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Aipedia: Translators and interpreters
Translators can use AI to help with immigration and asylum documents, but an error in a date, name or account can lead to a refusal or damage an applicant's credibility. The consequences for the applicant can be severe, and claims may follow.
Part of: AI in Translators and interpreters
In short
Visa, asylum and nationality applications often rely on translated evidence: civil documents, police records, medical reports, letters and personal statements. Translators and agencies may use MT or a generative AI chatbot to draft these. Errors in names, dates or the details of an account can lead to a refusal, a delay or a finding that the applicant is not credible. Many applicants speak less common languages, where CIOL warns AI performs worse. Applicants and their legal advisers may claim against the translator. Translators' PI usually responds to negligent errors, subject to the wording and the evidence of what was done.
Immigration and asylum work involves short, high-volume documents, such as birth and marriage certificates, and long personal documents, such as witness statements and letters. Translators may use character recognition and MT on scanned documents, or a generative AI chatbot to draft a translation of a handwritten letter. Some applicants or advisers arrive with their own machine translations and ask a translator to certify them.
CIOL's 2025 Translators Day speech warns that LLMs perform worse in less-resourced languages, including many UK community languages, which are often the languages in immigration cases.
The people affected are often in a weak position to spot mistakes. An applicant may not read English well enough to check the translation, and an adviser may not read the source language. That leaves the translator as the main safeguard, and it means an error may only surface when a decision letter quotes the translated document back.
You owe the client, usually the applicant or their legal adviser, reasonable care and skill: under section 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 for a firm, or the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for an individual applicant. Where you certify a translation, you are confirming its accuracy. Asylum documents contain highly sensitive personal data, so confidentiality and data protection are central, and the ICO's AI guidance applies to tools that process it. Specific receiving-body requirements for translations are not covered here; check them with the adviser.
Illustrative scenario: an agency translates an asylum applicant's handwritten statement using MT on a scanned copy, then post-edits. The engine misreads a place name and changes the order of two events. The decision-maker notes inconsistencies between the translated statement and the applicant's interview and treats the account as less credible. The adviser later identifies the translation errors, and the applicant claims against the agency for the cost of the appeal and the harm caused by delay.
Typical errors in machine-assisted immigration translation include:
A claim that a negligent translation caused a refusal, a delay or extra legal costs is usually within translators' PI, subject to the wording. Proving what loss the error caused can be complex, since decisions often rest on several factors. Claims can come years later, after appeals, so notifying circumstances promptly and keeping records matters. Legal advisers working on these cases have their own AI duties; see AI in immigration casework and AI in immigration and asylum appeals.
For immigration and asylum translation, these controls help:
Interpreting in interviews and hearings raises related issues, covered in AI in court and police interpreting.
Apex arranges PI for translators and agencies working on immigration and asylum cases. A broker checks your cover for certified and evidential work and how the policy treats AI-assisted drafting. Return to the AI in translation and interpreting hub.
No binding rule forbids it, but the account is central to the case and errors can affect credibility. Treat AI output as a rough draft at most, revise it fully against the source, and keep sensitive material out of public tools.
Usually your client, which may be the applicant or their legal adviser. The applicant may also try to claim directly if they relied on a certified translation. Whether the claim succeeds depends on whether the error caused the loss, which can be hard to prove.
Immigration cases can take a long time, with reviews and appeals, so a claim may arrive years later. Keep records of the source, your translation and any notes, and tell your insurer promptly about any circumstance that could lead to a claim.
Tell us about your firm and the work you do. A broker will review how your current PI treats AI-assisted work, or arrange new cover. No fee for a quote. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start a PI quote Request a callbackApex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information about how AI is used in the profession and how insurance may respond. It is not legal, regulatory or insurance advice on your circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
