You have applied for refugee protection in Canada. Your claim is currently pending and a hearing date has not yet been scheduled. Once a hearing date is scheduled, our office will contact you immediately.
While you wait, it is important to use this time to collect as much evidence as possible in support of your claim. Strong evidence can greatly increase the chances of success at your hearing.
Types of Evidence to Gather
You should collect documents and other evidence that DIRECTLY relate to the reasons for your claim. Below are examples of the type of documents that can be submitted:
- Official reports: police reports, court records, or other government documents.
- Medical evidence: medical reports or hospital records describing injuries or harm suffered.
- Photographs: images showing harm, threats, or relevant locations and events.
- News coverage: newspaper articles or credible online reports about events related to your claim.
- Identity documents: photo identification, birth certificates, marriage certificates, passports (even expired), and other personal records.
- Proof of membership: documents showing membership in political organizations, unions, or other groups, if relevant to your claim.
- Letters of support: from family members, friends, or other individuals who know about the harm you have suffered. Each letter should include the author's full name, address, phone number, and a copy of their photo ID.
- Other relevant materials: any business, academic, personal records, emails or social media posts that support your story.
Note: If you have already emailed your evidence to us, please send us a quick email to let us know — but before you do so, please consider whether there are any additional documents you may want to add to your evidence!
Translations of Documents
If a document is not in English or French, it must be translated by a certified translator. Your Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) Certificate will pay for translations from any language to English up to a maximum of 3,500 words in total. This means that if you have many documents, LAO will not cover translation for all of them. You will need to choose the most important documents for translation based on their relevance to your refugee claim.
If You Cannot Obtain Certain Documents
If you are unable to obtain a specific document, you should provide a brief written explanation describing your efforts to get it. This explanation will help the Refugee Protection Division understand why the document is missing.
We encourage you to begin gathering this evidence now so we have time to review it and prepare your case thoroughly. Please keep copies of all documents you collect and email them to our office as soon as possible.
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