What happens if my application is refused?

You can appeal the negative decision of the Asylum Service by submitting a recourse to the Administrative Court of International Protection.

The Administrative Court of International Protection is located in Nicosia.

The contact details are as follows:

Address: 5, Kosti Palama street, 1096, Nicosia

Telephone: (+357) 22747500

Fax: (+357) 22747537

You must submit a recourse to the Administrative Court of International Protection in accordance with the deadline as stated on the decision of the Asylum Service. There are different deadlines. You will either have 15 days (accelerated procedure), or 30 days (regular procedure) to submit an appeal from the day you receive the negative decision of the Asylum Service.

Your right to remain in the Republic of Cyprus extends until the deadline for submitting an appeal expires. If you do not submit an appeal by the applicable deadline, you will lose your right to remain in the Republic of Cyprus and you will be subject to arrest and deportation.

• If your claim was rejected under the regular procedure, then provided that you submit an appeal at the Court within the deadline, your right to remain in the Republic of Cyprus extends until the Court issues a decision on your appeal.
• If your claim was rejected under the accelerated procedure, as stated on the decision of the Asylum Service, then your right to remain in the Republic of Cyprus ends with the issuance of the negative decision of the Asylum Service.

Even if you submit an appeal, your right to remain in the Republic of Cyprus, does not extend automatically for the duration of the examination of your appeal. In order to have the right to remain in Cyprus whilst your appeal is being examined, you must submit a separate application to the Court alongside your appeal (the right to remain application).

You can submit a recourse in person or through a lawyer registered with the Cyprus Bar Association. The appeal is submitted in a specific form which is provided by the Court. You will need to specify the reasons for your appeal, explaining why you believe that the negative decision of the Asylum Service is wrong.

Interpretation assistance for the submission of the appeal is provided by the Court free of charge. Currently, interpreters are available at the Court for the following languages: English, French, Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Farsi, Sinhala, Punjabi, Turkish, Kurmanji, Somali, Hindi, Nepali and Tamil. In case you do not speak any of the above languages, freelance interpreters may be available outside the Court and can provide interpretation for a fee.

Yes, there are fees for submitting a recourse to the Administrative Court of International Protection.

If you choose to submit a recourse in person, the amount payable is 96 Euros.  This amount is submitted in what is known as “court stamps”, and specific stamps must be purchased for the recourse.  Court stamps may be purchased from any post office or the offices of the local Bar Associations, which are situated at the District Courts.

In addition to the appeal fee, there is also an additional cost for servicing the appeal to the Asylum Service. This is done through a specific provider called a Process Server, who hand-delivers a copy of your appeal to the competent authority. You will need to provide the Process Server with one copy of your appeal documentation, at your own cost. The Court can provide you with a list of Process Servers in each district. The service cost varies depending on the city from which you will be sending the copy of your appeal. You can serve the documents while you are in Nicosia for the submission of the appeal, which costs less given that the competent authorities are in Nicosia. The service cost from the Court is fixed at €16,50.

There may be an additional cost for the translation of an affidavit, which you are required to submit alongside your appeal, if you have any new evidence or documents in support of your appeal. An affidavit is a written statement, that is sworn to be true. Please refer to section 11 below for more information on affidavits and their translation.

If you submit an appeal through a lawyer registered with the Cyprus Bar Association, the total submission fee is €137,92 which includes the tax stamps (€96) and lawyers’ stamps (€41,92), which are available at the local Cyprus Bar Association. In addition to the submission fee, you will need to pay your lawyer the agreed amount to represent you.

Yes, you can submit an application for legal aid, provided that you do not have the financial means to pay for a lawyer.

You can ask for a legal aid form at the Registry of the Court, which is located on the ground floor. The application form for legal aid is available in a number of languages at the Court, including Turkish, Arabic, French, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Greek, Dari, Bulgarian, Vietnamese, Georgian, Chinese, Russian, Tamil, Sinhala, Sorani, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Spanish, Farsi, Romanian. If you cannot read or write in any of the above languages, you will be assisted free of charge by a certified translator of the Court, to complete the legal aid application.

You are advised to arrange for an appointment prior to the submission of your legal aid application, so that a certified translator can be available to assist you when you attend the Court. You can do this by calling the Court beforehand on (+357) 22747500.

