Documents Required For Asylum in UK

In order to be eligible for asylum seeker status in the UK, you will need to have fled your home country due to the fear of persecution. This persecution could have been due to a range of factors, including your race, religion, nationality, political opinion, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

In order to claim asylum, you must also have been unable to receive protection from the authorities in your own country, rendering it necessary for you to leave.

However, even if the above conditions apply to you, there are some circumstances in which your asylum application is likely to be unsuccessful. These are as follows:

• You are a citizen of an EU country
• You passed through a ‘safe third country’ in order to reach the UK
• You have a credible connection to a ‘safe third country’ in which you could also claim asylum

A ‘safe third country’ is generally recognised as one in which:

• You are not a citizen
• You would not face harm or persecution
• You would not be sent to a further country in which you would likely face harm or persecution

If any of the above three conditions apply to you, you are unlikely to be able to successfully claim asylum in the UK, even if you otherwise satisfy the eligibility criteria.

If you are an asylum seeker in the UK, you will be required to prove your identity and your grounds for seeking asylum. As such, there are a number of documents which you will generally be required to provide when applying for asylum in the UK. These documents are as follows:

• Your passport
• The passport(s) of any dependent(s) included in your application
• Any additional travel document(s)
• Any additional forms of personal identification, e.g. birth certificate(s), marriage certificate, school records, political party membership
• Any further evidence which you think will support your application, e.g. evidence of the persecution which you faced in your home country or evidence that the authorities in your home country were unable to protect you from that persecution

If you are already residing in the UK when you submit your application, you will also need to provide evidence which proves your UK address. The specific evidence will vary depending on whether or not you live in your own accommodation.

If you do live in your own accommodation, you will need to provide evidence of your name and address. For example, you could provide a bank statement, tenancy agreement, or council tax notice.

If you do not live in your own accommodation but live with someone else, you will need to provide evidence of their name and address (e.g. a household bill or tenancy agreement) and a letter from within the last 3 months which confirms that they have given their permission for you to stay with them.

In many cases, people who have fled persecution may not have access to all of the documents which are generally required for an asylum application. There are a number of reasons why this may be the case, for example if there was not time to get the documents before fleeing or if the documents were lost or seized during the journey to the UK.

Your application will not necessarily be unsuccessful if you are unable to provide all of the expected documents. However, the more supporting evidence which you can provide, the stronger that your application will be, and the greater the chance that your application will be successful.

When you first register your asylum claim, you will be required to attend an initial screening. You should present any documents which you do have available at this initial screening. You will be asked to explain why you are claiming asylum in the first place and to verify your identity. In some cases, if you are able to provide sufficient information for a decision to be made, you may be granted asylum at this stage.

However, if you are unable to provide sufficient evidence to support your claim, you are likely to be called to a further interview. If you are unable to provide all of the required documents, you will need to explain why.

Everyone who registers for asylum in the UK will first need to attend a screening with an immigration officer. This is where you will first give your reasons for seeking asylum and present your supporting documents. This screening will either be held when you first enter the UK or at an asylum intake center, depending on when you register your asylum claim.

At this screening, you should expect to provide preliminary information about yourself, such as your name, age, nationality, language(s), family, and your reasons for seeking asylum in the first place.

In some cases, applicants may also be called to attend a further interview at a later date, in order to provide more information for consideration. If this happens to you, it is likely to be because you did not provide sufficient evidence for a decision to be made at your initial screening.

Before this interview, you will need to send your required documents to UK Visas and Immigration. You must make sure to send the original versions of these documents, not copies. If there are any dependents included in your application, you should also send their documents.

If there is any documents are left to send before the interview takes place, you must make sure to send it after your interview has concluded.

Once you have provided all of the requested information, your application will then be processed. When a decision has been made, you will receive one of the following options: permission to stay (through either refugee status or humanitarian protection), permission to stay for other reasons, or no reason to stay. If it is decided that you have no reason to stay, you will be expected to leave the UK.

Note that it is possible to bring a legal representative to your asylum interview. Contact IAS on +1 844 290 6312 to learn more about how we can help support you through this process.

There is no charge for asylum claims in the UK. However, some applicants choose to pay for legal assistance to support their application. Contact IAS today on +1 844 290 6312 to learn more about how we can help with this.

There is some financial support available to people seeking asylum in the UK, known as ‘asylum support’. Asylum support is generally £47.39 per person, paid weekly. You are eligible for this from the day on which you register your asylum claim. There are also additional funds available for pregnant women and the mothers of children under 3.

You will also be provided with accommodation, if applicable.

Due to a current backlog of asylum applications, it is taking longer than usual for the Home Office to process asylum claims. Many decisions take a number of months to be made, with some applicants waiting for over a year.

There are a number of factors which may delay the processing of your application, such as if the documents which you provide need to be verified or if you are called to attend additional interviews. The more evidence you are able to provide at your initial screening, the quicker the processing of your application is likely to be.

If you are waiting for over a year for a decision to be made, and it is through no fault of your own, you may be eligible to obtain permission to work in the UK whilst you await your decision. You will need to contact the Home Office in order to receive this permission.