IRCC Confirms Officers Cannot Waive Temporary Public Policy Conditions on Humanitarian Grounds

Key Takeaways

• On July 22, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published new instructions confirming that officers cannot grant humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) exemptions from conditions set out in temporary public policies.
• The rule rests on subsection A25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which authorizes H&C exemptions only for requirements found within the Act itself — not for conditions created by standalone temporary public policies.
• Applicants who are refused because they sought an H&C exemption under a temporary public policy will not receive a separate H&C ruling; they must instead file an entirely new permanent residence application on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Canada's immigration department has tightened the rulebook on how front-line officers are permitted to handle permanent residence requests filed under temporary public policies, closing off a route some applicants had used to seek relief from conditions they could not otherwise satisfy.

A Narrower Reading of Officer Authority

Under ordinary circumstances, a foreign national applying for permanent residence from within Canada can ask an officer to consider humanitarian and compassionate grounds if they fall short of a program requirement. That authority flows from subsection A25(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and officers have long been expected to weigh such requests when they arise.

The newly issued instructions draw a firm line around that authority. Temporary public policies — the ad hoc, time-limited directives issued under the executive power of the immigration minister to carve out exceptions to standard rules — sit outside the scope of subsection A25(1). Because the exemption power in that subsection applies only to requirements set out directly in the Act, officers have no discretion to waive a condition that instead originates from a temporary public policy.

What Happens When an Exemption Request Fails

The practical effect is strict: an application filed under a temporary public policy must satisfy every requirement written into that policy. If an applicant instead asks for an H&C exemption to cover a requirement they cannot meet, the officer is now directed to refuse the application outright.

According to the instructions, a refusal issued on these grounds does not trigger a second, independent H&C assessment. Because the decision is treated as a ruling on the public policy application itself, there is no separate humanitarian determination attached to it. An applicant in this position would need to start over — submitting a distinct, new application for permanent residence explicitly on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

The instructions do preserve H&C consideration where it already applies elsewhere: for applications that fall under provisions where humanitarian exemptions are legitimately available, officers may still grant relief if satisfied that the applicant, or an applicant's dependent child, would otherwise face considerable hardship.

The clarification appears in a bulletin titled "Humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) considerations: In-Canada permanent residence (PR) granting public policies where H&C requests were also made," issued to guide officers handling these files going forward.

What This Means for Applicants

Anyone applying for permanent residence under a temporary public policy should treat the policy's stated conditions as fixed rather than negotiable — an H&C request will not bridge a gap in eligibility under that pathway. Applicants who anticipate falling short of a requirement should consider whether a standalone humanitarian and compassionate application, filed on its own terms, is the more realistic route, rather than relying on an exemption request layered onto a public policy submission.