After you submit your legal aid application you will be given a case number and a date to appear in Court. If you do not appear in Court on the specified date, your legal aid application may be rejected. During the legal aid hearing, you will be assisted by an interpreter free of charge. The assistance will also include the oral translation of any supporting evidence that you may wish to submit in support of your application. During the hearing, you will be required to explain to the Judge why you consider that your appeal has good chances of success.  The Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus may object to your legal aid application.

A decision on your legal aid application will subsequently be issued by the Court.

In case you wish to make a legal aid application, you must submit it as soon as possible after receiving the negative decision of the Asylum Service.

The legal aid application is a separate procedure from the recourse and it may take several days for the final decision to be issued.  Even if you make a legal aid application, you must still submit a recourse within the applicable deadline of 15 days or 30 days from the day you receive the negative decision of the Asylum Service.

If you do not submit an appeal by the deadline stated on the negative decision of the Asylum Service, your file will be closed, and you will be subject to deportation.

Note: The fees for submitting the appeal (€96 in stamps), as described above, must be paid even if you have applied for legal aid. If your legal aid application is approved, the stamp fee will be paid by the lawyer, who will be compensated accordingly.

In your application for legal aid you must explain the reasons you believe your case was not examined properly. You must also explain any problems you had with the procedure followed in the examination of your case. If you have any new facts or new evidence concerning your case, you must also include them. You must also explain why you are not able to pay for your own lawyer. You may also request assistance from a non-governmental organisation to help you prepare the legal aid application.

You may find information on non-governmental organisations assisting asylum-seekers and refugees on the ‘Where can I seek help?’ section of this platform.

If the Administrative Court of International Protection accepts your legal aid application, then the State will provide you with a lawyer. You may also choose a lawyer from the list of legal aid lawyers kept by the Court.

Note: Even if your legal aid application is successful you must still pay the fees for submitting the recourse (stamps), as described above.

If your legal aid application is refused, you may represent yourself at the Court. You may also retain the services of a private lawyer to represent you, for a fee.

If your recourse is not successful, you may also be ordered by the Court to pay the legal and Court fees.

1. You must first purchase the “Court stamps”, as described above. You will need to take the stamps with you to the Court.
2. The appeal form is available at the Registry of the Court, which is located on the ground floor. You will need to complete the appeal form in Greek. Please refer to section 4 for further information on interpretation assistance for this purpose.
3. In your appeal form you will need to explain why you believe that the negative decision of the Asylum Service is wrong. You must also mention what the consequences of returning to your country of origin would be.
4. If any new information, documents or other elements have come to your attention which may support your appeal, you will need to refer to these in a written statement. This statement is called an affidavit, and you will need to attach this to your appeal form.
5. You must also attach the new evidence as exhibits to the affidavit. In the affidavit you must explain:
   (a) the reason for not submitting the new information, documents, elements, or additional testimony during the examination of your asylum application by the Asylum Service; and
   (b) the relevance of the information, documents, elements, or additional testimony to your appeal.
6. The fee for submitting an affidavit is €6. This amount is submitted in tax stamps. Please refer to section 5 above for more information on how to purchase tax stamps.
7. Your written statement (affidavit), as well as any supporting documents, must be translated into Greek by a certified (sworn) translator and sworn before the Registry officer as an affidavit. There is a list of sworn translators (https://www.pio.gov.cy/en/register-of-sworn-translators.html), who can provide translation for a fee. In addition, some sworn translators provide their services to the Court and may agree to assist you for a fee.
8. You will also need to attach a copy of the negative decision of the Asylum Service to the appeal form and any other documents that were provided to you by the Asylum Service, regarding the rejection of your asylum application.
9. Once you have completed the appeal form and the affidavit (if necessary), you must make two copies, plus the original document of the appeal form and all supporting documents.
10. You must submit the completed appeal form and the supporting documents to the Registry of the Court. The Registry will provide you with an appeal number and the date of the first hearing at the Court, which you must attend. Failure to attend may lead to the dismissal of your appeal.
11. If you had previously submitted an appeal at the Court, the Court may examine whether you have paid any court costs that were ordered against you, following a rejection of a previous appeal or application at the Court. You are required to submit, alongside your appeal, proof of payment of such costs. Your appeal might be rejected if you do not submit such proof.
12. You must then serve a copy of the submitted application form and supporting documents to the Asylum Service within 7 days. Please refer to section 5 for more information on the procedure for serving the documents. If you do not serve your appeal within this period, the Court will consider your appeal abandoned and may reject it.

