Step one: the screening
You register an asylum claim at a screening, a meeting with an immigration officer. If you claim as soon as you arrive, you are screened at the UK border: tell a Border Force officer that you want to claim asylum and ask for an interpreter if you need one. If you are already in the UK you book a screening appointment by telephoning the asylum registration appointment line on 0300 123 4193 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). You will be asked simple questions about you, your family and where you live, but not why you are claiming. Do not turn up without an appointment: you may not be seen. You cannot get financial help with the cost of travelling to the screening.
At the screening you are photographed and fingerprinted, and interviewed to check who you are and where you come from. You are asked in outline why you want asylum, and about any medication or medical needs for you and your dependants (a partner and children under 18). Take any written evidence you have and your documents. You may bring a legal representative and an interpreter, and you must bring dependants who are claiming with you. Your claim is not registered until you attend and it is accepted. You can ask for a male or female interviewer, but your choice might not be available.
The Single Protection Interview
Some people have their screening and interview in one session, a Single Protection Interview. You may be invited if you are from an EU or EEA country, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia or New Zealand. You get a letter saying when and how it will take place, you may receive a decision after it, and you must attend for your claim to be registered.
After the screening
- You are sent an asylum registration card (ARC) showing that you have applied, who you are and whether you may work. Take it to every reporting event.
- You may be sent an asylum questionnaire, which you must complete and return by the deadline on the letter.
- You must go to regular meetings with your caseworker, called reporting events. If you do not, your claim may be withdrawn and you may be detained.
- The Home Office decides whether the claim can be considered in the UK. If you travelled through, or have a connection with, a safe third country, you may be sent there.
- You may be detained while you wait. You will not usually be detained if you are a child, elderly, in a family with children, pregnant, accepted as a victim of trafficking, or can show independent evidence of torture.
Step two: the asylum interview
The interview usually takes place soon after the screening. You get a letter telling you when and how, and most interviews are now held over video call, so tell the Home Office early if you need one in person. A caseworker asks about your background, your family, the events that made you leave, what you fear if you return and why you cannot be protected there. Video interviews are recorded and you receive a copy, and you receive a copy of the written interview record. What you say is checked against your statement, your documents and country information. Inconsistencies, vagueness and late additions are the usual reasons for a claim being disbelieved.
Before the interview, send your original birth certificate, passport and national ID card by post, with English translations showing who made them, and email any other evidence of persecution. If you cannot, send it afterwards.
Who can be with you
You can bring a legal representative, and in some cases a friend or a support worker who is not a family member and not claiming asylum themselves. Tell the Home Office first. The interview will go ahead even if your representative is not there, and you cannot ask for more time to find one, so arrange representation before the date. You can rearrange only for reasons outside your control, such as illness (with medical evidence), a medical or maternity appointment, severe travel disruption or childcare. Tell the Home Office as soon as you can, and at the latest within 7 days of the date you were due. If you miss it without a reason, your claim will usually be withdrawn.
How to prepare
- Write a full statement in your own words, in order, with dates and places. Take time over it.
- Gather evidence: identity documents, proof of your activities or membership, medical and psychological reports, photographs, and news or reports that support your account.
- Tell the whole story. If you leave out something important and mention it later, it may be treated as an invention.
- Say if you cannot continue. If you are unwell, distressed or need a break, ask.
- Ask for an interpreter in your language and dialect, and say at once if you cannot follow them.
If you have been trafficked, tortured or harmed
Say so as early as you can. There are specific protections, including medical reports on scarring and trauma and referral to the National Referral Mechanism. See trafficking and the National Referral Mechanism.
The decision
A decision is made as soon as possible, but can take longer if documents must be verified, more interviews are needed or your circumstances need checking. If you are recognised as a refugee, or given humanitarian protection, and claimed on or after 2 March 2026, you have permission to stay for a minimum of 30 months, and must renew within 28 days of it expiring if you still need protection. For earlier claims, and for unaccompanied children, it is a minimum of five years. A refusal can be appealed to the First-tier Tribunal. See claiming asylum and asylum appeals.
How we help
We help you write the statement, assemble the evidence, prepare for the interview and attend with you, and, if the claim is refused, we prepare and file the appeal.
