4. Get legal help to complete your BOC

Filling in the Basis of Claim Form (BOC) and writing your narrative can be complicated. It's important to get legal help to complete your BOC. A lawyer or other licensed representative can help you complete your BOC.

If you completed your BOC on your own, a lawyer or other licensed representative should still review it and suggest changes before your hearing.

Without legal help, it may be hard to explain how your experiences meet the definition of Convention Refugee or . You might not be sure what to include.

You can give your representative notes or a draft explanation of what happened to you and what you fear. Writing things down might help you remember dates and the order of events.

Your representative will also interview you for details to show that you meet the definition of Convention Refugee or person in need of protection.

Your representative will write the final version of your BOC and narrative. They must review these with you to make sure that they're complete and accurate.

Interpreter

If you do not understand English or French, your legal representative should provide an interpreter for your meetings.

And the interpreter must read the entire completed BOC to you and make sure you understand all the information in it before you sign. And the interpreter will sign the BOC to state that they have done a full interpretation of the form.

Correct information

It's important that you tell your representative if any information is incorrect or not true. Everything in your BOC must be correct and complete before you sign it.

And it's important to tell your representative if:

you gave false information in your eligibility interview, immigration forms, or online portal submission
there are differences in your identification documents or something in your immigration file

Your representative can help you explain these in your BOC. It's better to give an explanation and the correct information before your refugee hearing.

Amendments

Making changes after you filed your BOC is called a BOC amendment. It's best to have legal help. The deadline to make a BOC amendment is up to 10 days before your refugee hearing.

Learn more

For more information on filling out the BOC, read How do I fill out my Basis of Claim form? And use these tip sheets.