The application form for “the right to remain” in the Republic of Cyprus is available at the Court. You can ask for “the right to remain” form at the Registry of the Court, which is located on the ground floor.

The application form is in Greek. You will be assisted by an interpreter of the Court free of charge in order to complete the right to remain application.

The right to remain application must be supported by an affidavit. Please refer to section 11 above for more information on affidavits.

• In the affidavit you must explain the reasons why the Court should grant you the right to remain in the Republic of Cyprus during the examination of your appeal.
• You must write the affidavit in a language that you comprehend and arrange for this to be translated into Greek by a certified translator. Please refer to section 11 above for more information about sworn translators.
• The fee for submitting an affidavit is €6 submitted in tax stamps. For each exhibit attached to it, the cost is an additional €1. Please refer to section 5 above for more information on how to purchase tax stamps.

You must submit your right-to-remain application at the time of submitting your appeal, and in any case within the deadline for the submission of your appeal, as otherwise you may be detained and deported.

 Regular procedure (30-day deadline for an appeal):

• Upon proof of service of your appeal, the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus may file an objection against your appeal. Their objection must be filed within 20 days.
• You will then be instructed by the Court to submit written argumentation, i.e. detailed reasons for your appeal, within 30 days.
• You will then need to serve a copy of your written argumentation to the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus.
  • You must submit each reason in separate and individual paragraphs and provide the relevant explanation.
  • If you are supporting your arguments with previous court decisions, you must attach a list of court cases supporting your arguments and copies of the relevant decisions.
  • If you wish to refer to external sources containing information about your country of origin, you must attach a memorandum to your written argumentation, which must include the following information:
    • A list of the country-of-origin information that you are referring to;
    • A list of the sources that contain the information that you are referring to (for electronic sources, you should mention the website and also include the link of the website);
    • An explanation of the relevance of the information to your claim; and
    • An indication of the relevant part of the information that you wish to rely on.
    • Country-of-origin information can be submitted in print or on a USB stick.

• In case your written argumentation does not meet the mandatory requirements set out in paragraph (ii) (a) above, or the requirements of paragraphs (ii) (b) and (c) in case you are submitting supporting documents, the Court may dismiss your written argumentation, or issue an order to modify your argumentation.
• In case you have to modify your argumentation, you will need to serve a copy of the modified argumentation to the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus.
• Upon service of your written argumentation, within 30 days, the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus will also submit detailed reasons for its objection to your appeal. You will receive a copy of these detailed reasons from the Court.
• You will have the right to submit a response to these detailed reasons within 10 days, unless the Court instructs otherwise.
• The Court may subsequently issue instructions for the submission of further proof to support your arguments, including written or oral statements (in case of additional testimony).
• Please note that if while your appeal is being examined new information, documents or other elements have come to your attention, which may be relevant to your case, you must ask permission by the Court to submit such new evidence.
• In this respect, you must make an oral request to the Court during the Hearing. The Court will accept your request only if it is satisfied that: (a) you were not able to submit the new information, documents, or elements during the examination of your asylum application by the Asylum Service, or when you submitted your appeal at the Court; and (b) that the new information, documents or elements are relevant to your claim.
• The Court will subsequently set a date for a Hearing, for clarifications. You must attend the Court for the hearing, where you will be allowed 10 minutes to make oral representations in support of the reasons for your appeal.
• The Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus will also be allowed 10 minutes to make oral representations in support of the reasons for its objection to your appeal.
• In exceptional circumstances, the Court may extend the time allowed for clarifications.
• If you do not attend the Court for clarifications, your appeal might be rejected.
• The Court will subsequently notify you of the date of issuance of the decision. You will be asked to attend the Court to receive the decision in person.

