Which cases will be considered first?
This page explains which older asylum applications we are dealing with first.
We are giving priority, in the following order, to asylum applicants who:
- may pose a risk to the public;
- can be easily removed from the UK;
- are receiving public support; and
- may qualify to be allowed to stay in this country.
Because we have so many cases to deal with, we cannot give you a precise date for when we will consider yours.
You can help to speed up consideration of your application by making sure that you have given the UK Border Agency your current address. Then you should wait until we contact you. When a case is extracted for consideration, the applicant will receive a notification letter with contact details, which is copied to their representative.
We are currently running an exercise to conclude the older asylum cases of individuals whose country became part of the European Union in 2004 and 2007. We will write to each applicant and their representative using the most up to date contact details we have, explaining their rights in the UK now that their country of origin is part of the European Union. Asylum applications from EU states are treated as clearly unfounded, except in exceptional cases, and so we will close individuals' asylum applications if we do not receive a response from the applicant stating that they wish to continue to pursue their claim. This exercise will run until the end of March 2010.
We will deal with truly exceptional or compassionate cases earlier if there are compelling reasons for doing so. See case resolution directorate - priorities and exceptional circumstances for further information.