two of my trans friends from the US who applied for and got refugee status in canada have informational PDFs they wanted me to share for anyone interested in applying for refugee status as well, since there's been a lot of misinformation around online suggesting it's an impossibility. it's not effortless and they've had to work with a lawyer, but 245 people from the US successfully got refugee status last year, which was an increase from the year before.
i can put ppl in contact with said refugee friends and or answer questions through them to the best of my ability, but the basics they wanted me to pass around are the claims process flowchart and the refugee claim orientation guide. (please let me know if either link isnt functioning) and the general info that you're more likely to get approved working with a lawyer in your province of choice and slowly building a case than doing an at border crossing application.
correction here:
every single source when googling anything related to the number 245 and refugees from the us last year explicitly refers to it being the number of people from the us who applied for refugee status in canada in the first half of the year. that is a very different thing from the number who got accepted, and its misrepresenting the situation hugely to claim its the latter.
i adjusted the original post and i apologize ! i wasnt trying to misrepresent on purpose i just heard this part through a verbal conversation with said friends and obviously misunderstood and should have fact checked before repeating
but yes, that is 245 people who applied at all from the US, and i can't find a number on who has been accepted, bc we won't really know for awhile since it takes 1 to 3 years to process those claims
i should also specify my friends began this process well over a year ago, are just now close to getting their work permits, and have been in various temporary housing situations across the province for a few months and it has been draining financially and emotionally, and just difficult to find housing for 2 ppl and 2 cats. so i rlly dont mean to like oversell the accessability or ease of doing it at all.
im tryna think what else. they also said they personally were willing to stay and appeal as long as they needed to if necessary, even if it just got them to the other side of a trump presidency. (im not so sure trans rights are a guarantee post trump but, thats a whole other thing) and also it does mean you can't return to the US without essentially nullifying your claim that you are unsafe there.
























