Overview
Asylum is protection for people who cannot return to their country because they fear persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. It is a legal test with a human story inside it, and the outcome usually turns on how well that story is prepared, evidenced and told, first to the Home Office and, if necessary, to a judge.
We represent asylum claimants at every stage: first claims, interviews, appeals and fresh claims. We work with interpreters, we take the time the account needs, and we treat every client with the dignity the process does not always offer.
The Legal Test
Refugee status protects people with a well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention reason who cannot obtain their own country's protection. Where the Convention definition is not met but return would still expose you to serious harm, humanitarian protection or human rights grounds may apply instead. The threshold questions in every claim: what do you fear, from whom, why, what happened already, and why the state cannot or will not protect you, including whether any part of the country would be safe.
The Process In Outline
A claim is made to the Home Office, followed by registration and screening, then a substantive asylum interview at which your account is examined in detail, then a decision. Support with accommodation and subsistence exists for those who would otherwise be destitute, and claimants generally cannot work while waiting, subject to narrow exceptions. Timescales vary enormously.
The Interview Is The Case
Most claims are won or lost at the substantive interview. Preparation with us covers the chronology in your own words, the documents and country evidence that corroborate it, how discrepancies arise and how honesty about uncertainty is stronger than false precision, and what to do when a question is unclear or an interpreter is wrong. Trauma affects memory, and the law recognises this; the preparation makes sure the record does too.
Evidence
Your account is evidence. It is strengthened by identity and travel documents, medical and scarring reports where relevant, country background evidence, expert reports, and witnesses. It is weakened by gaps that were never explained and by inconsistency between accounts given at different stages. We build the record deliberately from the first meeting, because the appeal, if one is needed, inherits everything said before.
If The Claim Is Refused
A refusal of a protection claim ordinarily carries a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal , where a judge hears the case afresh. Deadlines are short. If appeal rights are exhausted and new evidence or circumstances arise, further submissions can amount to a fresh claim. If detention or removal directions intervene, urgent remedies exist.
If The Claim Succeeds
Refugee status brings permission to stay, the right to work, and routes for your family and, in time, settlement and extension. The grant length and conditions have changed over recent years and are stated on those pages against current guidance.
FAQs
Does it matter how I entered the UK?
Entry and journey can affect credibility assessment, support, and, since February 2025, future citizenship. It does not remove the right to claim asylum. Be accurate with us from the start; the account has to hold for years.
Can I work while my claim is decided?
Generally not, with limited exceptions after long delays. We advise on your position rather than the rumour mill’s.
What if some of my documents are gone?
Common and survivable. The account, country evidence and expert corroboration carry claims where documents cannot.
My interview went badly. Is it over?
No. Corrections, post-interview representations and, on appeal, a full rehearing before a judge all exist. Bring us the interview record quickly.