REFUGEE PROTECTION

If you are unable to return safely to your country because you have a well-founded fear of persecution, you may be entitled to claim asylum and obtain refugee protection in the UK.

To qualify for refugee status, the risk of persecution must be connected to one of the reasons protected by the Refugee Convention: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. The UK must also consider whether effective protection is available in your country and whether you could reasonably and safely relocate to another part of it.

Where a person does not satisfy the Refugee Convention definition but would nevertheless face a real risk of specified forms of serious harm on return, they may qualify for humanitarian protection.

Asylum claims are highly fact-sensitive. The claimant’s account, documentary evidence, country information, medical or expert evidence and the explanation given at interview can all be important to the outcome.

1. What Is Asylum and Refugee Protection in the UK?

Asylum is the process by which a person asks the UK to recognise that they require international protection because they cannot safely return to their country.

The principal international instrument is the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, together with its 1967 Protocol. UK legislation and the Immigration Rules provide the domestic framework through which asylum and other protection claims are determined.

A person who satisfies the Refugee Convention definition can be recognised as a refugee. The core principle of refugee protection is that a refugee should not be returned to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened for a Convention reason.

Under paragraph 334 of the Immigration Rules, refugee status may be granted to an asylum applicant who is in the UK or has arrived at a UK port, satisfies the Refugee Convention definition and meets the other applicable requirements.

Asylum should be distinguished from an ordinary immigration application. It is not a route for choosing to live in the UK because conditions are better here, nor is it a substitute for a work, study or family visa. Its purpose is to protect people who cannot safely return to their country because of the relevant risk of persecution.

2. Who Qualifies for Refugee Status?

A person claiming asylum must establish the elements required by the Refugee Convention and the applicable UK statutory framework.

The central questions will normally include:

• whether the claimant fears persecution;
• whether that fear is well-founded;
• whether the feared persecution is for a Refugee Convention reason;
• whether adequate protection is available from the authorities or another recognised actor of protection; and
• whether there is a part of the country to which the claimant could safely and reasonably relocate.

What Counts as Persecution?

Not every form of mistreatment amounts to persecution.

Persecution generally involves sufficiently serious harm, either because of the nature of an individual act or because repeated or cumulative measures reach the required level of severity.

Examples can include, depending on the circumstances:

• serious physical or sexual violence;
• torture or other severe ill-treatment;
• discriminatory prosecution or punishment;
• severe restrictions on fundamental rights;
• forced marriage or certain forms of gender-based violence;
• persecution connected with sexual orientation or gender identity;
• serious religious persecution;
• threats to life or physical safety; and
• an accumulation of discriminatory measures that, taken together, become sufficiently serious.

The legal question is not simply whether a claimant has suffered unfairness, discrimination or hardship. The treatment must reach the threshold of persecution.

The Five Refugee Convention Reasons

The feared persecution must be connected to at least one of the five Convention reasons:

• race;
• religion;
• nationality;
• political opinion; or
• membership of a particular social group.

The Convention reason does not necessarily need to be the sole reason for the persecution.

The persecutor may also attribute a characteristic or belief to the claimant that the claimant does not actually possess. For example, a person may be targeted because they are wrongly believed to hold a particular political opinion.

Membership of a particular social group can be particularly important in claims involving characteristics such as gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, although whether the legal definition is satisfied will depend on the circumstances.

Persecution by State and Non-State Actors

The feared persecutor does not necessarily have to be the government.

A claim may arise from persecution by:

• state authorities;
• armed or political organisations;
• religious or community groups;
• criminal organisations;
• family members; or
• private individuals.

Where the feared harm comes from a non-state actor, the availability of effective state protection is particularly important.

Sur Place Asylum Claims

The events giving rise to a protection claim do not necessarily have to have occurred before the claimant left their country.

A person may develop a well-founded fear of persecution because of events that occur after departure or activities undertaken while abroad. These are often referred to as sur place claims.

Examples could include a change of government, deteriorating conditions affecting a particular group or political, religious or other activities undertaken while the person is in the UK.

The genuineness, nature and consequences of any post-departure activities will require careful assessment.

3. How Is a Well-Founded Fear of Persecution Assessed?

An asylum claimant must establish a well-founded fear of persecution.

For claims governed by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 framework, the assessment involves more than one stage.

