Additional explanation of processing times in the asylum procedure

The aim of the Task Force is to handle all asylum applications submitted before 1 April 2020 before the end of the year. The statutory decision period applies to new applications submitted after 1 April 2020. In this notice we give an additional explanation of the consequences of this working method for the processing times in the asylum procedure.

Anyone who applies for asylum in the Netherlands would like to have his or her application handled as soon as possible. But at the moment, asylum seekers sometimes still wait a long time for a decision by the IND. It is also possible that, because of the approach chosen by the Incremental Penalty Payments Task Force, asylum seekers who submitted an application after 1 April 2020 nevertheless receive a decision earlier than asylum seekers who had already applied earlier for asylum. We explain below how this is possible.

Two groups

The IND has divided asylum cases into 2 groups, on the instructions of the State Secretary for Justice and Security:

1. Asylum applied for before 1 April 2020

A separate team (Incremental Penalty Payments Task Force) decides on this group of about 14,000 asylum applications. The aim is that the Incremental Penalty Payments Task Force will still handle this backlog of asylum applications from before 1 April 2020 this year.

2. Asylum applied for after 1 April 2020

The IND must decide on these asylum applications in time (within the statutory decision period). Normally speaking, the IND has 6 months' time to decide on an asylum application. On 15 May 2020 it was decided that the IND could extend this period by 6 months in a number of cases because of the corona crisis. 

Backlog

The IND has a backlog of about 14,000 asylum cases, primarily because of a shortage of decision-making capacity. This has consequences for the manner in which the IND decides on asylum applications. The IND normally handles asylum applications in the order of the date of the asylum application. This means that the first person who applies for asylum will also be the first to receive a decision. But because of the backlog, the IND has abandoned this order and chosen the aforementioned approach with 2 groups.

Order

It is not possible to say when the IND will handle which application. Many different IND staff members are handling the asylum applications in the 2 groups. They have no influence on which asylum seeker will receive an interview or decision first. Because of this it is possible that someone who applies or has applied for asylum later will nevertheless have his or her turn first.

More information

On the page 'Processing times asylum procedure' in the column 'More information' a letter can be read in different languages about the processing of asylum applications by the IND.