The Basis of Claim (BOC) form is where you give information about yourself and explain why you are afraid to go back to your home country. For example, you must give details about what happened to you in your country, why you are afraid, whether you asked the police to protect you in your country, whether you moved to another part of your country to find safety and why you decided to leave at that time. It is important to tell the truth, and you should get professional help to fill it out.
If you claim asylum at a port of entry (border, airport, seaport), you have 15 days to give the completed Basis of Claim form to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) office that you were referred to by the Canadian authorities to manage your case.
Note: The timeline requirements are different for Quebec.
If you are already inside Canada, you must complete the Basis of Claim form along with other asylum claim forms and submit them to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) office.
All the members of your family who are claiming refugee protection must provide their own Basis of Claim form. For children who are 6 years or younger, they only need to complete part 1 of the Basis of Claim form. If your children are older than 6 years old, then they must complete all the parts of the Basis of Claim form.
If you need help completing your Basis of Claim form and you do not read or write English, we can listen to your narrative in your native language and translate it into English on the Basis of Claim form.