Accelerated Procedure of the Court (15-day deadline for an appeal):

• The accelerated procedure is currently not applied by the Court in all cases where the Asylum Service has issued a negative decision under its own accelerated process and has rejected the asylum application under Article 12D, providing a 15-day deadline for an appeal.
• The Court will examine an appeal under its accelerated process only if the asylum application was rejected by the Asylum Service on the basis that you come from a safe country of origin (Article 12B Tertius), or in case you had submitted a subsequent application which was declared inadmissible by the Asylum Service (Article 12B Quartus (2)(d).
• Following the submission of your appeal and service of a copy to the Asylum Service, the Asylum Service shall submit the administrative file relating to your claim to the Court within 10 days.
• Following this submission, the Court will immediately set a date for a hearing, for clarifications, and will notify you to be present.
• Neither you, nor the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus, will be required to submit written argumentation, i.e. detailed reasons of your appeal.
• You will thus not have another opportunity to present the reasons for your appeal, and you will need to be prepared to do this at the clarifications Ηearing.
  • You must attend the Court at the clarifications Hearing, otherwise your appeal might be rejected. You will be allowed 10 minutes to make oral representations in support of the reasons for your appeal. The Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus is not required to attend this hearing, unless the Court orders otherwise. The Court will then consider all statements and submissions and will give a decision at a later date.
  • In case while your appeal is examined, new information, documents or other elements have come to your attention which may be relevant to your case, you must ask permission by the Court to submit such new evidence.
  • In this respect, you must make an oral request to the Court. The Court will accept your request only if it is satisfied that: (a) you were not able to submit the new information, documents or elements during the examination of your asylum application by the Asylum Service, or when you submitted your appeal at the Court; and (b) that the new information, documents or elements are relevant to your claim.
  • The Court will subsequently notify you or your legal representative (lawyer) of the date for the issuance of the decision. You must attend the Court to receive the decision in person, regardless of being represented by a lawyer, or not.

Note: It is mandatory to attend all IPAC hearings in person, irrespective of whether you are represented by a lawyer or not.

Yes, you can withdraw your appeal at any point before a decision is issued by the Court. Things to note:

• If you do not have a lawyer, you should attend the Court to request the withdrawal of your appeal from the Registry. The Registry will then set a date on which you will appear before a Judge to express your desire to withdraw your appeal. If you are represented by a lawyer, your lawyer must withdraw your appeal on your behalf by submitting a request at the Court.
• However, if you are having difficulty to contact your lawyer to inform him/her that you wish to withdraw your appeal, then you may attend the Court individually to request the withdrawal of your appeal, explaining the situation.
• There is no Court fee for the withdrawal of an appeal.

A number of legal advisors are employed at non-governmental organisations providing free of charge assistance to asylum-seekers and refugees. Legal advisors who are not registered with the Bar Association cannot represent you at the Court, but they can provide you with advice and may be able to help you to find a registered lawyer.

If the Administrative Court of International Protection accepts the recourse, the decision of the Asylum Service will be cancelled.

The Court will then issue a decision either referring your case back to the Asylum Service for re-examination, or directly granting you refugee or subsidiary protection status.

If the Administrative Court of International Protection agrees with the decision of the Asylum Service, this means that your recourse has been refused and you will have to leave Cyprus. You may appeal the decision of the Administrative Court of International Protection within 14 days of the decision by submitting an appeal to the Supreme Court.  This appeal must be submitted by a registered lawyer, and additional Court and lawyer’s fees will need to be paid.

Note: With the filing of an appeal, your deportation from Cyprus does not stop automatically, unless an interim order is obtained from the Supreme Court allowing you to stay in Cyprus.  This must be done with a separate application.  The Court may decide to let you stay if it believes you would be at risk of harm in case you are deported.

If the Supreme Court refuses your appeal, you will have to leave Cyprus. If you do not leave Cyprus, you may face the risk of being arrested and deported.

If you have a new claim since the time your application for asylum was rejected, you will need to submit a whole new application.

If your initial application was refused by the Asylum Service and you did not submit an appeal and have a new claim or new elements, you must attend the Asylum Service to complete an application form. The Asylum Service will first examine whether the new elements or new claim really are new, and that you were not in a position to submit these before. During this examination you will not have the status of an asylum-seeker.

If the new elements or new claim is accepted, then the Asylum Service will examine these under the regular procedure and invite you for a new interview. During this procedure, you will have the status of an asylum-seeker.