An applicant filed a PGWP application and mistakenly answered 'No' to the question 'Have you ever been refused a visa or ordered to leave Canada or any other country?' — despite having a 2019 Australian refusal. The thread's guidance:
- Correct the record proactively. The applicant had already raised an IRCC webform explaining the mistake, and multiple members confirmed this was exactly the right move — admit the error before the officer discovers it.
- Understand the stakes. Members were split on severity: some called it a small mistake unlikely to matter once corrected; others warned that an undisclosed refusal is grounds for a misrepresentation finding (which carries a multi-year ban) and could still lead to refusal. The honest consensus: correcting via webform reduces the risk substantially but does not eliminate it.
- The durable lesson: the refusal-history question covers refusals from ANY country, not just Canada. Always answer 'Yes' and attach an explanation — a disclosed old refusal is far less damaging than a discovered omission.