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Counsel at the asylum interview

As an asylum seeker, you have the right to have a legal counsel at the asylum interview. The counsel decides whether it is necessary for him or her to participate in the interview. Read more in the section Legal advice.

If you have a special reason why you need to bring another support person with you to your asylum interview, the interviewer will decide in the beginning of the interview whether this person may participate.

Your support person can ask in advance whether he or she is allowed to be present at the interview by requesting this in writing. To give us enough time to reply to the request, your support person must send an email to migri@migri.fi as soon as you have received an invitation to an interview. Your support person must state in the email why it is necessary for him or her to participate in the interview. For data security reasons, please do not send any personal details by email. Only your customer number should be mentioned in the email.

Let us know in advance if you need a support person to attend the interview

If you wish to be accompanied by a support person in the interview, you or the support person must request it from the Finnish Immigration Service in writing before the interview. Otherwise the interviewer will decide at the beginning of the interview whether the support person will be allowed to attend.

The support person is not a counsel and does not take part in the investigation of your case. A family member cannot be a support person without reasonable grounds.

You can ask about the attendance of a support person from the Finnish Immigration Service as follows:

  1. Send an encrypted email to the Finnish Immigration Service at migri@migri.fi as soon as you have received the invitation to the interview. To send your encrypted email, use the Securemail service (securemail.migri.fi), the exact details of which can be found on the page Contact information. 
  2. Explain in your message why you need a support person to accompany you in the interview. The Finnish Immigration Service decides whether to allow the support person to attend the interview. 

Please note that in principle only the persons taking part in the interview are allowed in the interview premises due to the limited space in the waiting area. However, if you wish, you may bring with you one person who will not take part in the interview to accompany you to the waiting area.