical, medical, or criminal reasons. It may be considered for those inadmissible on grounds of security, human or international rights violations, serious criminality, organized criminality, or health. However, the discretion is exercised on a case-by-case basis, taking into account an applicant’s unique circumstances.

The onus is on the applicant to articulate the hardship that is sustained should they not be granted an exemption. The applicant must demonstrate suffering if they are not granted an exemption or an immigrant visa for Canada

When you apply to Citizenship and Immigration Canada on Humanitarian & Compassionate (H & C) grounds, you are asking CIC officials to make an exception for your particular case, based on any hardship or danger you and/or your children and immediate family members may face if forced to return to your home country or your country of residence. The onus is entirely up to you to prove your case and the discretion to decide your case is entirely up to Canadian immigration officials and the Minister.

Humanitarian & Compassionate consideration, in other words, gives immigration officials the flexibility to grant permanent residence status or a permanent resident visa to specific foreign nationals who would otherwise not qualify as applicants for permanent residence in Canada.

But remember, the objective of Canadian immigration officials is not to override the Immigration & Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) – especially section 25 which specifically refers to Humanitarian & Compassionate grounds – but rather to attain the objectives of the IRPA in a complementary fashion. Canadian immigration officials must decide whether your circumstances are sufficiently compelling to allow for an exemption from standard procedure.

This requires a higher threshold of proof than when immigration officials decide if someone is inadmissible to Canada.

When deciding on the facts of your case – which you are responsible for summarizing and presenting to them in as convincing and truthful manner as possible – they must assess whether it is more likely than not that the evidence you have presented is true. This is called balance of probabilities and it is a tougher standard of proof than reasonable grounds to believe which is the standard used when deciding if someone is inadmissible to Canada.