COW - Transformations and innovations in lines of business - June 10, 2021

Key messages

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) continues to innovate and evolve in how we do business through both policy and digital transformation.
• IRCC’s Digital Transformation Journey is well underway, delivering benefits to our clients and our country, and mitigating COVID-19 challenges.
• By leveraging modern/smart technologies like the cloud, advanced analytics and automation, IRCC is developing tools to support our services to enhance user experience, improve efficiency, and maintain integrity and security. 
• IRCC is making progress in delivering virtual services across its programs. It has also enabled a remote workforce through enhanced digital tools and stabilized IT systems.
• Most recently, we launched a tracker that clients can use to get updates on their citizenship application, as well as a new portal to facilitate the electronic submission of certain Permanent Residence applications.
• Moving forward, we look forward to putting in place our “tell us once” approach, creating efficiencies and limiting duplicative data entry by clients across service streams.
• New funding through Budget 2021 will allow us to build on progress to date, enabling us to truly modernize, innovate and transform how we deliver our services – reducing application processing times, improving tools for our officers, enhancing the user experience for our clients, and improving value for Canadians.

Supplementary messages

• The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Canadians, travelers and those wanting to move to this country. This has accelerated the need for the Department to innovate, modernize our business processes and tools, and adapt to these new realities.
• Prior to the pandemic, the Department was already undergoing transformation of its operations, leveraging technology to develop tools and new processes to make our immigration system more agile, efficient and client-focused.
• Our Digital Journey Labs are designed to enhance the end-to-end experience for both the client and the IRCC officers, by using agile methodologies to support business-led transformation of processes, services and tools through iterations.
• Immigration remains a key driver of the Canadian economy and the Government of Canada is continuing to develop innovative solutions across all of its lines of business to help bring newcomers, such as workers in key industries, to Canada.

Temporary residents

• The Dynamic Temporary Resident (TR) e-Application and new IRCC portal provides an innovative, modern and completely digital application experience for clients. The TR eApp launched in November 2020 for Visitor Visas. The new Study Permit application was launched as a pilot in February 2021, and will be available to all student streams by the end of June 2021.
• The use of the counter foil-less visa issuance process for temporary workers is available for some clients who are not able to have a physical visa affixed in their passport in exceptional circumstances only.

Permanent residents

• As a one-time initiative, a new application intake channel was developed in support of a pathway to permanent residency for international students who graduated from a Canadian institution and certain temporary foreign workers in essential jobs, including health care. This includes dedicated spaces for French-speaking and bilingual candidates, in order to support the vitality of Canada’s Francophone minority communities.
• So far, more than 50,000 Permanent Residence applications were received electronically through this initiative. These applications will be processed remotely by officers across Canada.
• Digitization and scanning projects are helping us upload thousands of paper files to the Global Case Management System for remote processing across the network.
• Virtual interviews have replaced in-person interviews in key areas for inland permanent resident applications, for in-Canada spouses and common-law partners, for pre-removal risk assessment applicants and asylum claimants.
• We are piloting virtual interview facilitation services at Visa Application Centres, with the goal of increasing the availability of service locations across the network.
• The Department launched a Permanent Residence (PR) Online Application Portal that enables clients to submit their applications digitally, simplifying the application process. While the online portal will eventually be available for all clients under paper-based permanent residence streams, in order to limit the number of applications received, access to the PR Online Application Portal is currently being limited to a percentage of clients who access IRCC’s PR website.
• These clients are invited to use the portal for the following lines of business: Provincial Nominee Program, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, Agri-food, Atlantic Immigration Pilot, Quebec Selected Investor Program, Quebec Entrepreneur Program, Quebec Self-Employed Persons Program, Humanitarian and Compassionate Considerations, Self-Employed Persons, Start-up Business and Protected Persons in-Canada.
• The Department has also launched a secure Permanent Resident Confirmation Portal that allows clients to send and receive protected files and finalize the in-Canada landing process digitally. Between November 2020 and May 11, 2021, more than 5,100 clients became permanent residents through the portal, and approximately 2,400 have received their PR card.
• Implementing innovative approaches, such as virtual admissions, has given IRCC the ability to mitigate processing delays for services that would have been paused due to COVID-19. We have been able to continue to serve our clients while respecting public health guidelines. From January to May 11, 2021, approximately 75,000 in-Canada clients became permanent residents virtually.

