Form 1023: Correcting Answers on a Pending 117 Application (2026)

An incorrect answer on a lodged Orphan Relative visa (Subclass 117) application is corrected with Form 1023, Notification of incorrect answers, and the Australian Department of Home Affairs asks for it as soon as the error is spotted — that is the instruction on the Subclass 117 official page as of the August 2026 version. Form 1023 is the channel the Department publishes for notifying an incorrect answer while a decision is still pending. This article describes published process only and is not advice on any individual case; the Act, the Regulations and the Department's current instructions govern, and a file with real facts behind it belongs with a registered migration agent or legal practitioner.

What does the Department require when an answer on a pending 117 application was incorrect?

The Subclass 117 page addresses the applicant: an answer that turns out to be incorrect has to be brought to the Department's attention, and the page states the expectation plainly, "let us know as soon as possible", naming Form 1023 as the instrument for doing it. The Department does not give applicants a grace period to volunteer the correction at their convenience — the notification is expected as soon as the error is spotted.

The value of separating the two is practical rather than theoretical. The notification is what the page asks for; Form 1023 is the evidence that it was made. An applicant who quietly fixes a document but never notifies the answer leaves the Department assessing a record that still contains the original response, and there is no document in the file showing the correction was ever volunteered. The Department's published instructions, and the legislation and policy behind them, change over time — treat this as an explanation of the mechanism, not a substitute for reading them.

Is it a wrong answer, or a change after lodgement?

The Department separates these two situations, and the distinction decides which tool you use.

What happened	What the official page directs	How it reaches the Department
An answer in the lodged forms (Form 47CH or Form 40CH) was incorrect	Complete Form 1023	ImmiAccount upload, or attached to the processing centre online form
Phone number, address or passport changed; relationship status changed; a child was born; you want to withdraw	Notify a change in situation	ImmiAccount, or the Department's change-in-situation process
After grant: passport change, birth of a child, change of name	Notify a change in situation	The Department's change-in-situation process

Plenty of real cases sit on the boundary. A new passport is a change in situation, but it also makes the passport number written on Form 47CH an incorrect answer. The safe reading is that Form 1023 deals with the answer itself and the change-in-situation process deals with the event; where one event produces both, the answer should still be corrected on Form 1023 so the file contains a direct statement of what was wrong.

How do you file Form 1023 for a paper 117 application?

Subclass 117 is a paper visa. The application is Form 47CH, Application for migration to Australia by a child, lodged together with Form 40CH, Sponsorship for a child to migrate to Australia, by post or courier to the Child and Other Family Processing Centre in Perth, with the application charge paid before posting. The child must be outside Australia when the application is made. That paper origin shapes how the correction travels.

Once the acknowledgement letter arrives, the paper application can be imported into ImmiAccount using the application ID, the child's date of birth, and an identity document number (passport, ImmiCard or Titre de Voyage). Importing gives access to online services — attaching documents, viewing messages, updating details, checking status, applying for a Bridging Visa and withdrawing. The Department notes that applications made outside Australia on or after 1 April 2020 can be imported; applications made outside Australia before that date cannot, and they stay on the offline channel.

With the application imported, the completed Form 1023 is uploaded into ImmiAccount. If ImmiAccount is not usable, or the application was lodged outside Australia before 1 April 2020, the completed form is attached to a completed Child and Orphan Relative Visa Processing Centre online form. Both routes convey the same document; the choice is dictated by whether the application can be imported. Keep a copy of the submitted form and of anything attached to it, as the Department advises for the application itself.

Why does the delay matter more than the error?

Because a decision can be made on the record as it stands. The Subclass 117 page says the Department cannot provide progress updates within normal processing times and will make contact only if something further is needed — there is no promise of a prompt before an assessment proceeds. An applicant waiting to be asked is therefore waiting for something the Department has not said it will do.

Two further points from the same page set out the downside. Steps left incomplete can make an application invalid, and invalid applications are not processed at all. And where a decision is a refusal, the applicant is told why and whether there is a right to review, and the application fee is not refunded. None of that turns on whether the underlying error was small; it turns on the state of the file when the decision-maker reached it.

The Department also returns repeatedly to accurate information, flagging in the application stages what happens if identity cannot be proven or true information is not provided. A correction made early is a correction made while the file is still being assembled; one made after an assessment has begun has to displace conclusions already formed.

Who can correct the answers on the applicant's behalf?

Only some people can give immigration assistance: a registered migration agent, a legal practitioner, or an exempt person. Anyone can be appointed to receive documents. Appointing someone to provide immigration assistance is done on Form 956; appointing or withdrawing an authorised recipient is done on Form 956A. Once imported, those forms can be uploaded in ImmiAccount; otherwise they are attached to the processing centre online form.

For an agent or lawyer running a 117 file, the correction exercise is largely a reconciliation against the document set the visa already demands — passport pages showing photo, personal details and issue and expiry dates, change-of-name evidence where applicable, and the relationship evidence such as a birth certificate, marriage certificate, adoption certificate or family status certificate. Those documents are also the audit list: name spellings, dates, passport numbers and the relationship description on the forms should be re-read against them, because that is where an incorrect answer most often originates.

Which answers are worth re-checking before the file is assessed?

Passport and travel document details, including any passport the child has held since the one they will travel on
Names, including other names the child has been known by, and change-of-name evidence
The relationship to the sponsoring relative as described in the forms
Anything affecting the evidence that no parent is capable of caring for the child, including how long a missing parent has been missing and what efforts were made to find them
Dependants included in the application, and their identity and relationship documents

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Form 1023 if the problem is only in a supporting document?

Form 1023 is for incorrect answers, and missing or replacement documents are handled through the "send more information" route — uploaded into ImmiAccount, or attached to the processing centre online form. If the replacement document reveals that an answer on the form was wrong, the answer itself should be corrected on Form 1023 so the file shows what changed and why.

Can I just tell the processing centre informally instead of filing the form?

The published channels on the Subclass 117 page are an ImmiAccount upload of the completed form, or the completed form attached to a Child and Orphan Relative Visa Processing Centre online form. An explanation that never reaches the file does not meet what the published process asks for, and it leaves no record that the notification was made.

Our application was lodged outside Australia before 1 April 2020 — what changes?

Applications made outside Australia on or after 1 April 2020 can be imported into ImmiAccount; earlier ones cannot. If ImmiAccount is not available, the completed Form 1023 is sent by attaching it to a completed Child and Orphan Relative Visa Processing Centre online form.

The child's passport was replaced while the application is pending. Which process applies?

A change to the passport is one of the changes the Department asks to be told about. Because it also makes the passport details written in the application incorrect, the answer should be corrected on Form 1023 as well, so the two records are consistent.

Can I withdraw the application instead of correcting it?

Withdrawal is listed among the things to tell the Department about, and once a paper application has been imported, withdrawing can be done in ImmiAccount. Withdrawal ends the application; it is not a way of repairing an answer in an application you want decided.

Does filing Form 1023 mean the visa will be granted?

No. Form 1023 corrects the record; it does not satisfy any criterion. If the application is refused, the applicant is told the reasons and whether there is a right to review the decision, and the application fee is not refunded.

Does the child have to be outside Australia during all of this?

The child must be outside Australia when the application is made, and outside Australia when the decision is made in order for the visa to be granted. Travel should not be arranged until the Department advises in writing that the visa has been granted.