2. Get updates and prepare for your interview

After you submit your refugee claim in the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) portal, you'll get documents including:

• a record of your online portal submission, not including your Basis of Claim form
• an Acknowledgment of Claim (AOC) letter
• a Medical Information Form telling you to get a refugee medical exam within 30 days
• instructions on when to attend your eligibility interview
• instructions to get your fingerprints and photo taken, called biometrics

Some of these documents will be issued right away, others may take several days. Keep copies of these documents for your records.

Find an approved doctor for your refugee medical exam from IRCC’s list.

Use the AOC to get health care and social assistance, and enroll your children in school while you wait for your hearing. The AOC is not a decision that your claim is eligible.

Prepare for your eligibility interview

Bring the following to your eligibility interview:

• the interview invitation letter
• 4 passport-sized photos
• documents that prove your relationship to your dependant children and spouse
• original documents that prove your identity

Documents to prove your identity can include your original:

• passport or travel document
• birth certificate and identity cards
• baptismal record
• school certificate
• marriage certificate, as proof of relationship
• political or social organization's membership card

You do not need to bring other documents supporting your refugee claim to the eligibility interview.

Translations

Documents not in English or French must be properly translated, preferably by a certified translator. A certified translator is a member in good standing of a provincial or territorial organization of translators and interpreters in Canada.

If the translation is not from a certified translator, you also need:

• an affidavit from the translator, and
• a certified photocopy of the original document.

The translator cannot be you, your family member, or your representative.

Legal help

Before your eligibility interview, have a lawyer or other licensed representative:

• review your BOC and portal submission if they have not already
• help you collect identity documents

Get legal advice if you used any false identity or travel documents to travel to Canada, or you do not have any identity documents.