Demo — Canadian Immigration Assistant

How NOVA-AI turns IRCC pages into a sourced Q&A assistant

Published

July 10, 2026

Data source

  • Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) — https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services.html
  • Captured: 2026-07-10 (public web pages, staying within the IRCC services section)
  • Coverage: ~150 pages spanning study permits, work permits, Express Entry, permanent residence, citizenship, and application status — seeded with the content links from the immigration hub so the crawl reached the real service pages.
  • Hosting: all processing and storage is local — nothing leaves the machine.

How the agent was created

  1. Capture — the NOVA-AI crawler mirrored the IRCC section, saving each page.
  2. Extract — the main content of each page was pulled out (navigation, headers, and footers removed).
  3. Split — the text was broken into short, overlapping passages.
  4. Embed — each passage was converted into a semantic vector using a local model (sentence-transformers, all-MiniLM-L6-v2), producing 1,472 passages.
  5. Index — the vectors and passages were saved as the immigration agent.

Work process

  1. You ask a question in plain English.
  2. The agent finds the passages whose meaning is closest to your question (semantic search), plus their neighbouring passages on the same page.
  3. Claude composes a clear answer using only those passages and cites the exact IRCC pages.
  4. Each cited source links to the live canada.ca page, and the whole answer can be saved as a document (.qmd / HTML / PDF).

Answers are sourced information, not legal or immigration advice — always confirm against the current IRCC guidance.

Sample questions

1. How much proof of funds do I need for a study permit?

Answer (ask the agent, then paste the cited answer here):

Note

You must prove you have enough money — without working in Canada — to cover tuition fees, living expenses, and transportation to and from Canada for yourself and any accompanying family members [S1]. You must show you have enough for the first year of your studies; for programs longer than a year, you must also explain how you’ll pay for the full duration [S1].

Living expenses required (excluding tuition and transportation), for all provinces/territories except Quebec:

If you apply on or after September 1, 2025 [S6]: - 1 person: $22,895 - 2 people: $28,502 - 3 people: $35,040 - 4 people: $42,543 - 5 people: $48,252 - 6 people: $54,420 - 7 people: $60,589 - Each additional person: $6,170

If you apply between January 1, 2024 and August 31, 2025 [S7]: - 1 person: $20,635 - 2 people: $25,690 - 3 people: $31,583 - 4 people: $38,346 - 5 people: $43,492 - 6 people: $49,051 - 7 people: $54,611 - Each additional person: $5,559

Note these amounts are per year and do not include tuition or transportation costs [S6]. For Quebec, you must show you can cover the costs outlined by the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration [S7].

Acceptable proof of funds includes bank statements for the past 4 months, a guaranteed investment certificate, proof of paid tuition/housing, a student loan, a bank draft, or a letter from a person/institution funding you, among others [S2][S3].

Sources:

Note

2. What is the difference between Express Entry and a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)?

Answer (ask the agent, then paste the cited answer here):

Note

Based on the available documents, I don’t have enough information to give a full definition of the difference between Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

The sources describe how the two interact rather than defining each. From what’s provided:

  • Express Entry is a system where you create a profile and, if eligible for at least one of the 3 Express Entry programs, are placed into a pool of candidates from which you may be invited to apply for permanent residence [S1][S2].
  • The PNP is a route where a province or territory nominates you; provinces and territories can search the Express Entry pool for candidates, or you can apply to them directly [S2][S4][S12].

The two connect through the Express Entry PNP process: if a province/territory nominates you and you accept the nomination, you receive 600 additional points that help you get invited to apply for permanent residence [S5][S7]. You won’t be eligible for the PNP unless a province or territory nominates you [S1][S11].

The documents don’t provide a formal definition contrasting the two programs beyond this.

Sources:

Note