Applied for asylum before 12 June 2026

Within a few months of your application, you will receive an invitation for a first interview. This is an interview with an IND employee. You will answer general questions about, 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 the reasons for your application

Preparing for your interview with a lawyer

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 with 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 if they want to have their own separate second interview. Do they have reasons, different from yours, why they are not safe in their country? Then they will definitely have a separate second interview. A lawyer helps them prepare for this interview. 

Sometimes you will not have an interview

• You will not have an interview if you are younger than 12 and you do not have parents or guardians in the Netherlands. 
• You have protection from another country. The Admissibility Procedure applies to. However, you may have a special interview for that procedure.
• Another European country is responsible for your asylum application. The Asylum and Migration Management Regulation procedure applies to you. However, you may have 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 translate the interview. Independent and impartial means the interpreter has no influence on your asylum application. 

Discussing the interview with your lawyer

After the interview, you will talk to your lawyer. Together, you and your lawyer will check if the report of the interview is correct. Your lawyer then informs the IND of any mistakes and additions.

Decision

An IND employee reads you what you told the IND and the response of your lawyer. The  IND then decides if 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. Because of that, the IND will process asylum applications differently from 1 October 2026. 

During your asylum procedure, you have to 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. You have to bring your Foreign Nationals Identity Document (VI) type W.