This guide maps the main stages of an asylum claim in the UK: telling the authorities that you want to claim, attending screening, responding to Home Office correspondence, preparing for an interview, and understanding the decision and appeal boundary. It is a process map, not a test of whether an individual qualifies for refugee status or humanitarian protection.
Register the claim in person
Keep every deadline and appointment
Get advice promptly
What the UK asylum process is for
Asylum is a protection claim by someone who is in the UK and says they cannot return to their country because they fear persecution. It is different from applying to come to the UK to work, study or join family. The Home Office first decides whether the UK will consider the claim; if it does, a caseworker considers the evidence and the person's circumstances.
This is a different process from applying for permission to stay as a stateless person, which asks whether any state recognises the applicant as its national and whether they can obtain permanent residence elsewhere. Read the UK stateless-person permission guide for that route; it does not replace an asylum claim where protection from persecution is at issue.
The process may not follow a single timetable. The Home Office can request more information, arrange additional interviews or consider whether another country is responsible for examining the claim. Do not assume that one person's timeline or result predicts another person's case.
Starting a claim and attending screening
If you claim asylum at the UK border, tell a Border Force officer as soon as you arrive. If you are already in the UK, GOV.UK instructs claimants to call the asylum registration appointment line. You will be asked initial questions about yourself, your family and where you are staying. You are not asked to give the full reasons for your claim during that call.
Attend the appointment you are given. GOV.UK says the claim is not registered until you attend screening and the application is accepted. Do not turn up at an asylum registration location without an appointment. Tell the appointment service if you need an interpreter, if a child needs an accompanying adult, or if a dependant will attend. If your housing situation changes before the appointment, report that change.
At screening, an officer checks identity and background, takes a photograph and fingerprints, and asks why you seek asylum. Bring identity documents and any evidence you have. Tell the officer about medication, health needs, disability, trauma-related needs and any dependants included in the claim. You may request a male or female interviewer, although availability is not guaranteed.
Some applicants may be invited to a Single Protection Interview, combining registration and the substantive interview. The invitation letter explains the arrangement. Attend it for the claim to be registered and follow the letter's preparation instructions.
Partners, children and separate protection needs
GOV.UK says a claimant may include a partner and children under 18 who are in the UK as dependants. Bring dependants to screening so they can be recorded. If a family member is not present or needs adding later, use the official written request process; GOV.UK says a dependant is not included until registered at screening. Check the current instructions for evidence of identity and relationship.
Being named as a dependant is not the same as receiving refugee status in one's own right. A partner may choose to make an individual claim, and a child’s own protection needs may be considered. If a family member fears harm personally, tell the officer and ask for a private conversation where appropriate. Do not assume that the main applicant's account automatically covers a partner's or child's distinct risks. A child who claims in their own right may need a separate assessment and process.
For a successful claim made on or after 2 March 2026, GOV.UK distinguishes the lead claimant's minimum protection permission from permission given to dependants. It currently says a lead claimant granted refugee status or humanitarian protection receives a minimum 30 months, while included dependants usually receive permission for 30 months but are not themselves granted refugee status unless they make their own claim. Children’s cases can involve further individual protection decisions. The decision letter and current rules control each person's status.
After screening: correspondence and case responsibility
After screening, the Home Office reviews whether the claim can be considered in the UK. If it can, it is allocated to a caseworker. You may receive an Application Registration Card (ARC), an appointment letter or an asylum questionnaire. If you receive a questionnaire, return it by the deadline on its covering letter. If you cannot meet the deadline, contact the team named in the letter before it expires and explain why.
The Home Office may consider whether another safe country should examine the claim, for example because of a connection or journey through another country. That is a separate responsibility decision; do not assume that every claim made in the UK will automatically be examined here. Read any notice carefully and seek advice promptly if a transfer or inadmissibility issue is raised.
The Home Office's public eligibility page identifies circumstances in which a claim may not be considered in the UK, including a safe-third-country connection and some claims by people from EU countries. The term has a legal test: the country must be one where the person is not a citizen, would not be harmed and would not be sent onwards to harm. This is not an automatic finding based only on the route travelled. If the Home Office raises admissibility, safe-country transfer or another-country responsibility, obtain advice on the specific notice and evidence rather than trying to decide the legal test from a travel map.
Keep your address, phone number and email current with the Home Office, attend reporting events and respond to every request. GOV.UK warns that missing reporting events can lead to a claim being treated as withdrawn and may result in detention. Keep copies of forms, evidence, letters, postage records and appointment confirmations. If circumstances change, notify the Home Office using the official contact route for your case.
Preparing for the asylum interview
The interview is usually with a caseworker and often takes place by video call. The appointment letter states when and how to attend. If you need an in-person interview for a specific reason, contact the Home Office as soon as possible. An interpreter is provided when needed; tell the Home Office promptly if you cannot understand the interpreter or need a particular gender where possible.
Before the appointment, make a private chronology for your adviser: important dates, places, people involved, contact with authorities, moves between locations and the point at which you left. The purpose is to help you explain events accurately, not to memorise a script. Mark which details you know directly, which are approximate and which you learned from someone else. If dates are uncertain or documents appear inconsistent, explain that honestly and ask your adviser how to clarify it. Never create documents or rehearse facts that did not happen.
