Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

1. Could I please request the following data for citizenship application by grant (submitted online in January 2023 only)?

1.1 Total applications submitted
1.2 Number of applications passed the automated checks
1.3 Number of applications failed the automated checks and percentage breakdown (e.g. 20% failed photo, 30% failed presence requirements, etc.)
1.4 Number of applications that have been approved
1.5 Number of applications that are being processed
1.6 Number of applications that are waiting to be allocated to a case officer
1.7 Number of applications in each bucket

2. Regarding the buckets

"Bucket 1 – Applications from Bucket 2 that were not automatically able to go to Buckets 3, 4, 5 or 6, and that have been pre-assessed by an administrator for completeness.
Bucket 2 – All applications begin in this queue and are filtered to other queues using system logic. Applications that have not automatically able to go to Buckets 3, 4, 5 and 6 remain in this queue until they are picked up by an administrator and pre-assessed for completeness, before then being moved to Bucket 1."

2.1 Does this mean applications that aren't able to go to bucket 3, 4, 5 or 6 will go to bucket 1?
Or only applications that are incomplete will go to bucket 1.
2.2 Can applications in bucket 1 be moved to another bucket (for some reasons, e.g. system error that has been fixed/corrected by an administrator) or will remain in bucket 1 until a case officer is assigned?
2.3 Are applications in bucket 1 checked by the automated checks every week (like the ones in bucket 2)?

3. Sharing the results of automated checks

Before the implementation of the automated checks, applications were process based on the principal of "first come first served".
However, now the ones that pass the automate checks will be processed/approved fast (within one month or every faster). The ones that fail will have to wait for around 10 months to be allocated.
This reduces the process time for many applications by sacrificing the ones that failed the automated checks.

3.1 Can you please confirm if the above is correct?
If so, do you care about the fairness for the applicants whose applications failed (or will fail) the automated checks?
Or it doesn't matter as long as DIA can process the vast majority of the applications fast to make DIA look good.

3.2 By sharing the results of the automated checks (e.g. failed photo requirements) the applicant would be able to submit a new one, which might speed up the process.
Why is this (sharing the results of the automated checks) not considered by DIA?

Yours faithfully,

Kaizu

Dear SDO Official Correspondence,

Thanks for the response.

However, the question "1.3 Number of applications failed the automated checks and percentage breakdown (e.g. 20% failed photo, 30% failed presence requirements, etc.)" was not fully addressed. Please provide percentage breakdown (e.g. 20% failed photo, 30% failed presence requirements, etc.).

Yours sincerely,

Kaizu