The decision-maker first considers, on the balance of probabilities, whether the claimant possesses, or is perceived to possess, the characteristic said to give rise to the risk and whether the claimant genuinely fears persecution because of that characteristic.

The decision-maker then considers whether there is a reasonable likelihood that, if returned, the claimant would be persecuted for that reason and would not receive sufficient protection. Internal relocation must also be considered where relevant.

Previous persecution or serious harm can provide important evidence of future risk, although it is not always decisive. Conditions may have changed, the claimant’s circumstances may have changed or the future risk may arise for reasons different from those existing previously.

Conversely, a person does not need to wait until they have actually been seriously harmed before claiming protection. An asylum claim is fundamentally concerned with the risk that would exist on return.

The assessment must be forward-looking and based on the claimant’s individual circumstances together with reliable evidence concerning conditions in the relevant country.

4. Can Your Home Country Protect You?

Refugee protection is generally concerned with situations in which the claimant cannot obtain adequate protection in their own country.

Two related issues frequently arise: sufficiency of protection and internal relocation.

Sufficiency of State Protection

Where the feared persecution comes from private individuals or non-state groups, the decision-maker will consider whether the state is willing and able to provide sufficient protection.

The test does not require a country to eliminate every possibility of harm.

The question is whether there is a functioning system of protection and whether, in practice, that protection is reasonably accessible and effective for the particular claimant.

Relevant matters can include:

• the effectiveness of the police and criminal justice system;
• whether complaints are investigated;
• whether perpetrators are prosecuted;
• corruption or collusion with persecutors;
• discrimination by state agencies;
• regional differences;
• the claimant’s individual circumstances; and
• whether seeking protection would itself expose the claimant to further danger.

Where the state itself is responsible for the persecution, the question of seeking protection from that state will generally arise differently.

Internal Relocation Within Your Country

A person does not have to establish that the feared persecution exists throughout every part of their country.

Instead, the decision-maker may consider whether there is another part of the country where the claimant would not face the relevant persecution or serious harm.

Internal relocation is only a proper answer to an asylum claim where the proposed location is both safe and reasonable.

The assessment should therefore consider whether:

• the claimant would be safe from the relevant persecution there;
• the area can be reached safely;
• the claimant can lawfully access and remain in the area; and
• taking their individual circumstances into account, it would be reasonable and not unduly harsh to expect them to live there.

Relevant personal considerations can include age, gender, health, disability, family support, language, ethnicity, religion, accommodation, employment prospects and access to essential services.

A person who could technically survive in another region is not necessarily capable of reasonably relocating there. The analysis must consider the realities of the claimant’s circumstances.

5. Exclusion From Refugee Protection

Serious conduct can prevent a person from benefiting from refugee protection even where they would otherwise fall within the Refugee Convention definition.

Article 1F of the Refugee Convention contains exclusion provisions concerning persons in respect of whom there are serious reasons for considering that they have committed:

• a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity;
• a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge before admission as a refugee; or
• acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Separate provisions can also arise where there are reasonable grounds for regarding a person as a danger to UK security or, following conviction of a particularly serious crime, a danger to the community.

These provisions are legally complex and should not be treated as ordinary suitability requirements.

Questions of individual responsibility, the nature and seriousness of the alleged conduct and the evidence relied upon can require detailed analysis.

6. Can the UK Refuse to Consider Your Asylum Claim?

Before deciding the substance of an asylum claim, the Home Office may consider whether the claim should be treated as inadmissible because of the claimant’s connection to a safe third country.

A safe-third-country issue is legally distinct from deciding that the asylum claim itself is not credible or does not satisfy the Refugee Convention.

Safe-Third-Country Inadmissibility

A connection to a safe third country can arise in several circumstances.

These include where the claimant:

• has already been recognised as a refugee there and can still access that protection;
• has otherwise received effective protection against onward removal;
• previously made a relevant protection claim there;
• was previously present there and could reasonably have been expected to claim protection; or
• in their particular circumstances, could reasonably have been expected to make a protection claim there rather than in the UK.

Merely travelling through another country does not in itself answer every legal question. The statutory tests concerning connection and safety must be applied.

A family connection to another country may be relevant to the factual assessment in some cases, but there is no general rule that having a relative abroad automatically renders a UK asylum claim inadmissible.

