Evidence

The case file brings documents and attributed officer actions beside the application. A document has a type, received date, case and verifying person. An action has its type, date, notes, case and officer. Together they let the next officer see which material arrived and what was done with it. A reviewer can examine the same record before recording a decision.

A document’s receipt is different from its verification. The team should agree what counts as verified material and who may act as verifier. A note on an action should say what happened in ordinary language: an applicant was asked for supporting material, an officer checked a reference, or a reviewer was given a completed case. Avoid relying on an unrecorded conversation for the explanation of a status change.

• Documents. Record the document type and arrival date against the right case.
• Verification. Name the person who checked the document and keep that identity tied to the record.
• Actions. Attribute the action to an officer with its date and explanatory notes.

Choose the document-type vocabulary, the handoff point between receiving and verifying material, and how officers describe an action. Agree which documents must be present before an application advances to review. Those requirements can vary by case type, so the decision belongs to the public records team. People records should be linked to user identities before officers act for a case.

Use a case where the applicant has supplied one piece of supporting material after submission. Confirm that the document is linked to the intended case and that its verifier can be identified. Add an officer action explaining the follow-up and check that the reviewer sees both records from the case. If a second document arrives later, the prior action should remain understandable. The reviewer should not have to reconstruct the sequence from email alone.

The received date matters when a document arrives after an application was submitted. It lets the reviewer distinguish the material available at intake from material supplied during verification. The officer should record an action when that later arrival changes the next step. A reviewer who returns a case for information can then see whether the requested material was actually received before reviewing again.

During migration, preserve which person verified each document and which officer performed each action. The dates and notes should remain on their original records. Replacing several actions with a single summary would make the case harder to explain during an appeal. Test this with a file that has more than one follow-up, and confirm the order is clear from the resulting case history.

• Case Documents List — Inspect material received and the person who verified it.
• Case Actions List — Read what officers did and when they did it.

Application verification explains the evidence handoff. The data model shows the case links.