Age assessment, or establishment of age of a person younger than 18 (age test)

Assessing your age is an important part of determining your identity.

We seek to determine your age on the basis of documents or your interview. If you cannot show us any documents, we will register the age you tell us as your age.

However, if the authorities have well-founded reasons for suspecting that you have not told us your real age, we may perform a forensic age assessment.

For example, we may have doubts if you seem older than you claim to be, or if the information you have given us leads us to suspect that you are older than you say.

The age assessment can be performed if you, your guardian or your other legal representative gives a written consent. If you refuse the age assessment without an acceptable reason, you will be treated as an adult. However, this alone is not a reason for us to reject your asylum application.

At present, the examination methods most commonly used include dental and carpal bone examinations by X-ray and clinical examination.

You will get more information about the age assessment if you are going to get one.

If the age assessment reveals that you are 18 years of age or older, we will process your application as an adult’s application.