What Happens if a Claim Is Declared Inadmissible?

A statutory inadmissibility declaration is not the same thing as refusing the asylum claim on its merits.

In particular, an inadmissibility declaration under the safe-third-country provisions does not itself amount to a refusal of a protection claim giving rise to the ordinary protection appeal under section 82.

However, the Immigration Rules also recognise that where removal to a safe third country within a reasonable period is unlikely, the claim may need to be admitted into the UK asylum process and considered substantively.

Human rights issues may also arise in relation to the proposed country of removal.

7. How to Claim Asylum in the UK

A person seeking refugee status must make an asylum claim in the UK.

There is no general procedure by which a person living abroad simply applies to the Home Office for a UK “asylum visa”.

Claiming Asylum at the UK Border

A person who wishes to claim asylum on arrival should tell a Border Force officer that they wish to seek asylum.

The claim can then be registered and the claimant will undergo the asylum screening process.

Claiming Asylum After Entering the UK

A person who is already in the UK can claim asylum if they have become unable to return safely to their country.

An in-country claimant will normally need to arrange an asylum screening appointment.

The asylum claim is not formally registered merely because the person has contacted the Home Office to request an appointment. Registration occurs when the claimant attends the required screening and the claim is accepted.

A person should generally claim asylum when they arrive or as soon as they reasonably become aware that it would be unsafe to return.

A delay in claiming does not automatically mean that the claim must fail, but an unexplained delay can raise credibility issues and should be addressed carefully.

Can You Claim Asylum From Outside the UK?

The ordinary UK asylum process is not an overseas application route.

Paragraph 334 of the Immigration Rules requires an asylum applicant seeking refugee status through this process to be in the UK or to have arrived at a UK port.

Separate humanitarian or immigration routes may exist for particular categories of person, but these are not the same as making an ordinary asylum claim from abroad.

8. The Asylum Screening Interview

The screening is the stage at which an asylum claim is registered and basic information is obtained.

At screening, a claimant can ordinarily expect matters such as the following to be addressed:

• identity;
• nationality;
• immigration history;
• journey to the UK;
• family members and dependants;
• basic reasons for claiming asylum;
• health conditions and medication;
• vulnerability or safeguarding concerns; and
• accommodation and contact information.

The claimant will normally be photographed and fingerprinted where applicable.

Identity and travel documents should be provided where available. A claimant should not manufacture, alter or obtain false evidence simply because genuine documentation is unavailable.

The screening interview is generally not intended to replace the detailed substantive asylum interview. Nevertheless, the answers recorded at screening may later be compared with the claimant’s fuller account.

It is therefore important to answer questions accurately and to identify any misunderstanding, interpretation problem, medical difficulty or other reason why an answer may be incomplete.

A claimant should also raise any relevant vulnerability, disability, trauma, medication or need for interview adjustments as early as possible.

In some cases the Home Office may use a Single Protection Interview, combining elements of screening and substantive interview in one process.

9. The Substantive Asylum Interview

Where a claim is admitted for substantive consideration, the claimant will ordinarily be interviewed about the basis of their protection claim.

The asylum interview is a central evidential stage.

The claimant may be asked about:

• their personal and family background;
• the events that caused them to leave their country;
• people or organisations they fear;
• why they believe they would be at risk on return;
• previous incidents of persecution or serious harm;
• attempts to obtain state protection;
• internal relocation;
• travel through other countries;
• previous immigration or asylum applications;
• documents and other evidence;
• political, religious or other relevant activities;
• apparent inconsistencies in the account; and
• any matters relevant to exclusion or criminality.

The purpose is to give the claimant an opportunity to explain the material facts on which their claim depends.

Where traumatic, sexual or otherwise highly sensitive events form part of the claim, a claimant may find it difficult to disclose them. That does not mean they should be omitted. Appropriate safeguards and interview arrangements should be requested where necessary.

Interpretation is particularly important. If the claimant cannot understand the interpreter or believes something has been interpreted incorrectly, the issue should be raised immediately rather than left until after the interview.

A claimant should tell the truth and should not attempt to fill a gap in memory by guessing. If they do not know or cannot remember something, they should say so.

The interview record should be reviewed carefully after the interview, particularly where there are interpretation problems, factual errors or further evidence that needs to be submitted.

