Last reviewed: April 14, 2026 — by Natalie Ningjing Zhang, Principal Lawyer, BridgePoint Law Professional Corporation. General information only, not legal advice for any particular case.
Quick answer
If you or a family member has been placed in immigration detention in Canada — whether held at an Immigration Holding Centre in Toronto, Laval, or Surrey, or at a provincial correctional facility — the Immigration Division (ID) of the Immigration and Refugee Board must review that detention on a fixed statutory schedule: the first review within 48 hours, a second within 7 days after that, and then every 30 days for as long as detention continues. Each review is a fresh hearing on whether continued detention is still justified. You have a right to counsel at every review, and the grounds for detention — identity, flight risk, danger to the public, and the Minister’s ongoing investigation — all have to be made out again, every time, by the Minister. Detention reviews are winnable, and they are often the moment where a carefully designed release plan and a credible bondsperson make the difference.
Who gets detained and why
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is authorized to detain permanent residents and foreign nationals under sections 55 and 56 of IRPA where there are reasonable grounds to believe the person is: unlikely to appear for examination, admissibility hearing, removal, or other immigration proceedings (flight risk); a danger to the public; unable to satisfy an officer of identity; or where the Minister’s investigation into inadmissibility on security, human-or-international-rights-violations, serious criminality, organized criminality, or health grounds is ongoing. Detention is not supposed to be a default. IRPA explicitly requires the Minister to consider alternatives to detention and to release unless one of the statutory grounds applies.
The statutory review schedule
The ID review clock is written into sections 57 and 57.1 of IRPA. Review 1 must be held within 48 hours of detention or as soon as possible after. Review 2 must be held within 7 days after review 1. Subsequent reviews must be held at least every 30 days. Each review starts from the presumption that the Minister must establish continued grounds for detention; the detainee does not carry the burden of proving a right to release. That said, in practice a detainee who offers a concrete, credible release plan wins more reviews than one who simply asks the member to disbelieve the Minister.
The Thanabalasingham framework and long-term detention
The Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Thanabalasingham remains the starting point for contested detention reviews. It establishes that previous detention-review decisions are not binding, but any new detention order must explicitly engage with the reasons previous releases were refused and must provide clear reasons for a continued finding. Long-term detention — over six months, and especially over a year — triggers heightened scrutiny. The ID must balance the Minister’s legitimate interests against the liberty interests of the detainee and must consider whether removal is reasonably foreseeable. Where removal is stalled (for example, because the country of origin will not accept the detainee or because travel documents cannot be obtained), the case for continued detention weakens significantly with each review.
Alternatives to detention
The ID may order release with conditions instead of continued detention. Conditions commonly include: a cash deposit or performance bond from a Canadian citizen or permanent resident bondsperson; residency at a specified address; reporting to CBSA on a fixed schedule; curfew; electronic monitoring or the CBSA Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, which can include community-based supervision by the John Howard Society or Toronto Bail Program; surrender of travel documents; and non-association with named persons. A strong alternative-to-detention proposal is the single most important piece of a release submission — the member needs a concrete, realistic, verifiable plan in front of them, not a promise of good behaviour.
Bondspersons and how to choose one
A bondsperson is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who commits to supervise the detainee’s compliance with release conditions and who agrees to forfeit a deposit or performance bond if the detainee breaches. Tribunal members look for bondspersons who: have a real, ongoing relationship with the detainee (family, long-term friend, community member); have stable housing, employment, and finances; understand the conditions they are taking on; can credibly commit to reporting non-compliance; and have a clean record themselves. The deposit does not need to be large to be meaningful — what matters is that the member is persuaded the bondsperson will actually exercise supervision, not just put cash down.
Detention for identity
Under section 58(1)(d) of IRPA, detention on identity grounds is meant to be short. The Minister must be actively engaged in confirming the detainee’s identity, and the ID will ask, at each review, what the Minister has done since the last review. Delay, inactivity, or unexplained gaps in the Minister’s investigation are strong arguments for release. The Federal Court has repeatedly intervened where the ID has permitted identity-ground detention to drift without genuine investigatory progress.
Danger-to-the-public and flight-risk cases
Danger-to-the-public detentions turn on: the nature and seriousness of any criminal history; the circumstances of offences; efforts at rehabilitation; treatment for addiction or mental health; and the strength of community supports. Flight-risk detentions turn on: ties to Canada (family, employment, property); history of reporting compliance; whether the person has used false identities; the imminence of removal; and the availability of supervision alternatives. Both grounds benefit from psychiatric or social-work assessments, letters of support, and documented rehabilitation.
When to bring in counsel
As early as possible. The first 48-hour review is often held without counsel simply because there is no time to retain one, but the second review (the 7-day) and every review after that benefit enormously from representation. Counsel can interview the bondsperson, verify the proposed release plan, obtain CBSA disclosure, cross-examine the Minister’s witness if there is one, and frame the Thanabalasingham argument if previous reviews have ordered continued detention. If a federal court judicial review of an ID detention order is in play, counsel should be retained immediately because the deadline to file is 15 days.
What to bring to your first consultation
For a detention review consult we need: the CBSA arrest paperwork and the detention order; the most recent ID review decision if there has been one; the detainee’s full immigration history and any criminal history; identity documents; a list of possible bondspersons with their contact information; and a frank account of the facts that gave rise to detention.
Why BridgePoint Law
BridgePoint Law acts in ID detention reviews at Immigration Holding Centres and provincial correctional facilities across Canada, as well as Federal Court judicial reviews of continued-detention orders and stay-of-removal motions. Principal lawyer Natalie Ningjing Zhang is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Canadian Bar Association, the OBA Citizenship and Immigration Section (East), and the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, and works in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
Next steps
If a family member has been detained, call us immediately — detention reviews move on statutory deadlines and a credible release plan takes time to assemble properly.
Call: +1 (613) 777-0992 | Email: info@bridgepointlaw.ca | Immigration Litigation practice | Federal Court judicial review guide
Frequently asked questions
How soon after arrest does the first detention review happen?
Within 48 hours of detention, under section 57(1) of IRPA. A second review follows within 7 days, and then every 30 days for as long as detention continues.
What are the grounds for immigration detention in Canada?
Under sections 55 and 58 of IRPA: flight risk, danger to the public, identity concerns, and the ongoing investigation by the Minister into inadmissibility on security, criminality, or similar grounds.
Who carries the burden at a detention review?
The Minister must establish, at each review, that grounds for continued detention still exist. The detainee does not have to prove a right to release, but a concrete alternative-to-detention plan and a credible bondsperson strengthen the case for release significantly.
Can I be released on conditions?
Yes. The ID routinely orders release on conditions — cash deposit or performance bond, residency, reporting, curfew, sometimes electronic monitoring or community supervision through a recognized ATD program.
What happens if I have been detained for more than six months?
Long-term detention triggers heightened scrutiny under Thanabalasingham. The ID must weigh the Minister’s interests against the detainee’s liberty interests and must consider whether removal is reasonably foreseeable. Stalled removal strongly favours release.
Can I challenge a detention order at the Federal Court?
Yes. An ID decision to continue detention is reviewable at the Federal Court on judicial review, with a 15-day filing deadline. Federal Court review is a parallel track that runs alongside the ongoing statutory reviews.