Screening interview

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Page last updated: July 2025

The screening interview is the first of two or more interviews that take place during the asylum process. You will be interviewed at the border if you are claiming asylum at a port of arrival. You will be interviewed at an Asylum Intake Unit if you were already in the UK when you claimed asylum.

Home Office guidance states that screening interviews should generally last between 30 minutes and 2 hours, but they can be much longer.

The purpose of the screening interview is to help the Home Office decide whether they will consider your asylum claim.

During this interview, they will assess two key things:

Whether you are eligible to claim asylum in the UK
Whether the UK is responsible for processing your asylum claim

What to expect

Your screening interview will be conducted by a Border Force officer or a Home Office caseworker. You have the right to an interpreter if you need one. If you’d prefer your interviewer and/or interpreter to be a man or a woman you can request this, but it may not be accommodated.

If you have dependents (a spouse, partner or children under 18) who are also claiming asylum, they will need to come to the appointment with you. If you have young children and this makes it difficult to travel, you may be able to be interviewed without them or be interviewed closer to where you live. You will need to speak to the Asylum Intake Unit about this when you call them.

You will be asked questions about:

Your identity
Your family
Your physical and mental health, and any ongoing conditions or disabilities
How you arrived in the UK and whether you have claimed asylum in any other countries
Any criminal, military or political history
Why you want to claim asylum

You will also:

Have your photograph taken
Have your fingerprints taken
Be asked if you need help with housing while your claim is being processed

Your rights at a screening interview

Interpretation

An interpreter will be provided if you need one. If you would prefer your interpreter to be a man or a woman you can ask for this, but it may not be accommodated.

If there are any problems with the interpreter — for example, if you cannot understand them or they cannot understand you, if you speak a different dialect, or if you think they are mistranslating what you are saying — it is very important that you tell the Home Office interviewer this and ask them to write it down.

If there are any problems with your transcript or if you are recorded as having said different things in different interviews, it will be much easier to query if the interviewer noted at the time that there were problems with the interpretation.

Transcript

The person who interviews you will take notes on a screening interview form during the interview. It is very important that you get a copy of this screening interview record (also called a transcript). If you are not given this transcript after the interview, you should email the Home Office and ask for it to be sent to you. The email address you should contact is: asylumcentralcommunicationshub@homeoffice.gov.uk.

When you receive the interview transcript, check it carefully to make sure that it accurately reflects what you said without any mistakes. You or your legal representative can make corrections to the transcript by email.

Support person

In exceptional circumstances, you may be allowed to bring someone with you to support you emotionally, medically or spiritually during your interview. This could be a friend, someone from your faith group, or someone from an organisation that has been supporting you. The support person cannot be a family member, someone claiming asylum themselves, or anyone with a personal interest in the outcome of your claim.

You will need to ask for permission to bring a support person when registering for an appointment, and the Home Office will decide whether to allow it. A support person is only there to support you and is not allowed to participate in the interview.

What happens next?

Admissible claims

If your claim is admissible, meaning that the Home Office agrees to consider your claim for asylum in the UK, you will be issued with an Application Registration Card (ARC). This card shows that you have an active asylum claim. It will be sent to your address within three days of your screening interview. You can find out more about the ARC here. Your ARC will show whether you have the right to work while you are claiming asylum (go to ‘Rights and Responsibilities’ to find out more about the right to work during the asylum process).

Some time after your screening interview, you will be invited to attend the substantive (big) interview. You may have to wait a long time (months or years) between your screening and substantive interviews.

Inadmissible claims

If the Home Office believes that another country should be responsible for considering your asylum claim, for example because you travelled through a safe country on your way to the UK, they may decide to investigate whether your claim should be considered inadmissible. Asylum claims made by unaccompanied minors cannot be deemed inadmissible.

The Home Office defines inadmissibility as follows:

‘In broad terms, asylum claims may be declared inadmissible and not substantively considered in the UK, if the claimant was previously present in or had another connection to a safe third country, where they claimed protection, or could reasonably be expected to have done so, provided there is a reasonable prospect of removing them in a reasonable time to a safe third country.’

You can visit Right to Remain to find out more about inadmissibility and what to do if your claim is deemed inadmissible.

Need more help?

Call our free, confidential, helpline to speak to one of our experienced advisers (you can ask for an interpreter) or email refugeesupport@scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk.

0808 196 7274

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Screening interview