Who is an asylum-seeker in Georgia?
An asylum-seeker is a foreign national or stateless person who has submitted a written application for international protection in Georgia, whose application has been declared admissible by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Under the law, you are not considered an asylum-seeker immediately after expressing your intention to seek protection. You acquire this status only once the Migration Department confirms that your application is admissible. From that point on, you are granted the legal status of asylum-seeker and may remain in Georgia lawfully during the examination of your case.
To qualify, you must be:
- Outside your country of origin (or habitual residence, if stateless); and
- Seeking international protection due to:
- A well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion (grounds for refugee status); or
- A real risk of serious harm such as the death penalty, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or indiscriminate violence from armed conflict (grounds for subsidiary protection).
The application must be submitted in writing, in a language the applicant understands, and addressed to the Migration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This can be done:
- Directly at the Migration Department, or
- Indirectly through another competent authority (e.g. border police, patrol police, penitentiary or detention facilities), who must forward the request to the Migration Department without delay.
Once registered, applicants are invited to a profiling (admissibility) . A decision on admissibility is made within 5-10 working days. If the case is admissible, a certificate of asylum-seeker is issued. This certificate confirms:
- That the application has been accepted for substantive review; and
- That the person is lawfully present in Georgia and entitled to the rights and guarantees set out in the law.
Until an application is declared admissible, the person is not considered an asylum-seeker, even if they have clearly expressed a wish to seek asylum.