The number of applications for citizenship has increased significantly in recent years. Computas has assisted the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) with the automation of case processing. This saves time and resources for both caseworkers and applicants.

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness and has as its primary task to implement their refugee and immigration policies. This includes, among other things, processing applications for visas, residence permits, asylum, and citizenship.

Until 2020, all citizenship applications at the UDI were processed manually. This means that they came in one by one and were assessed individually by a caseworker. Due to the large volume of applications, such manual processes are time-consuming. Normally, the processing time for citizenship applications has been over a year. To meet the enormous pressure and optimize case processing procedures, the UDI has decided to automate case processing with the help of Computas. The ambition is to provide faster case processing but also to improve the quality of the work by allowing caseworkers to focus more on the complex cases.

Started with pilot

“We initially automated the case processing of applications for family immigration with a skilled background. We used this as a kind of pilot to see how the mechanisms and processes worked before, together with Computas, transferring the experience to applications for citizenship,” says Kristin Sverdrup Efjestad, Senior Advisor at the UDI and Product Owner for UDI’s automation team.

While the number of applications for family immigration with a skilled background is around 4,000 per year, there is a completely different pressure on applications for citizenship.

“In 2019, approximately 18,000 applications were received, while in 2020, 53,000 applications were completed. The reason for the increase is that from 2020, it has been possible to apply for dual citizenship. We have expected to receive large volumes of cases in the coming years, which makes automated case processing extra valuable for us,” says Efjestad.

Ethical automation that can be verified

Automated case processing means that all, or part of an application is automatically processed by a machine based on certain criteria. The goal is to achieve more efficient case processing without compromising quality or ethics, while at the same time allowing caseworkers more time to manually assess the more complex cases. For the UDI, case processing now takes place in two different ways: fully automated and partially automated.

“In citizenship applications, there are usually a number of objective criteria that can easily be automated. This helps the automated case processing. For the more complex cases, we still have to do a lot manually, but we now have more time for that,” says Efjestad.

Computas, which set up the automation process, emphasizes that ethical considerations and transparency were important throughout.

“Regardless of whether it is automation or human assessments, both must follow the same ethical principles. In this project, we gradually introduced automation rules for objective criteria such as checking whether the applicant was over or under 18 years of age. Gradually, we added new rules that allowed the process to become more and more automated quickly. It is important that all assessments made by the machine are logged and verifiable. In this way, we have a transparent case processing model that both machine and human can relate to,” says Pål Vermund Knudsen, solution architect at Computas.

Reduced case processing time

The automation process now in use at the UDI for citizenship applications has proven to yield very good results.

“While the quality is just as good, we see that the processing time is significantly reduced for applicants with fully automated cases. This gives our caseworkers more time to make important assessments in other complex cases, and applicants experience a much smoother UDI. This is very helpful as we will be receiving many applications in the future,” says Efjestad, adding:

“It is also invaluable that the case processing service automatically retrieves information from other agencies such as IMDI, Kompetanse Norge, and the Population Register. This information sharing can create more efficient processes for many other services provided in the public sector.”

Several plans for automation at UDI

The fact that Computas has had a long-standing supplier relationship with the UDI means that those who worked on the project were already familiar with the UDI’s domain, structures, and services. This means that they have not only created an automated process that works for citizenship applications but also for other parts of the UDI’s portfolio.

“It was important for us to create a service that can be further developed and create good value for the UDI, even beyond citizenship applications,” says Knudsen at Computas.

Efjestad confirms that the UDI has wanted to automate more case types based on the same model.

“We have already planned to automate applications for study permits. One should also not rule out that other application processes will also be automated with the same mechanisms in the future,” said Efjestad when the system was first put into use, and concluded:

“Computas has shown a good understanding of our societal mission and has been essential for automated case processing at the UDI to get its own legs to stand on.”

Influenced by the situation in Ukraine

The situation in Ukraine has impacted how Computas is moving forward with the project.

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration is working to automate the case processing for refugees arriving in Norway from Ukraine. They are entitled to “Collective protection” which means that the asylum seeker is not treated individually, but as a group, and is entitled to a one-year residence permit that can be renewed twice, for a total of three years. The permit grants work permit, right to health care, and the right to childcare and school.

The solution is based on the automation platform that was developed in connection with the automation of case processing for citizenship applications. When the situation arose, Computas immediately started with the specification which was quickly put in place. An emergency group was also established to ensure round-the-clock maintenance of the system.

Nominated for the Digitalization Award

The UDI and Computas’ solution for automated processing of citizenship applications was one of three finalists for the Digitalization Prize 2022, which recognized the year’s digital success story in the public sector. The nominees had to contribute in an innovative way to realizing the government’s digitalization strategy, putting the user at the center, sharing and using data, utilizing national common solutions, and demonstrating clear gains or high potential for gains.