From the beginning of April, it will be possible to book asylum interviews for asylum seekers already in the early stage of the asylum process.
This means that the Finnish Immigration Service does not necessarily need to wait for the police to conclude its asylum investigation in the early stage or for all further clarifications to arrive. Instead, it is possible to book appointments immediately after your asylum application has become pending.
Choose a counsel only after you know the time of your interview
If you want to have a counsel present at your asylum interview, you should choose your counsel only after you have received an invitation to the asylum interview conducted by the Finnish Immigration Service.
That way you can make sure that your counsel will be able to attend the appointment.
If you wish, you may also attend the interview without a counsel and supplement the transcript drawn up of the interview later with your counsel.
The personnel at the reception centre can give you further instructions.
The schedules of counsels will no longer affect
Before the reform, the Finnish Immigration Service could not book appointments before inquiring about the schedules of potential counsels.
From the beginning of April, the agency will no longer inquire about the schedules of potential counsels before booking the interview appointment. It is more important to first schedule the appointment.
The reform will help clear the queue for asylum interviews
The reform will help clear the queue for asylum interviews more effectively. Appointments are booked both for applicants who are waiting in the queue as well as for applicants who have submitted their application recently.
At the same time, attention is paid to prevent unreasonably long waiting times for those applicants whose applications have become pending earlier.