10. Evidence and Credibility in an Asylum Claim

The asylum system recognises that refugees may flee without being able to collect formal evidence.

A claimant is therefore not required to produce documentary proof of every aspect of their account.

At the same time, the burden of substantiating the claim rests primarily with the claimant, and available evidence should normally be provided as early as reasonably possible.

Personal Evidence

Potential evidence may include:

• identity documents;
• passports and travel documents;
• membership cards;
• photographs;
• letters and emails;
• social-media material;
• threatening messages;
• arrest or court records;
• police reports;
• political or religious material;
• employment or educational records; and
• witness statements.

The relevance and reliability of a document matter more than simply producing a large volume of material.

Medical and Expert Evidence

Medical evidence can be important where the claim involves:

• torture;
• physical injury;
• sexual violence;
• mental-health conditions;
• trauma;
• disability; or
• an issue affecting the claimant’s ability to recall or disclose events.

In an appropriate case, an independent medical expert may be able to assess injuries or psychological symptoms.

Country experts can also be instructed where specialist evidence is required concerning matters such as political structures, cultural practices, particular organisations, state protection or risk on return.

Expert evidence should address issues requiring genuine expertise rather than simply repeating the claimant’s factual account.

Country Evidence

Reliable country information can help establish:

• the treatment of particular groups;
• the reach and capability of persecutors;
• state protection;
• regional differences;
• internal relocation;
• treatment of returnees; and
• changes in political or security conditions.

Country evidence should be related to the claimant’s individual circumstances. A general human-rights problem in a country does not necessarily establish that every person from that country qualifies for refugee status.

How Credibility Is Assessed

Decision-makers assess the evidence as a whole.

Potential indicators can include:

• level of detail and specificity;
• internal consistency;
• consistency with other evidence;
• consistency with reliable country information; and
• overall plausibility.

These are indicators rather than rigid conditions.

Factors such as trauma, age, mental health, cultural background, shame, interpretation difficulties and the passage of time can affect a person’s ability to give a detailed or consistently expressed account.

An inconsistency should therefore be assessed in context rather than automatically treated as proof that the entire claim is false.

Delay in Claiming Asylum

A failure to claim asylum promptly can be taken into account when credibility is assessed.

However, delay is not necessarily fatal.

There may be genuine explanations, including:

• fear of authorities;
• trauma;
• lack of knowledge of the asylum system;
• exploitation or trafficking;
• control by another person;
• mental or physical illness;
• age or vulnerability; or
• a material change in the claimant’s circumstances after arrival.

Any delay should be explained fully and supported by evidence where possible.

11. Humanitarian Protection if You Do Not Qualify as a Refugee

A person who does not meet the Refugee Convention definition may nevertheless qualify for humanitarian protection.

Under paragraph 339C of the Immigration Rules, humanitarian protection can be granted where the claimant is not a refugee but substantial grounds establish that, if returned to their country of origin, they would face a real risk of serious harm and are unable, or because of that risk unwilling, to obtain the protection of that country.

For these purposes, serious harm includes:

• the death penalty or execution;
• unlawful killing;
• torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or
• a serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in an international or internal armed conflict.

Humanitarian protection is therefore not simply a discretionary alternative granted whenever an asylum claim is sympathetic but falls short of refugee status.

It has its own legal requirements.

As with a refugee claim, issues concerning state protection, internal relocation, credibility and exclusion may need to be considered.

A person who qualifies as a refugee should be recognised as a refugee rather than granted humanitarian protection merely because both forms of protection might prevent removal.

12. Dependants and Children in Asylum Claims

A claimant may be able to include a partner and children under 18 who are with them in the UK as dependants on the asylum claim.

Dependants must be properly registered as part of the claim.

If a dependant is not registered, they should not simply assume that they will receive permission if the principal claimant succeeds.

A dependant does not automatically acquire refugee status merely because the principal claimant is recognised as a refugee.

Where a dependant has their own fear of persecution or serious harm, their own protection needs should be identified and considered.

This is particularly important for children.

A child may face a risk distinct from that faced by their parent, including risks associated with:

• forced marriage;
• female genital mutilation;
• trafficking;
• political or family association;
• religion;
• sexual orientation or gender identity; or
• other child-specific forms of persecution.

