The Immigration department is piloting a program allowing transgender refugees to change their gender and name as soon as they arrive in Canada without having to clear the usual administrative hurdles, to ensure they are not retraumatized.
In a bid to align refugee policy with government policies supporting members of the LGBTQ community, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is allowing transgender refugees to bypass long waits in Canada to formally change identity.
The first transgender asylum seeker arrived from South America under the program in December. They were permitted to land in Canada under their preferred identity, without having to go through the usual administrative stages to change their name and gender once settled here.
The refugees came to Canada through the Government-Assisted Refugees, or GAR, program, under which refugees are referred to Canada for resettlement by organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency, and receive permanent resident status on arrival.
An internal “flash report” from IRCC in the Colombian capital of Bogota, obtained under Access to Information laws by immigration lawyer and policy analyst Richard Kurland, reported on the successful processing of the first refugee under the pilot scheme.
The December, 2025, Bogota report was circulated widely within the IRCC as well as to Global Affairs by an assistant director in IRCC’s complex case management division in December. It said it expected more transgender refugees under the GAR program to be processed, and IRCC would investigate the feasibility of expanding the program.
Currently, transgender foreign nationals who seek asylum after arriving in Canada would still have to go through standard procedures to formally record their lived identity on official documents here.
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IRCC has offices around the world, usually based in embassies and high commissions, to process visas and other immigration paperwork. The Bogota office also processes applications from Venezuelans.
Mr. Kurland said the department’s pilot refugee scheme “sets a precedent.”
“While some countries vilify, Canada steps up and provides safe haven,” he added in an email.
IRCC declined to say this week how many transgender refugees have been processed under the pilot program, citing privacy reasons.
“The pilot is exploring ways to reduce administrative barriers by issuing their permanent residence documents to better reflect an individual’s lived name and gender identity, while maintaining strong identity verification processes,” IRCC spokesperson Matthew Krupovich said in a statement.
The pilot program allows transgender refugees to depart their countries of residence under a temporary resident permit listing their name and gender assigned at birth.
But they can land in Canada “under their preferred (a.k.a. ‘lived’) identity on their Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR)” and therefore receive “their permanent residence card in the same identity,” the internal IRCC report said.
“Currently, transgender refugees land in Canada under their legal identity, which, given the discrimination they face in their country of origin, would be their birth identity,” the report added. The new program would eliminate “the cost and burden placed on transgender refugees to update their information post arrival.”
The document said the policy “helps to minimize re-traumatization of an already vulnerable demographic.”
A team at IRCC is monitoring for any issues that might arise with obtaining official documents such as SINs and health cards, and opening bank accounts, the internal report said.
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The new policy was welcomed by transgender advocate Gemma Hickey, who was the first person to be issued a government ID with an X in Canada.
“For transgender refugees, being forced to repeatedly use a birth name or gender marker that does not reflect who they are is not a minor administrative inconvenience, it’s a continual retraumatization,” they said in a text message.
“Allowing people to arrive in Canada and receive permanent residency under their lived identity restores dignity, safety, and stability at the very moment they are rebuilding their lives. They should not have to navigate years of bureaucratic hurdles just to have their gender respected.”
The pilot was introduced to help align IRCC treatment of refugees with the federal government’s 2SLGBTQI+ action plan launched by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2022. He announced a five-year, $100-million plan to support LGBTQ, two-spirit and intersex communities across the country.
The new policy coincides with a roll-back of rights for transgender people around the world. Transgender Americans, for example, are no longer able to have an X gender marker on their passports and other identity documents.
Canadians renewing their Nexus travel cards or applying for new ones to make it easier to cross the border to the U.S. must now say if they are male or female, even if they are transgender or non-binary.
The change follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order last year decreeing that the American government will now only recognize the male and female sex. A number of transgender Americans have claimed asylum in Canada in the past year and are waiting for their cases to be decided.