Asylum Seekers' Rights in the UK: Claiming, Support and Work

You must apply for asylum if you want to stay in the UK as a refugee, and to be eligible you must have left your country and be unable to go back because you fear persecution. You should apply when you arrive in the UK or as soon as you think it would be unsafe for you to return to your own country, and your application is more likely to be refused if you wait.

You should apply for a visa if you want to come to the UK for another reason, for example to work, study or remain with family.

To stay in the UK as a refugee you must be unable to live safely in any part of your own country because you fear persecution there, because of your race, religion, nationality, political opinion or anything else that puts you at risk because of the social, cultural, religious or political situation in your country, for example your gender, gender identity or sexual orientation, and you must have failed to get protection from authorities in your own country.

Your claim might not be considered if you are from an EU country, travelled to the UK through a safe third country or have a connection to a safe third country where you could claim asylum. You can get up to 2 years in prison or have to leave the UK if you give false information on your application.

You register your asylum claim at a screening, which is a meeting with an immigration officer where you tell them about your case, and you will be photographed, have your fingerprints taken and have an interview to check who you are and where you are from.

You can include your partner and your children under 18 as dependants on your asylum application if they are with you in the UK, and any dependants named on it can usually stay for the same amount of time as you but will not get refugee status unless they make their own claim for asylum.

You can apply as a child on your own if you do not have an adult relative who is also claiming asylum, and if you are not in the care of social services you should use the walk-in service at the asylum intake unit, and if you are in the care of social services you must book an appointment at the asylum intake unit by calling 0300 123 4193.

After your screening the Home Office will decide if your claim can be considered in the UK, and if it can you will have an asylum interview with a caseworker, or you may be asked to attend a Single Protection Interview instead of separate screening and asylum interview appointments.

You will be sent an asylum registration card (ARC) to your UK address, unless you have been detained, and it shows you have applied for asylum, so you can use it to show who you are, show whether you have permission to work and get health or education services.

You will need to go to regular meetings with your caseworker, known as reporting events, you must take your ARC with you, and if you do not go to your reporting events your asylum claim may be withdrawn and you may be detained.

In your asylum interview you should explain how you were persecuted in your country and why you are afraid to go back, you must tell the caseworker everything you want them to consider or it can count against you, and you will get a copy of the interview record.

You can bring a legal representative to your asylum interview, for example an immigration adviser, lawyer or solicitor, but the interview will take place even if your legal representative is not there and you cannot ask for more time to get one. If you miss your interview and you do not give a reason, your application will usually be withdrawn and you will have to apply again if you still want to stay in the UK, and you can only rearrange your interview for reasons outside of your control.

You may be detained at an immigration removal centre while you wait for a decision on your application, and you will not usually be detained if you are a child, elderly, a family with children, pregnant, accepted as a victim of trafficking, able to provide independent evidence of torture, or have a mental or physical condition that cannot be managed or would present a risk to others in an immigration removal centre.

If your claim is successful you will get refugee status, which means you are recognised as a refugee as defined in the Refugee Convention, or humanitarian protection, if you do not qualify for refugee status but cannot return to your own country.

You will be asked to leave the UK if you do not qualify for refugee status and your caseworker decides there is no other reason for you to stay, you may be able to appeal against the decision, and you will have to leave if you do not appeal in the time allowed or if your appeal is unsuccessful.

You can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) if the Home Office has decided to refuse your protection claim, also known as an asylum claim or humanitarian protection, or revoke your protection status. Our guide to a refused visa or immigration decision sets out the appeal time limits and fees.

A refugee, someone with humanitarian protection, or a dependant of either, who is over 18, can apply for an interest-free refugee integration loan to pay for things like a rent deposit or rent, household items and education and training for work, and you can borrow between £100 and £500 by yourself or between £100 and £780 with your partner.

