Step 1 – Arrival and Registration
- When you arrive in Norway, you need to contact the police if you want to apply for asylum.
- Everyone who applies for protection with the police is sent to the National Police Immigration Service (NPIS). This will either be in Oslo or at the National Arrival Centre at Råde. The NPIS will register your application for asylum.
- Once you arrive at the National Arrival Centre, you will be given food and drink and a safe place to stay and sleep.
- You will speak to NPIS and be registered as an asylum-seeker. Your photo and fingerprints will be taken. You will need to show the police your passport or other identity documents if you have any.
- There will be an interpreter available if you need one.
- You will receive a card that shows that you have applied for asylum.
- A doctor or nurse will test you for tuberculosis.
- You can speak to an independent organisation for asylum-seekers. They are called Caritas Norway. Caritas Norway will give you information about what it means to be an asylum-seeker. Caritas Norway contact information is available here.
- It can take up to 21 days for all the above steps to be completed. During this time, you will stay at the National Arrival Centre.
- Once this stage of the registration process has been completed, you will be moved to another asylum reception centre while your asylum case is being processed by the Norwegian Directorate for Immigration (UDI).
Step 2 – Interview
- While you are at the asylum reception centre, you have to wait until you are contacted and informed about when you will have your asylum interview.
- You will be interviewed by an officer from the Norwegian Directorate for Immigration (UDI).
- The asylum interview is your opportunity to explain why you left your home country and what you think might happen to you if you return. The interview is confidential.
- There will be an interpreter who speaks your language during the asylum interview.
- You must tell UDI why it is not safe for you in your home country.
- Everything you say must be true and accurate to the best of your knowledge.
- The asylum interview can take several hours, but you have the right to take breaks and get food and drinks.
- After your asylum interview, you have to wait to receive an answer about your asylum case. You may have to wait a long time. UDI is currently unable to provide exact timelines on how long decisions can take in asylum cases.