You have applied for asylum and your asylum procedure has not started yet. You would like to know how long it will take before you receive a decision. The time between signing your asylum application and receiving the decision from the IND is called the processing time.
Latest update: 3 March 2021
N.B. The processing times may be longer due to the measures against the coronavirus. Please check ind.nl/en/coronavirus for the latest information.
The IND must decide within 6 months
According to the law, the IND must take a decision on your asylum application within 6 months. This is called the legal decision period. In some cases we extend the legal decision period to 15 months. For example if more research it is needed. When someone receives a decision varies per application. We explain why this is on this page.
After signing your asylum request you will have a reporting interview. The IND will ask you questions about yourself and your journey. After that we carry out some research to assess what your chances are of being granted asylum. The result of this determines which steps you will follow in the asylum procedure: the asylum 'track'. The track within which the IND processes your application determines the processing time. Because there are different asylum tracks, the processing time also differs for every application.
Tracks 3 and 5 also exist but are not currently in effect.
For asylum applications in Track 1 or Track 2, it is clear that there is little chance of asylum being granted. For this reason, the IND tries to take a decision regarding these asylum applications as quickly as possible. In this way, sufficient places remain available in the reception centres for asylum seekers with a higher chance of receiving a residence permit. For this reason, the processing time for Tracks 1 and 2 is shorter than for Track 4.
Your identity document for foreign nationals (VI) could expire while you are waiting for your asylum application to be processed. The VI is previously known as a W-document. Has your VI expired or is it about to expire? Then apply for a new document by choosing one of these ways:
The IND is not able to tell every customer how long the procedure will take. That is why we show below the average processing times for every asylum track from the past. These figures apply to first applications. The table also shows the percentage of taken decisions within the legal decision time. These data come from the IND's information system. We regularly update the information on this website.
The processing times for 2021 are below. You can see the processing times for 2020 and 2019 in our archive at the bottom of this page.
The processing times for 2020 and 2021 have been calculated differently than the figures for 2019. The processing times for 2019 are an average of the figures up to and including a certain month. The processing times for 2020 and 2021 are an average of the figures of the previous 4 months.
Please turn your phone horizontally to see the table with data for 2021 correctly.
2020 Processing times Asylum track 1 | Processing time in weeks | Percentage taken decisions within decision period |
January | 13 weeks | not applicable |
February | 13 weeks | not applicable |
2020 Processing times Asylum track 2 | Processing time in weeks | Percentage taken decisions within decision period |
January | 7 weeks | 96% |
February | 8 weeks | 95% |
2020 Processing times Asylum track 4 General Asylum procedure (GA) | Processing time in weeks | Percentage taken decisions within decision period |
January | 38 weeks | 67% |
February | 41 weeks | 63% |
2020 Processing times Asylum track 4 Extended Asylum procedure (EA) | Processing time in weeks | Percentage taken decisions within decision period |
January | 56 weeks | 39% |
February | 59 weeks | 38% |
Letter asylum seekers reporting interview about processing times (Dutch, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Spanish, Tigrinya, Turkish)
FAQ about the shorter General Asylum procedureInformation Shorter General Asylum Procedure (Arabic, Armenian, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, Russian, Somali, Turkish)