Current as of October 2026. IRCC changes its online forms and accounts often, so confirm the current process on IRCC’s website before you rely on any step below.
You hired someone to handle your immigration file, paid them, and trusted them to keep things moving. Then the emails stopped. Or a staff member called to say your lawyer had passed away. Or you found out the office had closed. Now your permit expires in a few weeks, and you do not know whether anything was ever sent to IRCC.
This happens more often than people expect, especially with sole practitioners. Your application belongs to you, not to your representative, and you can take it back. The hard part is that none of your deadlines pause while you do. This post walks through what to do, in the order it usually needs to happen.
First, work out which situation you are in
The steps with IRCC, the Immigration and Refugee Board and the Federal Court are the same whatever happened to your representative. What changes is how you get your file and any money you paid in advance. Most cases fall into one of three groups:
- Your representative died or can no longer work. Someone else now controls the practice: another lawyer, the estate, or in some cases the Law Society.
- Your representative retired, closed the office or was suspended. The files should have gone somewhere. Your job is to find out where.
- Your representative is still practising but has stopped responding. You can move on without their cooperation, and you should not wait for it.
If you are not sure which group you are in, check the regulator. For an Ontario lawyer or paralegal, the Law Society of Ontario’s online directory shows whether the person is still practising and lists any regulatory proceedings. For a licensed immigration consultant, the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants keeps a public register. If you cannot find the person in either place, read our post on immigration consultants versus immigration lawyers, because an unauthorized representative raises different problems.
Find out what was actually filed
Do not assume an application was submitted because you paid for one. Until you see proof, treat it as not filed. Gather whatever you have: your retainer agreement, receipts, emails, and any document with a number on it.
The numbers that matter most are your application number and your client ID (UCI). If an application was submitted and processed far enough, IRCC usually issues an acknowledgment of receipt. Fee payment receipts from IRCC are also useful evidence that something was sent.
Link the application to your own IRCC account. IRCC lets applicants link many types of applications to their own secure account, including to take over an application from a representative. IRCC’s instructions say that when you link the application, your representative loses access to it. That is usually what you want if your representative is gone. A few practical points:
- Not every application type can be linked, so check IRCC’s list first.
- You must enter your details exactly as they appeared on the application, or the most recent version if they were updated.
- You get a limited number of attempts before the system locks you out for a day, so have your documents in front of you before you start.
- Once linked, IRCC sends messages to your account instead of by paper letter, so check it regularly.
If linking does not work, or you need to see what an officer has recorded on the file, you can request your GCMS notes through an Access to Information and Privacy request. This takes time, so it is a second step, not a substitute for acting on your deadlines now.
If your matter is before the Immigration and Refugee Board or the Federal Court, contact that tribunal or court with your file number and ask what is on record and what dates are set.
The deadlines that keep running
A representative’s death, retirement or silence does not pause any immigration deadline. These are the ones that cause the most damage:
Your permit’s expiry date. If you apply to extend a work permit, study permit or visitor status before it expires and you stay in Canada, you keep your status while IRCC decides. A worker who applies on time can generally keep working under the same conditions. That protection only exists if the application was actually submitted before the expiry date. If your old representative never filed, you need to file yourself, or through new counsel, before that date. Our post on maintained status explains how this works. If the date has already passed, read about restoration of status within 90 days.
Requests from IRCC. When you have a representative, IRCC generally sends correspondence to that representative. A document request, a medical instruction or a procedural fairness letter may be sitting in an inbox nobody is reading. Once you have access to the file, look for any outstanding requests. If you cannot meet a deadline, ask IRCC in writing for more time before the deadline passes and explain why. An extension is not guaranteed, but a request made in time is far better than silence.
Tribunal and court deadlines. Refugee claimants have strict deadlines for the Basis of Claim form and for appeals. An application for leave and for judicial review of most immigration decisions made in Canada must be filed within 15 days of the decision being communicated. Losing your lawyer does not extend any of these.
Changing your representative with IRCC
IRCC allows one representative at a time for each application. To cancel the old appointment, appoint a new representative, or both, you use the Use of a Representative form (IMM 5476).
- To cancel your representative without appointing a new one, the form instructions direct you to check the cancellation box and complete the sections for your own information, the representative you are cancelling, and your signature.
- To cancel and appoint someone new, you also complete the section for the new representative, who signs as well.
- If your application has already been submitted, IRCC asks you to send the new form through its online web form. For paper applications, you can also mail it to the office processing your file.
You do not need your old representative’s signature or permission to cancel the appointment. IRCC states that you can change or cancel your representative at any time. A representative who works for free still needs to be appointed on this form.
Do not confuse the IMM 5476 with the Authority to Release Personal Information to a Designated Individual (IMM 5475). A person named on the IMM 5475, such as a family member, can receive information about your application but cannot act for you. If you want someone to deal with IRCC on your behalf, they need to be your representative.
Changing counsel at the Immigration and Refugee Board
The IRCC form does not cover the Immigration and Refugee Board. The Board keeps its own record of who your counsel is, and each division has a rule for removing counsel.
At the Refugee Protection Division, the Refugee Appeal Division and the Immigration Appeal Division, the process is similar. You give written notice that counsel no longer represents you to your counsel, to the division and, where the division’s rules require it, to the Minister. Counsel stops being counsel of record when the division receives it. If your counsel has died and there is no one to send a copy to, tell the division that in your notice.
