Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been integrating artificial intelligence and automation into its systems to reduce long wait times and streamline application reviews. According to immigration lawyer Mario Bellissimo, founder of Bellissimo Law Group PC, this shift was both “inevitable” and “commendable.”
“The principal advantage lies in efficiency,” Bellissimo noted. “Processing times have been reduced, routine cases are triaged more effectively, and officers are able to concentrate their efforts on more complex matters.”
Automation has already shown impact — particularly in spousal sponsorships and temporary resident visa applications — where assessment times have dropped significantly.
But this digital shift is not without controversy.
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Automation Raises Questions About Fairness and Human Oversight
Despite improvements in speed, Bellissimo cautions against the over-reliance on technology in immigration decisions.
“One notable example involved refusal reasons being generated at the exact same timestamp as the application was processed, raising legitimate concerns about whether any substantive human review had occurred,” he said.
In response to these concerns, IRCC has stated that no final decisions are made solely by artificial intelligence. A spokesperson clarified:
“These tools help sort applications based on set rules and patterns in past decisions, but they do not recommend or issue refusals.”
Still, for critics, the issue lies in how these tools are designed and what kind of historical data they rely on.
Experts Say Technology May Be Reinforcing Systemic Bias
The Problem with Pattern Recognition in Immigration Decisions
Petra Molnar, associate director at the Refugee Law Lab at York University and author of The Walls Have Eyes, warns that using past decisions to train AI systems can entrench systemic biases.
“Technology is not neutral,” Molnar said. “Automation replicates structural discrimination and systemic racism, and applicants are rarely told how decisions about their lives are being made.”
She argues that automated systems may oversimplify complex human cases — particularly those involving refugees and asylum seekers — leading to unjust outcomes and little opportunity for appeal or recourse.
Transparency Concerns and Secret Tech Tools
Chinook and Other Tools Introduced Without Disclosure
A major concern for experts is the lack of transparency surrounding the tools IRCC uses. Bellissimo referenced how the introduction of Chinook — an internal data-processing tool — only became public knowledge through Access to Information requests.
Although IRCC later claimed Chinook is only used to organize application data into a clearer format for officers, critics say the government has failed to consult stakeholders or inform applicants about how their data is being handled.
Bellissimo’s Push for Legal Safeguards
In 2022, Bellissimo submitted a detailed brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship, proposing:
- New laws governing AI in immigration
- Mandatory training for IRCC staff
- Independent audits with enforcement powers
“Without legislated guardrails, AI risks replicating historical patterns of discrimination within Canadian immigration,” Bellissimo warned.
He also stressed the need for collaboration between the government and immigration advocates, stating that the current approach treats lawyers and watchdogs as adversaries instead of partners.
Private Companies and the Problem of Corporate Secrecy
Molnar also flagged Canada’s growing reliance on private sector partnerships to build and maintain automated immigration systems. These contracts are often opaque, with little public scrutiny or transparency.
“Canada could be a leader in rights-based innovation, but right now, the use of automated decision-making systems in immigration looks more like an experiment on vulnerable populations than a fair or just reform to a system that desperately needs it,” she said.
Conclusion: Speed Shouldn’t Come at the Cost of Justice
While technology can help ease the burden of Canada’s immigration backlog, experts stress that fairness, transparency, and human oversight must remain at the core of the process. Without proper checks, automation risks turning a much-needed reform into a mechanism for unaccountable, biased, and dehumanized decisions.