Procedural fairness — common law dutyWhere an officer has concerns that could lead to a negative decision on grounds the applicant may not anticipate — particularly credibility or misrepresentation — fairness generally requires that the applicant be given notice and an opportunity to respond.Read it on the Government of Canada's site
A PFL is IRCC telling you, before deciding, that they have a specific concern and giving you a chance to answer it. It is most common where misrepresentation or document authenticity is suspected.
Deadlines are short and strictly applied. Many refusals happen simply because the applicant did not understand what the letter was, replied late, or answered a different question from the one asked.
If your notes show a PFL was issued and you never received it, that itself may be significant. Check which email address was on file.
These are the situations that most often produce this finding. Your notes will usually name the specific one.
Fix the thing the officer named. Changing everything else at once usually makes a file look staged.
Officers write several codes on one file, and only one of them is usually the real reason. Send us your notes and we will tell you which line actually decided your case — and what to do about it.