IRB Bans AI-Written Basis of Claim Statements Starting September 7, 2026 | ImmigraCan

As of September 7, 2026, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB, the independent tribunal that decides refugee and immigration cases) bars anyone appearing before it from using AI to generate or materially change personal evidence — Basis of Claim narratives, affidavits, and witness statements. Other AI use in a case, like drafting legal arguments or translation, is still allowed, but it now has to be declared. The rule comes from a Practice Notice signed by IRB Chairperson Manon Brassard and applies across all four divisions of the Board.

What the September 7 Practice Notice Says

• Effective date: September 7, 2026
• Signed by: IRB Chairperson Manon Brassard, on July 10, 2026
• Applies to: all four IRB divisions — the Refugee Protection Division (RPD), Refugee Appeal Division (RAD), Immigration Division (ID), and Immigration Appeal Division (IAD)
• Applies to: every party who communicates with the Board — claimants, appellants, counsel, and interpreters

The notice is the IRB's own response to a problem immigration lawyers and IRCC (*Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada*, Canada's immigration department) officials have flagged publicly this year: AI tools being used to add fabricated or embellished details into asylum and immigration applications, sometimes without the applicant fully realizing it.

What's Banned: AI-Written Personal Evidence

The core prohibition is narrow but firm. Parties cannot use AI to generate or materially change content that is supposed to report a person's own evidence — specifically:

• Basis of Claim (BOC) narratives, the written account a refugee claimant submits explaining why they fear returning to their country
• Affidavits
• Witness statements

The logic is straightforward: these documents are meant to be a person's own account, in their own words. If AI writes or substantially rewrites that account, it stops being reliable evidence of what actually happened to the person.

What Must Be Disclosed

Outside of that core ban, AI use isn't forbidden — but it has to be declared in specific cases:

• Any AI that generates or materially changes content in a document filed with the IRB (outside the banned categories above) must be disclosed.
• AI-assisted translation or transcription must always be disclosed, regardless of how minor the assistance was.

Minor uses — spellcheck, grammar correction, formatting — do not require a declaration, as long as they don't generate or materially change the actual wording. The dividing line is whether the tool changed what the document says, not just how it's presented.

Who's Accountable

The Practice Notice is explicit that the person or their counsel remains responsible for everything filed with the IRB, AI-assisted or not. Anyone using AI to help build a case has to make sure the output is accurate, verifiable, and trustworthy before it goes anywhere near a Board filing — the tribunal treats an AI mistake the same as a human one.

Consequences If a Party Doesn't Comply

The notice lists a real range of consequences for the IRB when a filing breaks these rules, including any combination of the following:

• Refusing to accept the document for filing
• Declining to rely on the document even if it's accepted
• Drawing a negative inference about the credibility of the evidence — a serious risk in a refugee case, where credibility is often the central question
• Reporting the conduct to counsel's professional regulatory authority
• Restricting or prohibiting counsel from appearing before the IRB

For a refugee claimant, the credibility consequence is the one that matters most: an undisclosed or fabricated AI addition to a Basis of Claim can undermine the very story the case depends on.

What This Means If You Have a Case Before the IRB

1. If you're preparing a Basis of Claim, affidavit, or witness statement, write it — or dictate it — yourself, in your own words, even if English or Spanish isn't your first language. An interpreter or a lawyer helping you phrase it correctly is normal; an AI tool rewriting your story is now explicitly against the rules.
2. If you used any AI tool anywhere in preparing your file — translation, transcription, drafting a legal argument — disclose it. The Practice Notice makes non-disclosure the risk, not the AI use itself in most cases.
3. This rule sits inside a bigger set of 2026 reforms to Canada's asylum system — see our coverage of Bill C-12 and what changed for asylum claims for the broader picture, including the new deadlines for filing a complete claim.

One thing that stuck with me from validating my own trade license (309A) in Ontario: every document I submitted had to be something I could stand behind and explain in person if asked. That's the same principle behind this rule — a Basis of Claim written by AI isn't evidence anyone can defend under questioning, because it was never really the person's own account to begin with. If you're building any kind of immigration file, whether it's a refugee claim or a permanent residence application, ImmigraCan's free eligibility quiz is a starting point to understand which programs and documentation requirements actually apply to your case, and the ImmigraCan programs catalog breaks down what each pathway expects from applicants.

What to Watch Next

The IRB hasn't published enforcement statistics yet, so it's too early to know how strictly the credibility-inference consequence will be applied in practice. Worth watching over the next few months: whether other IRCC-adjacent bodies (visa offices, the Federal Court on judicial review) adopt similar AI-disclosure language, and whether the IRB updates its BOC form to include an explicit AI-use declaration checkbox.

*This coverage is based on the IRB's official Practice Notice: Use of artificial intelligence in IRB proceedings. This content is informational and does not replace legal or immigration advice — ImmigraCan is not affiliated with the Government of Canada. For your specific case, consult a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) or a specialized lawyer.*