An interview can cover sensitive experiences. You can say when you do not understand a question, cannot hear the interpreter, need a break or are too distressed to continue at that moment. Tell the Home Office before the interview about adjustments, health needs or a request for an interviewer/interpreter of a particular gender. GOV.UK says such a request may not always be available, so make it early and explain why it matters. A legal representative can attend; the interview may still proceed if the representative does not attend, so get advice on the notice and attendance obligation.
Send identity documents and supporting evidence as instructed in the current GOV.UK interview guidance and your letter. The public guidance currently asks for original identity documents, where held, and for translated documents to include the translator's details. Evidence about events, threats, medical needs, travel history or other relevant circumstances should be organised and explained. Ask an adviser to help if you are uncertain what to provide or how to explain missing documents.
Use the interview to give a full and accurate account of why you fear return and what you want the Home Office to consider. If a question is unclear, an interpreter is not understood, or you need a break, say so. The Home Office records the interview and says a copy of the record is provided; check the current process and request any missing copy through your adviser or the official route. Do not invent, alter or hide information. If a detail was wrong or incomplete, explain the correction and why as soon as possible.
If illness, an emergency or another serious issue prevents attendance, contact the Home Office immediately and follow the rescheduling instructions. GOV.UK says an interview may usually be rearranged only for reasons outside your control, and missing it without explanation can result in the claim being treated as withdrawn. Keep evidence supporting a request to rearrange.
While the claim is being considered
You will be told what reporting arrangements apply. Keep attending them and tell the Home Office about changes to contact details, health or family circumstances. GOV.UK says people waiting for an asylum decision are not usually permitted to work. A person who has a separate right to work or receives a permission decision should check the conditions attached to that permission rather than relying on this general summary. Our UK guide to work permission while an asylum claim is pending explains the 12-month request route, PTW1, the RQF 6+ restriction and its current official-source inconsistency.
You may be able to apply for asylum support if you cannot meet essential needs; it is a separate process and is not automatic just because a claim was registered. Read our UK asylum support, housing and appeal guide for the ASF1 process, support categories and urgent tribunal deadline.
Keep a simple case log with each letter's date, the response deadline, the action taken and proof it was sent. If an ARC or appointment letter has not arrived, follow the contact details in the Home Office communication rather than visiting an office without an appointment. Tell the Home Office if a phone number or address changes; a missed letter can contain an interview or questionnaire date. If you need help understanding a notice, share it promptly with your legal representative and keep the original.
If your partner or child is a dependant, record whether they are included and whether they have a separate protection claim. A dependant may be asked to attend screening or an interview, and the Home Office can request relationship or identity evidence. A change such as a birth, separation, family violence or a child's newly disclosed protection concern should be raised through the published route as soon as it is safe to do so. Do not assume that an email request alone completes registration; check the Home Office response and appointment instructions.
If a claim is later granted and family members need to join the person in the UK, the application follows a separate family route. See our UK refugee family reunion guide for the old-route cutoff and the current partner, child and close-relative branches.
You can seek legal advice while the claim is pending. Check that an adviser is regulated and authorised for immigration work. The Home Office's asylum information booklet also links to legal aid and adviser-finding services. If you need health care, ask a GP or relevant health service; receiving treatment does not itself decide the protection claim.
Understanding the decision and appeal route
The Home Office will write with its decision. If successful, a person may receive refugee status, humanitarian protection or another form of permission, depending on the decision. For asylum claims made on or after 2 March 2026, current GOV.UK guidance says refugee status or humanitarian protection grants carry a minimum 30-month permission period; for claims made before that date, the published minimum is five years. Specific rules for dependants and unaccompanied children differ. Read the decision and current official guidance rather than assuming a dependant has the same status as the main claimant.
People granted refugee status or humanitarian protection, and eligible dependants, may also consider a repayable Refugee Integration Loan. It is separate from asylum support and is not a grant.
After a protection grant, the permission expiry and next steps are separate from the initial claim process. See the refugee permission renewal and settlement guide for the 28-day renewal window, dependant timing and current settlement rules.
If the claim is refused, the decision letter should say whether there is a right of appeal and how to use it. The deadline and procedure depend on the legal decision, where you are and what the letter says. For a person in the UK, the general GOV.UK appeal route currently gives 14 days from receipt of the decision letter; other cases can have different periods. Get urgent legal advice and follow the specific notice. A late appeal is not automatically accepted.
An appeal is a legal challenge to a decision, not simply a request to repeat the original application. The First-tier Tribunal may allow or dismiss it; further appeals generally require identifying an error of law and permission. An asylum-support appeal is a different tribunal process with a much shorter deadline; see the linked support guide. Do not mix its three-day limit with an asylum claim appeal.
- 1Use the correct registration route — At the border, tell Border Force you want to claim asylum. If already in the UK, contact the published registration appointment service.
- 2Attend screening and disclose needs — Bring available identity evidence, request an interpreter if needed and explain medication, disability, health or dependant needs.
- 3Track every Home Office request — Keep your address current, attend reporting events, return any questionnaire by its stated deadline and save copies of correspondence.
- 4Prepare carefully for interview — Organise genuine evidence, explain your account accurately and promptly request help if you cannot attend or need an adjustment.
- 5Read the decision and act on its notice — Get regulated advice quickly if refused. Use the right appeal route and the deadline stated for your specific decision.