Children’s claims must be assessed in an age-sensitive manner.

Where a dependant does not independently qualify for refugee status or humanitarian protection but meets the relevant dependant requirements, they may nevertheless be granted permission to stay with the same expiry date and conditions as the principal applicant.

13. Your Position While an Asylum Claim Is Pending

A person claiming asylum does not immediately acquire refugee status.

Their rights while awaiting a decision are therefore different from those of a recognised refugee.

Asylum Support

A claimant who would otherwise be destitute may be eligible for asylum support.

Depending on the circumstances, support can include accommodation and/or financial assistance for essential living needs.

Eligibility for support and the amount or nature of assistance can depend on the claimant’s circumstances and type of accommodation.

Changes in address, income, employment or household circumstances should be reported where required.

Can an Asylum Seeker Work?

Asylum seekers are not normally permitted to work while their claim is being considered.

A claimant may be able to apply for permission to work where their asylum claim has been outstanding for more than 12 months through no fault of their own.

Permission is not automatic.

For applications for permission to work made on or after 26 March 2026, permitted employment is restricted to qualifying occupations in Appendix Skilled Occupations that are treated as skilled to RQF level 6 or above.

Permission granted under this policy does not ordinarily allow self-employment or conducting a business.

The restriction applicable to a particular claimant should be checked before employment begins.

A recognised refugee or person granted humanitarian protection has a materially different position and receives unrestricted access to the labour market.

Reporting and Contact Requirements

A claimant may be required to attend reporting events while the asylum claim remains pending.

They must also keep the Home Office informed of relevant changes in circumstances and contact details.

Failure to engage with the process can have serious consequences. In appropriate circumstances an asylum claim may be treated as withdrawn where the claimant fails to comply with required procedures.

14. What Happens if Your Asylum Claim Is Successful?

A successful protection claim can result in either refugee status or humanitarian protection, depending on the legal basis of the decision.

The duration of the accompanying permission now depends significantly on when the asylum claim or relevant further submissions were made.

Claims Made on or Before 1 March 2026

Where refugee status or humanitarian protection is granted following an asylum claim or further submissions made on or before 1 March 2026, the normal minimum period of permission on the protection route is five years.

Claims Made on or After 2 March 2026

Where refugee status or humanitarian protection is granted following an asylum claim or further submissions made on or after 2 March 2026, the normal minimum period of permission is 30 months.

An important exception presently applies to an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child and to certain claimants who would have met that definition but turned 18 before protection status was granted. Their minimum period of protection permission is five years.

Transitional provisions can also apply where a person attempted to register a claim before 2 March 2026 but was given a later Home Office appointment and attended as required.

Rights Following a Grant of Protection

A person granted refugee status or humanitarian protection and permission to stay on a protection route has:

• immediate and unrestricted access to the labour market;
• recourse to public funds; and
• access to the other rights and services associated with their protection permission.

A recognised refugee may also be eligible to apply for a refugee integration loan.

People granted only 30 months’ permission should pay particular attention to the expiry date. An application for further protection permission should normally be made during the final 28 days of the existing grant.

15. Refugee Travel Documents and Travel to Your Home Country

A recognised refugee in the UK can normally apply for a Refugee Travel Document.

Where a person has limited permission rather than settlement, the document will normally be valid only until their immigration permission expires.

A Refugee Travel Document can generally be used for international travel, subject to the requirements of the destination country.

It will not ordinarily be valid for travel to:

• the refugee’s country of origin; or
• a country from which the person sought asylum.

A person granted humanitarian protection may have different travel-document arrangements and may in some circumstances need to show that they cannot obtain or use a national passport.

Returning to the Country of Origin

A recognised refugee should obtain legal advice before travelling to the country from which they sought protection or taking steps to re-avail themselves of that country’s national protection.

Refugee status can cease in circumstances prescribed by the Refugee Convention and Immigration Rules, including certain situations involving voluntarily re-availing oneself of national protection or voluntarily re-establishing oneself in the country previously left because of persecution.

A short trip does not necessarily produce the same legal consequence in every case, but travel to the country of origin can trigger serious questions about whether international protection remains necessary.

It can also become relevant during a later safe-return or status review.

16. Can Your Family Join You After You Are Granted Refugee Status?

The rules for family members of refugees changed significantly in September 2025.

