Canada Border Services Agency Unveils Powerful Cost Recovery Overhaul to Transform Immigration Enforcement

Friday, January 3, 2025

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is intensifying efforts to manage the removal of inadmissible foreign nationals under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) with a new cost recovery framework aimed at reducing financial strain on the government.

From January 1 to October 31, 2024, the CBSA successfully removed over 14,000 inadmissible individuals, fulfilling its mandate to enforce immigration laws. While individuals ordered to leave Canada are required to cover their own travel costs, the government often steps in when they are unable or unwilling to pay. These costs are recovered when the individual seeks reentry into Canada, but the current recovery fees have not kept pace with the actual expenses incurred.

Starting in April 2025, a revised fee structure will take effect, significantly increasing the costs borne by individuals seeking to return to Canada after removal. The new framework includes:

• Escorted Removals: Fees rising from approximately $1,500 to just over $12,800.
• Unescorted Removals: Fees increasing to just over $3,800, regardless of destination.

This updated cost structure aligns more closely with the real expenses associated with removals and aims to encourage voluntary compliance with removal orders. By creating a stronger financial incentive to adhere to immigration regulations, the CBSA expects to foster greater accountability among individuals facing removal.

The CBSA emphasized that the revised fees will apply to any adult removed from Canada based on the framework in place at the time their removal order was executed. This policy shift underscores Canada’s commitment to balancing effective immigration enforcement with fiscal responsibility.

This change marks a significant step in modernizing Canada’s immigration system while ensuring fairness and efficiency in managing inadmissible individuals.

The Honourable David J. McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety “This update in cost recovery for the removal of inadmissible foreign nationals brought forward by the CBSA builds on our plan to strengthen border security and our immigration system. In recent months, we re-imposed a Visa requirement on Mexican visitors, aligned the hours of service between Canada and U.S. at many ports of entry, and ended flagpoling for work and study permits at the border, keeping 70,000 non-residents from entering the U.S. The security partnership between Canada and the United States has been keeping people on both sides of the border safe for decades – and we’ll always be looking for ways to further strengthen it.”

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