If you are unable to return safely to your country because you fear persecution or serious harm, you may be able to claim asylum in the United Kingdom.
The asylum process is different from making an ordinary visa application.
A person claiming asylum is asking the UK to provide international protection because returning to their country would place them at risk.
The Home Office will examine:
Current Home Office guidance states that asylum should generally be claimed when you arrive in the UK or as soon as you believe it would be unsafe to return to your country. Delay can affect how the claim is assessed, although the reason for any delay must be considered in the individual circumstances.
At Knights & Shah Solicitors, we advise people throughout the asylum process, including before screening, in preparation for substantive interviews, when compiling evidence and following a Home Office refusal.
To obtain refugee protection, a person must generally be outside their country of origin and unable or unwilling to return because they fear persecution.
The feared persecution must be connected with a relevant Refugee Convention reason.
These include:
The final category can include claims involving circumstances such as gender, gender identity or sexual orientation, depending upon the facts and legal requirements. Current GOV.UK guidance expressly identifies those matters as examples of circumstances capable of creating qualifying risk.
Asylum claims can arise from many different situations, including:
Every claim requires an individual assessment.
A person can claim asylum:
If you claim asylum immediately upon arrival, you should tell a Border Force officer that you wish to claim asylum.
If you are already in the UK, the current process normally requires you to contact the asylum registration appointment service and attend a screening appointment.
Importantly, for a person claiming from inside the UK, the asylum claim is not treated as registered simply because they have telephoned for an appointment. Current Home Office guidance states that the claim is registered when the person attends the screening appointment and the application is accepted.
This can be important when determining the date of the asylum claim and the immigration rules applying to it.
The first formal stage is normally called screening.
Screening is not ordinarily the full asylum interview.
Its purpose is to register the claim and obtain important initial information.
At screening, the Home Office will generally:
You may also provide written material and documents supporting your claim.
Although screening is shorter than the substantive asylum interview, the information given can become important later.
Your screening answers may subsequently be compared with:
Accuracy therefore matters from the beginning.
You should take available documents relevant to your identity and immigration position.
Depending upon your circumstances, this may include:
You can also provide evidence concerning your asylum claim if you already have it.
A person fleeing persecution may understandably not possess every document normally associated with their identity or history.
The absence of documents does not automatically prevent an asylum claim.
However, if a document exists and is relevant, its absence may need to be explained.
It is important to inform the Home Office about relevant medical or vulnerability issues.
This can include:
Current screening guidance specifically requires applicants to provide relevant medical information concerning themselves and their dependants.
This is not merely administrative.
Vulnerability may affect:
After screening, the Home Office will consider how the asylum claim should proceed.
Current guidance states that an applicant will normally receive an Application Registration Card (ARC), unless detained, or information explaining what will happen next. The applicant may also receive an asylum questionnaire that must be completed by the specified deadline.
The applicant must keep the Home Office informed if important contact details change.
They may also be required to attend regular reporting events while the claim remains outstanding.
Once the claim is accepted for substantive consideration in the UK, it will normally be allocated to an asylum caseworker.
Not every asylum claim will necessarily proceed immediately to a substantive decision in the UK.
Current Home Office guidance states that a claim may potentially be treated as inadmissible where the person:
A safe third country is broadly a country in which the person would not face the feared harm and would not be sent onward to somewhere they would face that harm.
Where the Home Office treats a claim as inadmissible, it may seek to arrange for another safe country to consider the protection claim.
Current guidance also states that if the Home Office cannot place the person in another safe country, the asylum claim may then be considered in the UK.
These cases can require specialist advice because the legal questions differ from the substantive refugee claim itself.
If the claim proceeds substantively, the applicant will usually be invited to an asylum interview.
This is one of the most important stages of the process.
Current Home Office guidance states that most asylum interviews are now conducted by video, although an in-person interview can be requested where there is a reason for one.
The interview provides the applicant with an opportunity to explain:
The Home Office may ask detailed questions.
The answers can later become central to the decision.
Preparing properly does not mean rehearsing or inventing answers.
The applicant must give their own truthful account.
Good preparation instead means ensuring that the person understands:
Applicants should not guess where they genuinely do not know or cannot remember something.
If trauma, mental health difficulties or another medical condition affects memory or communication, this may need to be explained and potentially supported by professional evidence.
If an interpreter is required, the Home Office must provide one so that effective communication can take place. Current Part 11 of the Immigration Rules expressly provides for an interpreter at public expense where necessary.
Applicants may also request a male or female interviewer or interpreter where appropriate, although the requested preference may not always be available.
A legal representative can attend the substantive asylum interview. Current GOV.UK guidance expressly permits attendance by an immigration adviser, lawyer or solicitor.
This can be particularly important in complex or sensitive cases.
Evidence can significantly strengthen an asylum application where it is available and reliable.
Depending upon the case, evidence may include:
The Home Office currently requires foreign-language documents provided for the asylum interview to be translated into English and to identify the translator.
A strong application should not simply contain large volumes of general information.
The evidence should help answer the questions that matter in the individual applicant’s case.
Credibility is frequently central to asylum decision-making.
