What is the difference between deemed rehabilitation and applying for individual rehabilitation?

Deemed rehabilitation happens automatically, by operation of law, once someone who is inadmissible only for a less serious form of criminality has waited long enough since fully completing their sentence — no application, no fee, no decision to wait for. It only applies to specific, less serious situations; anyone convicted of an offence that would count as serious criminality in Canada, or who doesn't meet the other conditions, cannot rely on it no matter how much time has passed.

Individual rehabilitation is the alternative for everyone else: a formal application to IRCC asking an officer to conclude, based on evidence, that the person is genuinely rehabilitated and unlikely to reoffend. It requires demonstrating a stable life since the offence — steady employment, community ties, no further trouble with the law — and is assessed case by case rather than granted automatically. It can generally be applied for once a set amount of time has passed since the sentence was completed, typically longer than what deemed rehabilitation would require if it were available.

Practically, the difference matters most when planning travel: deemed rehabilitation needs no paperwork at all, while individual rehabilitation can take real preparation and should be started well before any planned trip to Canada.