The reverse matters too. If your lawyer wants to stop acting, they must ask the division to remove them, and they stay on the record until the division agrees. A lawyer who has gone silent may still be your counsel of record, which means notices could be going to them. Do not leave that in place.
Changing counsel does not automatically move a hearing date. If your new lawyer needs more time to prepare, they will have to ask the division to change the date, and the division decides. The earlier you retain new counsel, the better the chance that the hearing can go ahead as scheduled with proper preparation. If you are in detention or facing an admissibility hearing at the Immigration Division, those proceedings move quickly, so contact the division and new counsel right away.
Changing lawyers at the Federal Court
If you have an application for leave and judicial review or a stay motion in the Federal Court, the Federal Courts Rules apply. A party changes or removes its lawyer of record by serving and filing a prescribed notice, either naming the new lawyer or stating that the party will act for themselves.
The rules also say that a lawyer is treated as no longer representing a party if the lawyer dies, is suspended or disbarred, or is removed from the record by court order. In practical terms, if your lawyer has died, you are unrepresented in that proceeding until someone new is appointed, and the court’s deadlines continue to run. Read more about Federal Court work on our immigration litigation page.
If your Ontario lawyer died, retired or was suspended
Start with whoever is running the practice now. Ontario lawyers are encouraged to plan for this situation by naming another lawyer to step in, setting out arrangements in their will, and keeping their files organized. Often a colleague, a former associate or the estate’s lawyer is already contacting clients. Call the office, check its website and voicemail, and ask who has the files.
If no one has the file, contact the Law Society. The Law Society of Ontario’s Trustee Services can help people looking for information, wills or other documents from the files of lawyers and paralegals who are no longer practising. Where a lawyer has died, disappeared, abandoned the practice, or had their licence suspended or revoked, the Law Society can also ask the Superior Court of Justice for an order making it trustee of the practice, so that client files and trust money are protected. Trustee Services does not act as your lawyer, so you still need someone to take over the immigration work itself.
Your file and your money are yours. When a retainer ends, an Ontario lawyer must deliver the papers and property you are entitled to, subject to any right to hold the file for unpaid fees, and must cooperate with the lawyer who takes over. Money held in trust also belongs to you. If you paid a retainer and the work was not done, ask the person handling the practice for an accounting and the return of the unused amount.
Two Law Society programs can matter here:
- Unclaimed Trust Fund. When a lawyer or paralegal holds trust money they cannot return to a client, they may transfer it to the Law Society with its approval. The money remains the client’s property, and you can apply online to claim it.
- Compensation Fund. If an Ontario lawyer or paralegal took your money dishonestly, you may be able to apply to the Law Society’s Compensation Fund. It covers losses caused by dishonesty, and reimbursement is limited to the amount actually taken. It does not cover mistakes or poor work. Those are negligence issues, handled differently.
If your former representative made errors that hurt your case, that raises a separate question about whether the decision can be challenged. We cover that in what to do when a previous representative mishandled your case.
If your representative was a licensed immigration consultant
Licensed immigration consultants are regulated by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, not the Law Society. The IRCC steps above are exactly the same. For complaints about a consultant, go to the College. Since July 15, 2026, the College also runs a compensation fund for clients who lost money through a licensed consultant’s dishonest conduct on or after November 23, 2021. Check the College’s website for how to apply.
If your representative is alive but not responding
This is the most frustrating version, because it is tempting to give them one more week. Do not. Your deadlines are the same whether your representative is busy, ill or simply avoiding you.
- Put it in writing. Send a short email and, if you can, a letter. Ask for your application numbers, confirmation of what was submitted and when, copies of everything filed, the status of any money held in trust, and your complete file. Give a short, specific deadline to respond.
- Do not wait for an answer to protect yourself. You can link the application to your own account and appoint a new representative with IRCC without the old representative’s agreement.
- Let your new lawyer request the file. An Ontario lawyer who is replaced has a professional duty to cooperate with the lawyer taking over.
- Complain if you need to, but do it alongside, not instead. You can file a complaint about an Ontario lawyer or paralegal through the Law Society’s online complaint service. A complaint can address the representative’s conduct. It will not file your application or meet your deadline.
A short checklist
- Write down every date that matters: permit expiry, any IRCC request deadline, hearing dates and decision dates.
- Gather your retainer, receipts, emails and any application or client ID numbers.
- Check the representative’s status with the Law Society or the College.
- Try to link the application to your own IRCC account.
- If nothing was filed and your status is expiring, file before the expiry date.
- Submit a new IMM 5476 to cancel the old representative and appoint a new one.
- Notify the IRB division or the Federal Court if you have a matter there.
- Ask for your file and any unused trust money, and contact Trustee Services if no one has the file.
How we can help
At Kabir & Alam, we take over immigration files from representatives who have died, retired or stopped responding. We start by confirming what was filed and which deadlines are live, then deal with the most urgent one first, whether that is an extension before a permit expires, a response to an IRCC request, or a hearing at the Board. Read more about our work permit and refugee law practice, or book a consultation with us.
This post is general information about Canadian immigration law and is not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. Speak with a lawyer about your situation before making decisions.