Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is enhancing the processing of spousal and partner applications by extending the use of advanced analytics and other automated technologies to all spousal and partner applications under the family class. Two new tools have been introduced to aid in processing these overseas applications more swiftly, aiming to reunite families sooner.

Spousal and partner applications consist of two components: the sponsorship part and the principal applicant part. Both components must be reviewed before approval, with IRCC officers retaining the final decision-making authority on all family class applications. These tools do not reject or recommend rejecting applications.

One of the new tools addresses the sponsorship part of the application, while the other focuses on the principal applicant part. These tools employ rules developed by IRCC officers and machine learning algorithms based on data from previous IRCC files.

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Reviewing the Sponsorship Part
The sponsorship component is evaluated first to identify routine cases that can be automatically approved. Applications that are not automatically approved by the sponsorship tool are forwarded to an officer for manual review. Automating the approval of routine sponsorship cases allows officers to concentrate on more complex cases, thereby accelerating the overall decision-making process.

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Reviewing the Principal Applicant Part
For the principal applicant component, the tool aids IRCC by identifying routine applications for expedited processing. If the tool determines an application to be routine, it can assess the principal applicant's eligibility and forward the file to an officer for the final decision on admissibility to Canada. Applications that do not receive eligibility approval from the tool are sent to an officer for manual review.

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IRCC is dedicated to the responsible development and deployment of data-driven technologies, ensuring compliance with privacy requirements and the protection of human rights. Regular reviews are conducted to ensure the tools function as intended and yield results consistent with fully manual reviews. An algorithmic impact assessment (AIA) has been completed, in line with Canada’s Treasury Board Directive on Automated Decision-Making, to evaluate the tool used for processing overseas spousal and partner applications. The AIA assessed the system's impact level as moderate and identified several risk mitigation measures. These measures include reviews for potential discriminatory impacts, a Gender-Based Analysis Plus, a quality assurance plan, and integrated privacy and security features. Officers retain the authority to overturn the tool's decisions.

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