Presentation of the client

The Council for Alien Law Litigations (hereinafter: CALL) is an independent administrative court that rules on appeals lodged against decisions taken with regard to foreign nationals in the context of asylum and migration.

This involves approximately 20,000 appeals per year, which are lodged by the foreign national or their solicitor. Depending on the nature of the appeal lodged, there are different procedures for which different procedural steps, modalities, forms, documents and deadlines must be observed.

The CALL has 320 employees, including 62 judges, 16 registrars, 100 legal staff and 100 administrative staff at the registry.

The registry is responsible for the administrative preparation and handling of the appeal. The substantive evaluation and drafting of the judgment is carried out at the level of the chambers by the judges and legal staff.

The Council for Alien Law Litigations wants to rewrite its central file management application ‘Laurentide’, which is currently written in VB6, in C# (back end) and Angular (front end).

The Laurentide application is built on an Oracle database and ensures the administrative management of the procedures for the CALL. This Oracle database needs to be migrated to SQL server.

The project is part of the cross-cutting E-migration programme, in which the Council participates, and which consists of various projects, each of which aims to digitise part of the overall asylum and migration procedure, taking into account the general standards set out in the E-migration architecture.

The new application and database must be hosted in a Microsoft Azure environment, using Microsoft technology. (Devops, .net)

The current functionalities of the application can be retained. A functional analysis document is available.

The Laurentide application ensures that:

• Appeals are received and registered;
• the administrative file is created and further managed throughout the procedure;
• the digital file is complete;
• types of letters/documents are created;
• correspondence with the parties is ensured;
• the parties are summoned to the hearing;
• the judgments are registered and served on the parties;
• appeals in cassation against judgments of the Court of Appeal are followed up.

Documents can be sent and received both digitally (via J-box) and by registered mail. In 90% of cases, this is done digitally.

Types of letters and documents (including judgments, invitations to hearings, minutes, accompanying letters, etc.) are generated via the application. The relevant metadata for the case in question is filled in automatically, after which the employee has the option of editing the document in Word.

Specific role

You ensure that the architectural principles laid down in the eMigration programme are complied with and that the Laurentide solution is implemented in accordance with the specifications of the architectural design document (SAD). You quickly identify deviations and, if necessary, submit them to the Architecture Board within e-migration for approval.

As a solution architect, you will issue instructions to the developers and check the conformity of the front-end and back-end applications. You will supervise the integration of the solution at the level of the eMigration platform (Microsoft Azure cloud).

You will be responsible for defining the data architecture and monitoring its implementation.

You will ensure that the documentation for the solution is drawn up by the team of developers.

You will organise and lead the stand-up meetings and assist the project manager in organising the sprints. In collaboration with the PM, you will ensure the transfer of knowledge to the internal teams of the CALL and the progress of the project.

You support the project manager in drawing up the planning for the back-end and front-end development and, in collaboration with an internal developer, develop the back-end part of the Laurentide application in accordance with the norms and standards applied within the framework of the eMigration programme. You will deliver applications built on the basis of impeccable code.

You will be responsible for migrating the Oracle database to the new selected RDBMS solution (SQL Server).

You will strictly adhere to the deadlines agreed with you.

You will work closely with the team of developers at the CALL and ensure the transfer of knowledge about the components you develop.

You will actively participate in the integration of the developed APIs into the eMigration platforms.

You define scenarios for automated testing and assist in the development of end user tests.

Knowledge of the Belgian authorities responsible for asylum and migration and of the relevant procedures is a requirement.