SETTLEMENT I M M I G R AT I O N L AW
The increasing role of AI in visa processing Canada’s automated immigration decision-making systems
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hen people submit applications to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) they typically have spent significant time carefully completing forms and assembling documents. They expect that their applications will be processed by visa officers who carefully review the information before them. However, applicants need to understand that artificial intelligence is playing an increasing role in visa processing, as is the bulk processing of applications.
IRCC has not been forthcoming with how it uses technology to process applications, however, through a series of Access to Information Act requests as well as Federal Court of Canada litigation, the public is beginning to get a sense Chinook of measures being implemented. In addition to automated triaging, IRCC has also introduced software Predicative learning Automated processing of some so that officers can bulk process categories of applications is not applications. The software tool is new. Since 2015, most visa- known as Chinook. exempt foreign nationals have had According to an affidavit that to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization before they could IRCC filed in Federal Court, board a plane to travel to Canada. Chinook is a standalone tool These applications were, for the that streamlines administrative steps. Applicant information is most part, automated applications. extracted from their applications What is less known is that in and presented in a spreadsheet. Visa 2017, IRCC successfully conducted officers are assigned a workload of a pilot in which automated systems applications through Chinook. They based on predicative analytics are able to see multiple applications triaged and automatically approved at a time on a single spreadsheet. low-risk online temporary resident This allows them to review the visa applications from China. contents of multiple applications Visa applications were sorted on a single screen and allows them into tiers – the lowest risk for to complete administrative steps auto-approval, medium and through batch processes. It also high risk for officer review. This allows visa officers to create “risk triage model was deployed for indicators” and “local word flags” all applications from China in so that officers can identify possible 2018, and in the same year was applications in the processing queue piloted in India. The goal appears of concern or priority. to be for artificial intelligence to According to the Federal Court automatically approve low-risk applications, with officers only affidavit, when visa officers enter manually assessing those that Chinook, a message pops up that have been flagged as medium to says, amongst other things, “The Chinook User Interface allows high risk.
you to view multiple applications for review and initial assessment. It does not replace reviewing documents… and/or reviewing other information… The refusal notes generator is means to assist with general bona fide refusals. If the notes do not reflect your refusal reasons, please write an individual note.”
Concerns There have been many concerns raised about the implementation of automated triaging and Chinook. These include the possibility that it is what has led to increased refusal rates, that individual care is not being given to applications, that applications are not being carefully reviewed and instead quickly bulk refused, that AI flagging a file as high-risk will lead to an officer wanting to simply affirm the AI’s finding, that refusal reasons are increasingly consisting of boiler plate templates which is not helpful for applicants, and that it may perpetuate systemic racism.
Because IRCC has not been transparent about the implementation of these systems and their results, it is difficult to confirm if these concerns are founded. Regardless, it is important that those submitting applications understand that Canada’s immigration system is no longer one in which human officers meticulously process individual applications in the order that they are received. I have previously written about how it is important for individuals with refused applications to obtain the internal reasons for refusal, or Global Case Management System (“GCMS”) notes. IRCC’s use of artificial intelligence and bulk refusal generators makes this even more important, as a review of the internal reasons or GCMS are often indicative of whether such software was used, and whether a refused applicant should either file a reconsideration request or seek judicial review to see if a human may reach a different conclusion.
Steven Meurrens is an immigration lawyer with Larlee Rosenberg in Vancouver. Contact him at 604-681-9887, by email at steven.meurrens@larlee.com, or visit his blog at smeurrens.com. CANADIANIMMIGRANT.CA |
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