Notice · Immigration & Migration Law
Client notice: AI translation and AI-drafted statements in visa applications
Original plain-language notice explaining why machine translation is not accepted as a translation of evidence, why personal statements must be in the client's own words, the risks under PIC 4020, and the client's consent choices for AI use.
- Kind
- Notice. A formal notice to serve or publish.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Give it at the start of any visa, review or cancellation matter where the client has documents in another language, has used or wants to use AI tools, or will give a personal statement. Do not use it as a substitute for explaining the matter-specific risks in an interpreted conversation.
How AI may be used
AI may help simplify the notice and prepare first-draft translations of the notice itself for a qualified translator to check. The notice's purpose is to keep AI out of evidentiary translations and personal statements unless strict checks and disclosure apply.
AI may
- Simplify the notice and check reading level
- Draft translations of the notice for a qualified translator to check
- Prepare a staff script for explaining the notice through an interpreter
AI must not
- Must not translate the client's documents for lodgement
- Must not write or rewrite the client's personal statement or declaration
- Must not be given client information before written consent to AI use is recorded
The lawyer checks
- The notice was explained to the client in a language they understand, with an interpreter if needed
- The client's choices are recorded on the file
- All translations lodged are by qualified translators and meet Department or Tribunal requirements
- Any AI use in documents for the Tribunal is disclosed as the Practice Direction requires
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Official form
Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Immigration & Migration Law
- Form 956: appointment of a registered migration agent, legal practitioner or exempt person (completion guide)
- Application to the Administrative Review Tribunal for review of a migration decision (forms M1, M2, R1): guide
- Response to an invitation to comment on adverse information (Migration Act s 57)
- Representations on a character notice under section 501 or a revocation request under section 501CA (Direction no. 123)
- Client services agreement and costs disclosure for immigration assistance (with AI-use clause)
All precedents for Immigration & Migration Law · Tasks and AI use in this area