Applied for asylum before 12 June 2026

Within a few months of your application, you will receive an invitation for an initial interview. This is an interview with an IND employee. You will answer general questions concerning, for example, yourself and the journey to the Netherlands. You will also briefly explain the reason why you are applying for asylum. Later, you will have a second interview about your asylum story.

Preparation of lawyer for interview with IND

The Legal Aid Board (in Dutch: Raad voor de Rechtsbijstand or RVR) arranges a lawyer for you. This is usually free of charge. The lawyer helps you prepare for the interviews with the IND. This also applies if you are under 18 years of age and without parents in the Netherlands.

Preparation for a lawyer for children aged 15-18

Are you applying for asylum together with your children aged 15 to 18? If so, the IND will ask during the interview whether they wish to have a separate second interview. Do they have different reasons than you for not being safe in their country? If so, they will definitely receive a separate second interview. A lawyer helps them prepare for this conversation with the IND about their asylum story.

Sometimes you will not have an interview

• You are younger than 12 and without parents or guardians in the Netherlands. In that case, you will not have an interview.
• You have protection from another country. You will then follow the Admissibility Procedure. And you may receive a special interview for that procedure.
• Another European country is responsible for your asylum application. You will then follow the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation procedure. And you may receive a special interview for that procedure.

The asylum procedure consists of the following steps.

Second interview

In this conversation with an IND employee, you explain why you are applying for asylum. An independent and impartial interpreter will provide the translation. Independent and impartial means the interpreter has no influence on your asylum application. 

Discussing the interview

You speak with your lawyer. The lawyer checks with you whether the report of the interview is correct and reports errors and additions to the IND.

Decision

An IND employee reads what you said to the IND and your lawyer's response. Afterward, the IND decides whether you will receive an asylum residence permit. There are 2 possibilities:

1. You receive an asylum residence permit. This is stated in a decision.
2. You do not receive an asylum residence permit and you may receive an entry ban. This is stated in a decision. With the help of your lawyer, you can appeal this decision to a Dutch court.

The law states that the IND normally has 6 months to decide on an asylum application. This is the statutory decision period. Usually, it takes longer before you receive a decision. We want to stop waiting times from increasing further. Therefore, starting 1 October, the IND will handle asylum applications submitted before 12 June 2026 differently.

During your asylum procedure, you must report to the COA at your reception centre once a week. This is called the reporting obligation. If you do not meet your reporting obligation and the IND does not know where you are, we will still decide on your asylum application. We will send the decision to your lawyer. If you do not have a lawyer and you want to know what the decision is, go to the application centre (AC) in Ter Apel. You must be able to prove who you are at AC Ter Apel. Therefore you must bring your Foreign Nationals Identity Document (VI) type W with you.