Refugee Family Reunion Has Been Suspended for New Applications

The former Appendix Family Reunion (Sponsors with Protection) route is currently closed to new partner and child applications.

The suspension applies to new applications made from 3:00pm on 4 September 2025.

Applications made before that time continue to be considered under the former rules that applied when the route was open.

Partner and Child Applications Under Appendix FM

While the suspension remains in force, a partner or child seeking to join a person with protection status will generally need to consider an application under Appendix FM.

This is a significant difference from the former Refugee Family Reunion route.

An Appendix FM applicant may need to deal with requirements concerning matters such as:

• relationship;
• finances;
• English language;
• accommodation;
• suitability; and
• immigration status.

Application fees and, where applicable, the Immigration Health Surcharge may also arise, although a fee waiver can be available in qualifying cases.

Where the ordinary requirements cannot be met, the Article 8 provisions of Appendix FM and exceptional circumstances may require consideration.

There is also a separate route for certain children seeking to join a close relative with protection status in serious and compelling circumstances.

The correct family route should therefore be established before an application is made.

17. Settlement After Refugee Status or Humanitarian Protection

The protection route continues to provide a path to settlement.

Under Appendix Settlement Protection, a person may qualify for indefinite leave to remain after spending a continuous period of at least five years in the UK with refugee status or humanitarian protection, provided the other requirements are met.

This five-year qualifying period remains relevant even though many people claiming asylum on or after 2 March 2026 now initially receive only 30 months’ permission.

A person in that position will therefore normally need to obtain further protection permission before reaching the point at which they can satisfy the five-year settlement period.

Safe-Return Review

Settlement is not granted simply because five years have elapsed.

When a Settlement Protection application is considered, a safe-return review will normally be undertaken.

The Home Office will consider whether there has been a change in:

• the applicant’s personal circumstances; or
• conditions in the country concerned

that could justify refugee status or humanitarian protection being revoked or not renewed.

If the person continues to require protection and meets the settlement requirements, settlement may be granted.

If settlement requirements are not met but the person remains entitled to refugee status or humanitarian protection, the Rules provide for a further period of protection permission of at least 30 months.

Our separate guide to Settlement for Refugees and Persons With Humanitarian Protection considers this process in greater detail.

18. What Happens if Your Asylum Claim Is Refused?

A refusal does not necessarily mark the end of a protection claim.

Where the Home Office refuses a protection claim, there will normally be a right of appeal under section 82 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, subject to the statutory framework concerning matters such as certification.

The decision letter should be reviewed immediately because appeal deadlines can be short.

First-tier Tribunal Asylum Appeals

An appeal against refusal of a protection claim is ordinarily heard by the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).

The Tribunal is independent of the Home Office.

Depending on the issues in dispute, an asylum appeal may involve evidence concerning:

• the credibility of the claimant’s account;
• whether feared treatment amounts to persecution;
• the Refugee Convention reason;
• state protection;
• internal relocation;
• country conditions;
• exclusion;
• humanitarian protection; and
• human rights.

The appellant can ordinarily give oral evidence and call witnesses.

Relevant documentary, medical, expert and country evidence can also be relied upon.

Appeals to the Upper Tribunal

Where the First-tier Tribunal dismisses an appeal, there is not simply an automatic rehearing before the Upper Tribunal.

Permission to appeal must first be obtained and the proposed appeal must identify a material error of law in the First-tier Tribunal’s decision.

If an error of law is established, the decision may be set aside and the case either remade or remitted for a new hearing.

Inadmissibility and Other Decisions

Not every adverse asylum-related decision carries the same appeal right.

For example, a statutory declaration that an asylum claim is inadmissible on safe-third-country grounds is not itself a refusal of the protection claim and does not generate the ordinary section 82 protection appeal.

In cases without an adequate statutory appeal, judicial review may be relevant where the decision is said to be unlawful.

19. Further Submissions and Fresh Asylum Claims

A person whose asylum or human rights claim has previously been refused or withdrawn may later obtain important new evidence or experience a material change in circumstances.

In appropriate cases, they may make further submissions.

The procedural rules governing further submissions changed on 8 April 2026.

