What does the Federal Court process look like?
Short answer: You file the Application for Leave, the Court reviews it on the documents, and if leave is granted a hearing follows, commonly 30 to 90 days later, judged on the reasonableness standard.
Here is the shape of it, drawn from the Federal Court's own practice guidance and the reported decision. First you file the Application for Leave and for Judicial Review within the applicable 15 or 60 day deadline. The leave stage is usually decided on the written record, and there is typically no hearing at that point. If the Court grants leave, a hearing is scheduled, commonly in the range of 30 to 90 days later. At the hearing the standard is reasonableness, meaning the question is whether IRCC's decision to return your file was reasonable, not whether the judge would have decided it the same way.
If you succeed, the usual result is that the return is set aside and your application is sent back for reconsideration, often by a different officer. Winning judicial review does not hand you an approval. It puts your application back in line to be assessed properly. That distinction matters, and we make sure clients understand it before they spend money on litigation.
How is a returned application different from a refusal?
Short answer: A return is a completeness decision made before processing; a refusal is a merits decision made after review. They lead to different next steps.
If your application was actually refused rather than returned, the analysis in this article is not the right playbook for you. Refusals turn on the reasons an officer gave after assessing your case, and the strategy to reapply is different depending on the stream. For refusals specifically, our guides on a study permit refused in Canada and a work permit refused over Labour Market Impact Assessment issues walk through the reasons and how to respond. Read the letter you received carefully. The words "returned" and "not accepted into processing" point to a completeness issue; the words "refused" and "not satisfied" point to a merits decision.
Should I just resubmit to be safe?
Short answer: Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the difference usually comes down to what you lose by re-entering the queue.
Resubmitting is genuinely the right answer when the return was correct and the cost of restarting is low. It is the wrong answer when a return over a non-checklist requirement would cost you a locked-in CRS score, an age factor, or a place in a time-sensitive process, and where the return itself looks unreasonable. In those cases, quietly resubmitting can throw away the very leverage the reported ruling created.
Timelines also feed this decision. If current processing for your stream is long, losing your queue position is more costly, which can tilt the balance toward challenging the return rather than restarting. You can check where things stand on our processing times page as one input into that call. None of this is a formula, which is exactly why a quick professional review is worth it before the 15-day clock runs.
Where does Go Far Global fit in?
Short answer: We read your return letter against the exact checklist and regulations, tell you honestly which of the three paths fits, and protect the deadline while you decide.
We are a licensed Canadian immigration firm led by a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC). When a client brings us a returned application, our first job is to figure out whether the return was legitimate or questionable, because that single answer drives everything that follows. We will not tell you to litigate a missing signature, and we will not tell you to quietly resubmit when a return looks unreasonable and you have real value at stake.
If you are not yet sure where you stand, our free assessment is a good first step to map your situation. If you already have a return letter in hand and a 15-day clock ticking, book a paid consultation so we can review the letter properly and act in time. We cannot promise any outcome, and no honest firm can. What we can do is make sure the decision you make is an informed one, made before the deadline rather than after it.
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