If you have applied for asylum in Finland and decide to go to another European country on your own initiative, your asylum matter will expire, which means that your application will be removed from the processing queue.
Your application expires
- immediately if there is reliable information from the authorities that you have left, or
- after two months if you cannot be reached during that period.
If you leave Finland and apply for asylum in another European country, you will be returned to Finland under the Dublin Regulation. The Dublin III Regulation defines in which country your asylum application will be processed. According to the Regulation, only one country is responsible for the processing of your application.
In the same way, if Finland is not responsible for the processing of the application of an asylum seeker who has come to Finland, the application is not processed and the asylum seeker is refused entry and sent to the country responsible for the processing.
Moving between countries on your own initiative slows down your asylum process
If you travel to another country to reapply for asylum, you will prolong your asylum process. You will be returned to the country you left from and have to wait once again.
Rumours have been circulating at the reception centres that everyone who travels to Germany will be granted a residence permit there. The German authorities confirm that the rumour is not true. Germany also adheres to the Dublin Regulation and returns to Finland persons who have applied for asylum in Germany.
Still a backlog in the processing of applications, wait for your turn
More than 17,000 applications are now waiting for an asylum decision in Finland. Some 11,000 applicants are waiting to be interviewed. These numbers also include persons who have applied for asylum in 2016.
Asylum applications are not necessarily processed in the order they were submitted, because the aim is to quickly eliminate from the queue decisions on, for example, manifestly unfounded applications.
Interviews and decisions are now performed at a considerably faster pace than at the beginning of the year. Every week around 700 to 800 asylum seekers receive their decision.
So please wait patiently. The authority will contact you when your matter is being processed.