You may be able to get housing and money to support you and your family while you are waiting to find out if you will be given asylum, which also means your children will go to a free state school and you may get free healthcare from the NHS. You can apply for asylum support if you are homeless or do not have money to buy food. Asylum seekers do not have access to public funds and a separate support system is in place for them.

You will be given somewhere to live if you need it, which could be in a flat, house, hostel or bed and breakfast, you cannot choose where you live, and it is unlikely you will get to live in London or south-east England. You will usually get £49.18 for each person in your household on a debit card (ASPEN card) each week to pay for things like food, clothing and toiletries, or £9.95 for each person if your accommodation provides your meals.

If you qualify for asylum support it will only start on the day you register your asylum claim.

You may get free NHS healthcare, such as to see a doctor or get hospital treatment, together with free prescriptions, free dental care, free eyesight tests and help paying for glasses, and your children must attend school if they are aged 5 to 17, all state schools are free and your children may be able to get free school meals.

When you claim asylum in the UK you are not normally allowed to work while your claim is being considered, and you are instead provided with accommodation and support to meet your essential living needs if you would otherwise be destitute. The Home Office encourages volunteering while your claim is being considered at any stage of the process and you do not need to apply to the Home Office.

You may be able to apply for permission to work while you are waiting to find out if you will be given protection if your claim has been outstanding for more than 12 months and you were not responsible for any delay in a decision, or, if your asylum application was refused, you have sent further submissions that have been outstanding for more than 12 months and you were not responsible for any delay.

If you had permission to work as part of another UK visa and your application for asylum was made in time, while the original visa was still valid, you will usually be allowed to continue to work, but if you apply for asylum out of time the permission to work you had under your previous visa ended when your visa expired so you can no longer work.

Your dependants are not eligible to apply for permission to work unless they have also made an asylum claim in their own right, and children under 18 cannot be given permission to take up employment.

You apply for permission to work using form PTW1 and send it to the permission to work team, there is no fee, you must provide a copy of your Application Registration Card and any relevant supporting evidence, and you must say whether the application relates to an asylum claim or further submissions.

If your application for permission to work is rejected and you think the decision might be wrong, you can apply again by completing the application form and providing further evidence as to why you should be granted permission to work. If you are granted permission to work you will be able to apply for employment in roles on the Immigration Salary List only.

A grant of permission to work does not allow you to:

• ✗No: Find employment in jobs not on Appendix Skilled Occupations at RQF level 6 or above
• ✗No: Be self-employed
• ✗No: Engage in any business or professional activity
• ✗No: Apply for public funds (benefits) and pensions

You can submit new evidence if your asylum claim has been refused or withdrawn and you have no more right to appeal, which is called a further submission, and the new evidence must be something that you did not have until now.

You can only submit new evidence if you have been through every available appeal process, you must not have another claim or appeal outstanding with the Home Office or court, you cannot submit new evidence from outside the UK, and you must submit it in person at a Service and Support Centre, unless you have permission to send it by post.

Further submissions can only be made in person in Liverpool, Belfast, Cardiff or Glasgow, and you call the Further Submissions Unit appointment line on 0300 123 7377, Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm, to make an appointment.

Asylum helplines run by charities can help with housing problems, questions about financial support, dealing with agencies such as social services, finding English language classes, getting legal representation and finding schools, and the charities that run them do not make decisions on asylum applications. Call Migrant Help UK on 0808 801 0503, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, with a 24-hour service for emergencies and free calls, if you are an adult asylum seeker or the dependant of an adult asylum seeker.

Contact the Refugee Council on 0808 175 3499, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm, if you are a child in England on your own and applying for asylum, and if you are a child in Scotland or Wales you can contact the Scottish Refugee Council or the Welsh Refugee Council.

You can get help with getting legal representation for your asylum claim, and you might be able to get legal aid for problems like seeking asylum or if you have been the victim of human trafficking. See our guide to finding a regulated immigration adviser and our legal aid guide.