The Use Of Chinook IRCC In Visa Application Processing
The IRCC’s use of artificial intelligence started. They announced that new technology has significantly sped up visa office processing times. Still, Chinook IRCC isn’t making final determinations about approving or denying immigration applications.
The IRCC has seen enormous productivity benefits since implementing Canada immigration artificial intelligence (AI), the new technology, throughout its immigration processes. However, visa officers still play a part in IRCC and oversee making every final choice. According to IRCC, machine learning algorithms or sophisticated analytics cannot assess a person’s eligibility or admissibility.
The family members can now apply for a short-term visitor visa to come to Canada and live with their sponsor while their application is being processed. Due to the risk that applicants may not depart once their visas expire, such visas are frequently denied. In as short as 30 days, the new system can authorize a person’s visa to visit Canada by identifying those who have submitted a permanent residency application.
The new method will evaluate the applicant’s application to ascertain their likelihood of receiving permanent residency. Those with a good chance will be placed in a category that expedites their temporary visa. According to the IRCC minister, the acceptance percentage for applications submitted under the new system exceeds 98 percent by increasing the use of technology, advanced analytics and optimizing the processing, which has had an impact on all lines of business in the processing of applications by IRCC.
The IRCC minister also acknowledges that technology can streamline the request processing process and free the IRCC officers to concentrate more on challenging requests.
What are the concerns about Artificial Intelligence in immigration?
Many people worry that the use of AI by the IRCC (Known as Chinook IRCC) will result in prejudice and a general lack of explanation of how judgements are made in application processing. According to the directive on artificial intelligence, the federal government must be able to describe the process it uses to make administrative decisions. In addition, those refused services or benefits have a right to an explanation from the government that goes beyond simply saying that a machine made the decision. The decision-making process may become more apparent if more reliance is placed on AI.
The usage of “Chinook,” which the IRCC characterizes as a Microsoft Excel-based tool to streamline the visual display of a customer’s information, has also drawn criticism. IRCC officials utilize it to evaluate work permits, study permits, and temporary resident visas. According to the IRCC, Chinook IRCCÂ does not use artificial intelligence (AI), sophisticated analytics, or built-in decision-making algorithms for making decisions.
What are the concerns about Chinook IRCC?
The use of Chinook IRCC and automatic triaging has been met with a lot of criticism. These include the potential that it is what has caused increased refusal rates, that individual care is not being given to applications, that applications are not being carefully reviewed and are instead quickly bulk refused, that an officer will want to affirm an AI’s finding after the AI flags a file as high-risk, that refusal justifications are increasingly consisting of boilerplate templates, which is unhelpful for applicants, and that it may continue systemic problems.
We have previously discussed how important it is for those refused applications to acquire the internal grounds for rejection or Global Case Management System (“GCMS”) comments. Determining whether these worries are well-founded is challenging because IRCC has to be more open about deploying these technologies and their outcomes. However, applicants must be aware that the current Canadian immigration procedure does not involve human officers painstakingly processing each application in the order in which it is received. This is even more important given that IRCC uses bulk refusal generators and artificial intelligence in immigration, and a check of the internal reasons or GCMS can often reveal whether such software was employed and whether a rejected applicant should submit a reconsideration request or seek judicial review to see if a person could arrive at a different judgement.
How Chinook Immigration Canada?
The IRCC has deployed software that enables officers to bulk-process applications in addition to automatic triaging. The computer program is called Chinook IRCC.
Chinook Immigration AI is a stand-alone technology that accelerates administrative procedures, according to an IRCC affidavit submitted in Federal Court. Through Chinook Immigration, a caseload of applications is allotted to visa officers. Information about applicants is taken from their applications and shown in a spreadsheet. On a single spreadsheet, they can view many programmes simultaneously.
This enables users to carry out administrative tasks using batch procedures and review the contents of numerous programs on a single screen. Additionally, it allows visa officers to develop “risk indicators” and “local word flags” to spot potential applications in the processing queue that need special attention or concern.
