Using AI for e-Government automatic assessment of immigration application forms

This paper describes an e-Government AI project that provides a range of intelligent AI services to support automated assessment of various types of applications submitted to an immigration agency. The "AI Module" is integrated into the agency's next generation application form processing system which includes a workflow and document management system. AI services provided include rule-based assessment, workflow processing, schema-based suggestions, data mining, case-based reasoning, and machine learning. The objective is to use AI to provide faster and higher quality service to millions of citizens and visitors in processing their requests. The AI Module streamlines processes and workflows while at the same time ensuring all applications are processed fairly and accurately and that all relevant laws and regulations have been considered. It greatly shortens turnaround time and indirectly helps facilitate economic growth of the city. This is probably the first time any immigration agency in the world is using AI for automatic application assessment in such a large and broad scale. Copyright © 2007, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.