After registering with the police, you get accommodation in a transit reception centre. At the centre you must fill in a personal declaration. The information you provide in this declaration will form the basis for the processing of your asylum application. The Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers (NOAS) assists all asylum seekers in the application phase by providing information on what seeking asylum means, chances of being granted asylum, the Dublin regulatory framework and other important factors affecting you as an asylum seeker.
Within a short period the UDI will call you for an interview. The UDI will provide an interpreter if you need one during the interview. The interpreter will accurately communicate what is said. The interpreter has a duty of confidentiality, also after the interview is over. Using an interpreter does not cost you anything.
You will be asked about
- you yourself, your family and your country of origin
- why you left your country of origin
- the route you took
- why you are now applying for asylum
The interview will take place at the UDI’s premises or at the transit reception centre.
If you are under the age of 18, you will be given a provisional guardian. A provisional guardian is an adult who has been appointed by the state to help you.
More information about children and young people in asylum cases
The information you provide will be written down. It is important for the processing of your asylum application that the answers you give are as correct and complete as possible. You should tell the interviewer everything which may be important to your application, even if you are not asked a direct question about it. If you have documents about any of the information you are providing, you must submit them.
The transcript of the interview will be read to you. You must check that it has been written down correctly.
Providing false information is a criminal act. If you provide any information which is not true, it may lead to the authorities being suspicious of other information which you have provided. If it is discovered that you have gained a residence permit on the basis of false information, your permit may be withdrawn.
For all types of applications, the aim is to be able to reach a decision uickly once the necessary information has been provided. The procedure for processing asylum applications differs depending on the type of case.
The different predures for prcessing are:
The 48-hour procedure
All asylum seekers whose applications are assumed to be groundless are gathered in a transit reception centre in the Oslo area. The police check the route taken, while the UDI conducts interviews to clarify the grounds for asylum. The interview takes place in Christian Kroghs gt. You do not need to write a personal declaration. If the case is clearly groundless, it will be rejected within 48 hours and you will be transported out of Norway.
If your case is not dealt with under the 48-hour procedure, you will be sent to a transit reception centre in the Oslo area. You will live here until the UDI has interviewed you.
If your case is a case under the Dublin Convention, the responsibility lies with the country in which you first applied for asylum or were granted a residence permit/Schengen visa. You will not be interviewed by the UDI. An exception is made if you are an unaccompanied minor asylum seeker.
If you are under 18 years of age and have come to Norway without your parents or anyone else who has parental responsibility for you, you are considered to be an unaccompanied minor asylum seeker, and a custodian will be selected.
In such cases an ordinary interview is carried out with the custodian present.
If you claim to be under the age of 18, but appear to be older, an age-test may be carried out. This is a voluntary test and your approval is needed to carry out the test.
Read more about the age-test
In cases where the aim is to process your application in 3 weeks (the three-week procedure), ordinary asylum interviews are carried out. After the interview, the applicant is moved to a reception centre while the case is processed. Applications from countries where it is known from experience that many cases are rejected, and where the UDI is very familiar with the situation in the country, are to be processed under the three-week procedure.
The UDI will reach a decision three weeks after you lodged your application for asylum in Norway unless further investigation or verification of the asylum case is required.
Countries which are currently covered by the three-week procedure are: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, Russia (with the exception of Chechnya), Serbia (with the exception of minorities from Kosovo) and Montenegro.
If you do not come from any of these countries, it may take several months to process your application. The UDI still aims to reach a decision as soon as all necessary information is provided.
The processing times in these cases may vary. In cases where there is a need for further information and verifications, the processing may take several months to complete. You should contribute to provide as much information as possible as your contribution may reduce the processing time of your application.
The processing times may also be high for other reasons, such as when the amount of cases to be processed is higher than what is possible to process.
Basis for assessing applications
- your own explanation given in the asylum interview
- your personal declaration (where provided), verifications and language tests
- any information provided by you or your lawyer while the case is being processed.
The UDI compares your explanation with the facts on the circumstances in your country of origin and other information on the actual situation in the country of origin. The UDI uses information provided, for example, by Norwegian foreign service missions, other countries, the UNHCR, Amnesty International, other voluntary organisations and its own trips abroad.
If you get a positive response to your application, you may be granted asylum or a residence pernmit based on humanitarian grounds. You will in this case be notified by the police. If you get a negative responise, the outcome is rejection, and you will be notified by a lawyer allocated to help you.
Asylum
You will be given a work and/or residence permit in Norway as a refugee. You will receive a refugee travel document instead of your passport. This travel document is not valid for trips to your home country.
Residence on humanitarian grounds
If you are not granted asylum, the Norwegian authorities will automatically assess whether you may nevertheless be granted a residence permit either on other protection grounds or on humanitarian grounds. There must be strong humanitarian considerations in such cases. If you are granted residence on humanitarian grounds, you will normally be issued with a immigrant’s passport.
Rejection
If the Norwegian authorities reject your application for asylum and there are no grounds to grant you a residence permit based on other protection on humanitarian grounds, you must leave the country. You may appeal against the decision. The appeal is sent to the UDI.
If the UDI rejects your asylum application, you have the right to appeal and you will be allocated a lawyer to help you. The appeal is sent to the UDI. If the UDI does not amend the decision, the appeal is sent to the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE).
Your appeal must include details of:
- The decision you are appealing against
- When you were notified of the decision
- What you wish to be changed in the decision
- The grounds for desiring this change
- New information which may have a bearing on the outcome
If you are appealing against your asylum application being rejected, you will normally be able to stay in Norway while your appeal is being processed. If the UDI considers that your application is obviously unfounded, you may, however, be ordered to leave Norway before your appeal is processed.
Your lawyer is there to help you and is to be the link between you and the Norwegian authorities. Your lawyer should, for example, keep track of deadlines and make sure that your appeal case is processed correctly.
Deadline for appeals
You must appeal within three weeks of receiving the decision. Your appeal must be posted before the deadline expires. The UDI may ignore the appeal if you submit too late. You can apply to extend the deadline for appeals. If you do so, you must state the reason why you are requesting an extension. If you have failed to meet the deadline for appeals, you may apply to have your case reinstated. You must explain why you did not submit your appeal before the expiry of the deadline. The procedure for granting such reinstatement is relatively strict.
You have the right to know the reasons why the decision was made.
If you think that the UDI has not justified its decision, you can demand such justification before the deadline for appeals expires. A new deadline for appeals will then be calculated from the date you receive the justification.