A statement that reads, among other things, “The Chinook IRCCÂ User Interface allows you to view multiple applications for review and initial assessment” appears when visa officers access Chinook AI, according to the Federal Court affidavit.
The refusal notes generator is a means to assist with general bona fide refusals. It does not replace reviewing documents and reviewing other information. Please write an individual note if the notes do not reflect your refusal reasons.
Background of using Chinook AI in Canada immigration
Some application categories have already been subject to automated processing. Since 2015, most non-citizens travelling to Canada without a visa must apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) before boarding a plane. Many of these programmes were automated programmes.
Less well-known is that 2017 the IRCC ran a successful trial programme where automated chinook IRCC algorithms based on predictive analytics automatically approved low-risk online applications for temporary residence visas from China.
Sort of visa applications was created:
- Low risk for automatic approval
- Medium risk for officer scrutiny
- High risk for officer review
In 2018, this triage technique was implemented for all applications from China and tested in India. Officers will only hand review applications marked as medium to high risk, with IRCC’s use of artificial intelligence intended to approve low-risk applications automatically.
How IRCC develop Chinook Immigration algorithms?
Regarding worries, the IRCC states it abides by a Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms directive to ensure equality and stop discrimination. The IRCC says that it conforms to the ideals of accountability, openness, responsibility, legality, and procedural fairness when deciding how decisions should be made and what explanations should be provided to people who will be affected.
Any proposed new algorithm must undergo an Algorithmic Impact Assessment (AIA). The AIA is a critical risk assessment tool under the Treasury Board Directive on artificial intelligence (Automated Decision-Making). The tool evaluates the suggested algorithms’ risk, impact, and impact reduction. IRCC said they were among the first governmental organizations to use AIA.
The department claims that it also requires proactive disclosures regarding the use of the algorithms, methods for data and algorithm quality verification, and evaluations of the consequences of the Chinook IRCCÂ Algorithms.
The guidelines used to support (but not finalize) the decision-making process is reportedly periodically reviewed by top decision-makers, experienced officials, and legal, political, and data science experts to make sure they comply with the provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Frequent monitoring and quality control approaches are also used to ensure that these models continue to work as intended and that any unexpected negative impacts may be identified early and handled.
How Can We Assist You?
At Arnika Visa, we help you to find the most tailored strategy to get a TRV (Temporary Resident Visa) or PR (Permanent Residency) to achieve your immigration goals. From filing the immigration forms to guiding you through supporting documents, we take care of it all.Â
We can advise you professionally regarding the required personalized supporting documents to increase the chance of your approval and, finally, submit your application to IRCC Canada on your behalf as an authorized representative. If you want to discover how the RCIC can help you, the first step is to complete the Assessment Form (To detail your personal, educational, and employment information) available on the site.
I applied for a Canada visa using the new portal and was refused two weeks later. Does this new portal refuse application by Chinook Canada? I need to figure out what’s going on with applications! My friend applied for a visa using the GCKey portal and got approved, meaning there is no assistance from Chinook in the old portal! Please let me know your comments.
In the new portal, the Chinook system of Canada is used, which reduces the time of reviewing cases, but the risk of rejection is higher than the old portal.
The new portal allows you to download the summary of the entered information, but you need this possibility in the old GCKey portal. Once the file is sent, the data cannot be accessed anymore.
The old portal does not allow applicants to download or view uploaded documents. In contrast, the new portal will enable applicants to download the summary of entered information and view the list of documents but does not allow downloading.
If the risk of your case is high, we recommend you use the old portal
Regards, Reza Eslami, RCIC, R710241
I applied for my visitor visa on December 23, 2023, and I got a refusal on January 15, 2024. My consultant ordered GMC Notes, and it was mentioned that it had been refused or analyzed by the hip of Chinook software. We have provided all the necessary documents. Therefore, she advised me to go through the reconsideration process. Now my question is, does it really help to get a positive result? It’s been two months now for reconsideration, and there has been no update yet.
Reconsideration may offer a chance to address issues cited in the initial refusal. However, success isn’t guaranteed. Response times vary; patience is key. Continue communicating with your consultant for updates and explore alternative options if necessary.