Employment, family and home-country ties
Most or all immediate family members are travelling together
Not a statutory bar. It affects whether the officer is satisfied, and better evidence can change that.
What this means
Where an entire household travels together, fewer immediate family members remain behind as obvious return ties. This is not an automatic refusal ground.
Why it matters to the officer
The officer assesses the family’s overall establishment and reasons to return. Employment, business, property, education and extended family can remain relevant even when everyone travels.
What the officer compares
Jobs/businesses of both spouses, children’s school, residence, assets, trip duration and previous family travel history.
How to strengthen a new application
Present collective ties and a realistic family itinerary. Avoid claiming that leaving one distant relative behind is by itself decisive evidence of return.
Common mistakes
Treating a family application as four unrelated individual files; failing to reconcile shared finances and itinerary.
- Treating a family application as four unrelated individual files
- failing to reconcile shared finances and itinerary
Illustrative exampleA family of four taking a two-week holiday can be credible when both parents have established work/business and the children must return to school.
Before you apply again
IRCC now sends the officer’s decision note with most temporary-resident refusals since 29 July 2025, so check what came with your refusal first. The decision note or GCMS notes guide explains the difference, and the decoder explains the codes in them.
Scope noteIRCC does not publish an official ranked list of refusal reasons. This is a research-based classification of the legal grounds and evidence weaknesses that recur in real refusals. A weak itinerary or a new job is not itself a statutory ground — it affects whether the officer is satisfied under IRPR 179(b). This page is general information, not legal advice.
Where this comes from
Drawn from the Government of Canada’s published law and guidance. Check us against these pages:
Questions about this refusal
Not sure this is why you were refused?
Check first whether IRCC sent you the officer’s decision note with the refusal. For the fuller record, we can request your GCMS notes for you, or you can request them yourself, free, subject to what IRCC withholds.
Have us request them for youDo it yourself or let us do it?