Citizenship

• The new citizenship digital intake allows clients to submit applications online and enables officers to process remotely.
• In late November of 2020, IRCC transitioned from a paper-based citizenship knowledge test to an online test. As of April 30, 2021, over 66,000 clients were scheduled into online citizenship test events. As of May 3, 2021, almost 47,000 clients have completed their test.
• The citizenship case status tracker went live on May 12, 2021, providing clients greater visibility into the application process. This is expected to help reduce client inquiries related to case status by providing the information upfront. 
• Thanks to live, video-conferenced virtual citizenship ceremonies through a web-accessible conferencing platform, more than 64,000 clients became new citizens between April 1, 2020 and April 30, 2021.

Refugee Claimants

• IRCC has implemented Canada Post’s epost Connect messaging service for asylum claims and pre-removal risk assessments, which is a secure and timely messaging system used to communicate and exchange documents with clients/counsel or process partners.
• IRCC is implementing online applications for refugee claim applications. This will help ensure that IRCC receives complete applications, which will result in more efficient processing.

Passport

• IRCC is transforming the way Canadians can apply for passports by implementing an online passport application intake process.
• The Department has been advancing efforts to pilot a digital application process in summer 2021 that will let Canadians apply for their passport, pay the fees, and upload their photograph securely and conveniently from any device.

Supporting facts and figures

• Various digital solutions have been developed and implemented across the Department to facilitate processing. Highlights of innovations by line of business include:
• Temporary resident: Dynamic e-application and portal; phone interviews for temporary resident permits issued to vulnerable populations;
• Permanent resident:
  • In-Canada virtual landings;
  • New options to apply online for many applicants;
  • Digitization of applications for key programs:
    • Spouses and common-law partners in Canada;
      (2) Overseas spouses, common-law and conjugal partners;
    • Caregivers – Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots;
    • Parents and Grandparents;
    • Quebec Skilled Workers; and
  • In prescribed circumstances, reuse of previous biometrics and extending validity of medical exams.
• Asylum:
  • Thousands of asylum claimants have used epost Connect or alternative electronic means to submit claims and receive documentation.
  • IRCC, Canada Border Services Agency and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada are electronically sharing documents instead of using courier or mail, which allows staff to continue working efficiently from home.
  • IRCC has implemented procedures for virtual intake interviews to allow us to make eligibility decisions. Our senior immigration officers have recently started participating in virtual asylum hearings for intervention at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
• Refugee Resettlement: IRCC worked closely with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to adapt pre-departure orientation services for refugees to provide this service over the phone and integrate key messages from the Public Health Agency of Canada. IRCC also introduced a new web-based tool that allows the IOM to book travel for government-assisted refugees based on up-to-date community capacity.
• Citizenship: To mitigate COVID-19 challenges:
  • IRCC began holding virtual citizenship ceremonies in April 2020;
  • The online citizenship knowledge test was launched in November 2020;
  • IRCC has leveraged existing videoconferencing capabilities for conducting interviews and hearings;
  • IRCC has also launched the Grant of Citizenship digital application in November 2020, designed to improve client experience and enhance the application process at the intake stage.
• Case management: Federal Court electronic filing; remote commissioning of affidavits; secure electronic file transfer.

Background

• Prior to COVID-19, the primary drivers for innovation were growing application volumes outpacing processing capacity, aging information technology infrastructure and client demands for better service.
• A new set of challenges were introduced by COVID-19 and created additional roadblocks to in all lines of business and have accelerated the need for innovation.
• Continued innovation will be required with an expected increase in immigration demand when the border re-opens, notably to meet ambitious permanent resident admission targets set for next three years: 401,000 in 2021; 411,000 in 2022; and, 421,000 in 2023.