Improving the Experience of Permanent Residence Forms: The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot

Project Description:

This research project looks at the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), through which skilled foreign workers are given a pathway for permanent residency by working and settling in one of the eleven northern communities across five provinces. The research focuses on various usability issues, applicant pain points, and other challenges found during the application process. A design thinking approach was taken to better understand the mental model of applicants, IRCC and other stakeholders.

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) are currently facing high rejection rates amongst applicants seeking permanent residency, and so the objective of this research is to understand and solve various usability issues faced by RNIP applicants during the entire application process. The goal is to increase the success rate for applicants applying to RNIP, to IRCC officers who are processing these applications, and for other stakeholders.

Some of the methods used to collect data included in-depth interviews with two groups of Users, as well as Subject Matter Experts. We also conducted cognitive walkthroughs, usability testing, and presented findings through personas and journey mapping. In addition a set of experience principles guided the design ideation for solutions to the problems identified, and these were given for the short, medium, and long term implementation. The recommendations centered on ways to reorganize, and simplify the forms through changes to layout and content. We also discuss how emerging technologies may play a role in the future of immigration with the use of artificial intelligence, behavioural insight gathering, virtual reality experiences, and face/ voice recognition softwares.

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