What Is A Home Office Asylum Questionnaire?

• Published date: 14 June 2023
• Subject Matter: International Law, Immigration, International Courts & Tribunals, General Immigration
• Law Firm: Richmond Chambers Immigration Barristers
• Author: Emilia Cieslak

In February 2023, the Home Office announced that it was introducing asylum questionnaires in order to reduce the asylum backlog which currently stands at over 92,000 asylum claims made before 28 June 2022. Despite some reported problems with the asylum questionnaires, it seems that the Home Office will keep using asylum questionnaires in the future.

The purpose of this post is to answer some common questions people have about the asylum questionnaires used by the Home Office. It will mainly focus on the information we have about the asylum questionnaires which began to be rolled out in March 2023 and May 2023. Please note that the information provided in this post is subject to any changes announced by the Home Office and does not constitute legal advice.

Who Was Required to Respond to the Asylum Questionnaire?

The asylum questionnaire was issued to claimants who had not completed a substantive interview and who were from any of the five countries specified by the Home Office.

You can learn more about the substantive interview and when it comes in the process here. The listed nationalities were:

• Afghanistan
• Eritrea
• Libya
• Syria
• Yemen

Families can make a shared claim where the main claimant and their dependents fear persecution for the same reasons. In such situations only the main claimant has to answer the questionnaire and the entire family status will be determined in a single asylum decision.

What is the Purpose of the Asylum Questionnaire?

The asylum questionnaire was a document which required claimants to answer questions on a range of topics which would be covered in the substantive interview, such as:

• Reasons for claiming asylum;
• Fear of what would happen if the claimant was returned to their country of origin;
• Physical and mental issues;
• Whether the claimant was a victim of trafficking or modern slavery;
• Other reasons for needing to stay in the UK;
• Whether there are grounds for suspecting that the claimant was involved in activities that would cause them to be excluded from refugee protection (such as war crimes); and
• Family members dependent on the asylum claim, including UK born children.

The claimants were encouraged to provide written answers in English with enough detail to enable the Home Office decision maker to determine whether to grant the claimant refugee status without the need for an interview.

If the Home Office decision maker decided that there was not enough information in the answers to the questionnaire to make a decision to...