Validity Requirements for Further Submissions

Under the current Immigration Rules, a person making protection-based further submissions must generally:

• attend an in-person appointment at a Service and Support Centre;
• be in the UK;
• be a failed asylum seeker whose initial claim has been refused, withdrawn or treated as withdrawn; and
• have no outstanding asylum or protection claim or relevant appeal before the Home Office, First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal or a court on protection or human rights grounds.

Further submissions that fail to satisfy the validity requirements may be rejected as invalid and not considered.

When Do Further Submissions Amount to a Fresh Claim?

Where further submissions are considered and do not themselves result in a grant, the Home Office must consider whether they amount to a fresh claim under paragraph 353 of the Immigration Rules.

The further submissions will amount to a fresh claim where they are significantly different from the material previously considered.

They will only be significantly different where:

• the content has not already been considered; and
• taken together with the material previously considered, it creates a realistic prospect of success.

The test is therefore not simply whether the claimant has produced a new document.

The new material must be capable, viewed together with the previous evidence, of creating a realistic prospect of succeeding before the Tribunal.

Examples of material that can potentially justify further submissions include:

• significant new country evidence;
• a material change in the claimant’s country;
• genuinely new evidence concerning past events;
• newly available medical evidence;
• new evidence concerning political or religious activities;
• a new risk arising after the previous appeal;
• an important change in personal circumstances; or
• relevant new legal authority.

Where further submissions are rejected and are not accepted as a fresh claim, there is ordinarily no new statutory appeal against that rejection. Depending on the circumstances, judicial review may be considered.

20. Frequently Asked Questions: Claiming Asylum in the UK

Who can claim asylum in the UK?

A person may claim asylum where they are in the UK or at a UK port and cannot safely return to their country because they have a well-founded fear of persecution for a Refugee Convention reason. State protection and internal relocation must also be considered.

Can I claim asylum from outside the UK?

There is no general overseas application for asylum under the ordinary UK asylum process. A person seeking refugee status under paragraph 334 must be in the UK or have arrived at a UK port. Separate humanitarian or immigration schemes should not be confused with the asylum process.

How soon should I claim asylum?

You should ordinarily claim asylum on arrival or as soon as you reasonably believe it is unsafe to return to your country. Delay does not automatically defeat a claim, but an unexplained delay can affect credibility and should be properly addressed.

Do I need documents to claim asylum?

You should provide relevant documents that are reasonably available to you, but a genuine refugee will not always possess documentary proof of persecution. The Home Office must assess the evidence as a whole. Any absence of documents should be explained honestly.

Can I work while my asylum claim is pending?

Usually not. If your claim has remained undecided for more than 12 months through no fault of your own, you may be able to apply for permission to work. For applications made from 26 March 2026, permitted employment is restricted to qualifying RQF level 6 or above occupations.

How long do refugees now receive permission to stay?

For most asylum claims and further submissions made on or after 2 March 2026, refugee status or humanitarian protection is accompanied by at least 30 months’ permission. Certain unaccompanied asylum-seeking children receive at least five years. Earlier claims remain subject to the applicable transitional rules.

Is humanitarian protection the same as refugee status?

No. Refugee status applies where the Refugee Convention test is met. Humanitarian protection applies to certain people who are not refugees but would face a real risk of specified forms of serious harm if returned.

Can my spouse and children join me after I receive refugee status?

Potentially, but the former Refugee Family Reunion route is currently closed to new partner and child applications. Since 4 September 2025, new partner and child cases generally need to consider Appendix FM or another applicable family route.

Can I get settlement after being granted refugee status?

Potentially. Appendix Settlement Protection currently allows a person who has spent a continuous period of at least five years in the UK with refugee status or humanitarian protection to apply for settlement, subject to the applicable requirements and a safe-return review.

Can I travel back to my home country after receiving refugee status?

You should obtain legal advice before doing so. Returning to the country from which you sought protection can raise questions about whether you still require refugee protection and may become relevant to cessation, revocation or a later safe-return review.

Can I appeal if my asylum claim is refused?

A refusal of a protection claim will normally carry a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, subject to relevant statutory provisions. An inadmissibility decision or rejection of further submissions may have a different appeal position.

Can I make another asylum claim after losing my appeal?

New protection evidence is normally dealt with through the further-submissions procedure. If the new material has not previously been considered and, together with the old material, creates a realistic prospect of success, it may be accepted as a fresh claim.