Can immigration consultants use ChatGPT with client files?

Current guidance

Research for this page found College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants board materials describing AI-related work in progress, but no published guidance for licensees on generative AI. IRCC’s public material on AI concerns its own operations, not representatives’ use.

That leaves the standards you already follow: the College’s Code of Professional Conduct on confidentiality, and privacy principles such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s generative AI principles, which ask organisations to limit disclosure of personal information “to only what is needed.”

Reasonable uses and what to remove

Explaining program requirements, structuring a submission letter, or improving plain-language explanations for clients rarely needs a client’s identity. Remove names, UCI and application numbers, passport details, dates of birth, addresses, and family and employment details specific enough to identify someone.

Check every AI output

AI tools can state program rules incorrectly. Verify requirements against IRCC’s own pages before relying on anything an AI drafts, and never submit AI-generated content you have not checked.