The Home Office may compare information given at different stages, including:
Where apparent inconsistencies exist, they should be considered carefully.
Not every discrepancy proves dishonesty.
Potential explanations can include:
However, genuine inconsistencies should not simply be ignored.
If the Home Office believes an applicant has changed their account, this can become a major reason for refusal.
The Refugee Convention does not ordinarily provide protection simply because a person has experienced harm.
The question can also include whether the authorities in their own country are able and willing to provide effective protection.
The Home Office may therefore ask:
The answer depends upon the individual circumstances.
In some cases, going to the police may itself be dangerous.
In others, the persecutor may be connected with the state or influential officials.
Evidence concerning corruption, discrimination or ineffective protection can therefore become highly relevant.
The Home Office may also argue that even if the applicant is unsafe in one part of the country, they could live safely elsewhere.
This is known as internal relocation.
Current Immigration Rules require consideration of both the general conditions in the proposed area and the applicant’s personal circumstances when considering whether relocation would be reasonable.
Factors may include:
The legal analysis is therefore more sophisticated than simply asking whether another city exists.
A person claiming asylum can generally include a partner and children under 18 who are with them in the UK as dependants, subject to the applicable requirements.
However, there is an important distinction.
If the main asylum claim succeeds, dependants can usually receive permission for the same duration, but they do not automatically receive refugee status themselves unless they have made their own protection claim.
Where a dependant has an independent fear of persecution, separate consideration may therefore be required.
Asylum seekers are not normally permitted to work while their claim is being considered.
There is a limited permission-to-work process where an asylum claim has remained outstanding for more than 12 months through no fault of the applicant.
A significant change took effect in March 2026.
For permission-to-work applications made on or after 26 March 2026, employment is restricted to eligible occupations in Appendix Skilled Occupations at RQF level 6 or above, rather than the older Immigration Salary List framework.
Asylum seekers can undertake genuine voluntary work without obtaining Home Office permission to work, subject to the distinction between volunteering and employment.
It is extremely important to attend the asylum interview.
Current Home Office guidance states that an interview can only ordinarily be rearranged for reasons outside the applicant’s control, such as serious illness, unavoidable medical appointments, significant travel disruption or unexpected childcare difficulties.
Where the applicant cannot attend, the Home Office should be notified promptly and supporting evidence may be required.
If an applicant misses the interview without an accepted explanation, the asylum claim will usually be withdrawn.
This can have serious immigration consequences.
There is no single guaranteed decision period applying to every asylum claim.
The Home Office currently states that claims should be decided as soon as possible, but cases can take longer where:
Where there is a specific reason why a claim needs prioritisation, current Home Office guidance provides a process for requesting consideration of urgency with supporting evidence.
A successful asylum claimant may receive:
Other forms of permission may also potentially arise depending upon the circumstances.
There was a major change in 2026 concerning the length of protection permission.
For asylum claims made on or after 2 March 2026, a person granted refugee status or humanitarian protection will now normally receive:
a minimum of 30 months’ permission to stay
rather than the previous standard five-year protection grant.
Claims made before 2 March 2026 remain subject to different transitional arrangements. For claims made between 28 June 2022 and before 2 March 2026, the previous framework normally provides a minimum of five years’ permission.
The date the asylum claim was made is therefore now particularly important.
Different provisions apply to certain children.
Under the current post-March-2026 protection guidance, qualifying unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will normally receive five years’ permission where refugee status or humanitarian protection is granted.
This can also apply in specified circumstances where the claimant was an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child but turned 18 before the protection decision was made.
Children’s asylum claims also require particular consideration of:
A person who does not meet the Refugee Convention definition may nevertheless be entitled to humanitarian protection.
This can apply where substantial grounds establish a real risk of serious harm if the person is returned.
Current Home Office information confirms that humanitarian protection is a separate outcome where the applicant does not qualify as a refugee but cannot safely return to their country.
For qualifying claims made on or after 2 March 2026, the normal minimum period of permission is also now 30 months.
An asylum claim may also raise important human rights considerations.
These can include:
Current Part 11 confirms that where an asylum or humanitarian protection claim contains Article 8 issues, those matters are considered under the relevant family and private-life provisions of the Immigration Rules.
A claimant’s case should therefore be assessed as a whole.
For example, someone may have both:
If the Home Office refuses a protection claim, the decision should be reviewed promptly.
The refusal may challenge:
Depending upon the decision, the applicant may have a statutory right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).
A Tribunal appeal is independent of the Home Office and can involve updated evidence, witness statements, expert material and legal submissions within the applicable procedural framework.
Where an appeal right exists, protecting the deadline is critical.
Problems can arise where an applicant:
Good legal preparation can identify many of these issues before they become reasons for refusal.
At Knights & Shah Solicitors, we advise individuals and families throughout the asylum process.
We can assist with:
Our focus is to present the claim coherently from the earliest stage, ensuring that the applicant’s personal account, evidence, country circumstances and applicable protection law are considered together.
If you require advice contact Knights & Shah Solicitors.
We provide clear, solicitor led advice, strategic case planning and robust court representation to protect our clients.
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