Home Office decision

ⓘ Information card

Unfortunately, it is quite common to experience a significant delay in receiving a decision on your asylum claim. The Home Office may take months, or even over a year to provide you with a decision.

If the Home Office makes a positive decision on your asylum claim, you will be granted leave to remain (immigration status) in the UK. You may be granted Refugee Status or Humanitarian Protection, or sometimes another form of leave to remain, like Discretionary Leave.

If your asylum claim is refused by the Home Office, you are likely to have the right to appeal that decision (see the next stage on the board). Many people are refused by the Home Office at the first stage, and go on to succeed at appeal.

See the Right to Remain Toolkit pages on Home Office Asylum Decisions (grant of status/refusal) and What happens when you get Refugee Status? for more information.

Now read the problem cards below. Discuss with a friend (or have a think if you’re doing this alone) what you might be able to do in this situation. When you have finished, click to reveal a suggested action.

⚠️ Problem card

You get a long and confusing Reasons for Refusal letter from the Home Office saying that it does not believe the things you have said, and your asylum claim has been rejected.

  • Click to show action…

    When you receive your Reasons for Refusal letter, make a note of the date you received the letter. Then, go through every paragraph of the refusal letter and write comments on another piece of paper or separate document.

    Are there mistakes the Home Office has made in referring to things in your story, like dates or places? Can you identify how these errors have occurred? For example, is the error also recorded in the written transcript of your asylum interview? If it is, you may also need to check the audio recording of your interview. Was it a mistake in interpretation?

    Can you identify areas where you now realise you did not understand the question the Home Office asked you? Challenging these areas is more likely to succeed if you managed to submit a written statement to the Home Office about any problems during the interview before you received a refusal letter. What evidence can you find to support your statement? This might be evidence specific to your case, country of origin information, expert evidence.

    Read more on the Right to Remain website here.

NEXT STAGE: SUBMIT APPEAL