Canada’s IRCC sets AI strategy for immigration services

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has released its first AI Strategy, outlining how the department plans to use AI across immigration, citizenship, refugee, passport and settlement services while maintaining human oversight, privacy protection and accountability.

The strategy aligns with Canada’s AI Strategy for the Federal Public Service 2025-2027 and frames AI as a tool to improve service delivery, reduce administrative burdens, strengthen programme integrity and respond to fraud and cybersecurity threats. IRCC says its approach is based on responsible adoption, governance, workforce readiness, transparency and public engagement.

The department says it has used advanced analytics and machine learning since 2018 to support application triage, workload distribution and risk detection. It says machine learning can help identify straightforward, low-risk files for expedited officer review, while outcomes remain subject to officer verification.

IRCC states that it does not use autonomous AI agents or intelligent automation systems that can refuse client applications. It says systems that learn and adapt independently are generally unsuitable for administrative decision-making because their logic can be difficult to explain or reproduce.

The strategy identifies several areas of interest, including client service, fraud detection, document anomaly detection, settlement support, data analysis, accessibility and internal knowledge management. IRCC is also experimenting with AI tools for tasks such as document fraud detection, anomaly detection and support for administrative processes.

Privacy is presented as a central guardrail. IRCC says AI systems must use only the minimum personal information necessary for specific, justified purposes, and must include privacy assessments, mitigation measures, testing, auditing and Canadian-controlled environments for sensitive information. The department also says it will avoid black-box AI models for application decisions and keep AI systems explainable, supervised, secure and regularly tested.

The strategy sets five implementation priorities: establishing an AI Centre of Expertise, strengthening governance, building an AI-ready workforce, accelerating experimentation and developing an engagement strategy with employees, clients, vulnerable groups and partner organisations. IRCC describes the strategy as a living document that will evolve with domestic and international AI policy developments.

Why does it matter?

Immigration decisions can have life-changing consequences, making AI use in this field especially sensitive. IRCC’s strategy shows how governments are trying to use AI to improve efficiency and detect risks while drawing limits around autonomous decision-making, black-box models and the handling of personal information. The real test will be whether safeguards around human oversight, explainability, privacy and bias are strong enough as AI becomes more embedded in public administration.

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