Principles in developing the fee schedule
This section contains policy, procedures and guidance used by IRCC staff. It is posted on the department’s website as a courtesy to stakeholders.
The development and management of the Immigration Cost Recovery Program adheres to the following principles:
- Recovery of the cost of immigration services through user fees is an approved means of shifting the burden of financing these services from the Canadian taxpayer generally to the user specifically.
- Fee levels will be set to recover as much of the costs of each service as reasonable without imposing undue hardship or affecting access to service.
- The fee for any service will not exceed the average documented global cost of providing that service.
- Each fee will be applied universally; exemptions from established fees will only be applied in situations where the requirements for a fee would be incompatible with other government policy or international practice.
- The fees will be comparable to the fees of other major immigrant receiving countries, where similar services are subject to user fees.
- Revenue is deposited in the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) and does not directly enter CIC appropriations.