Dublin procedure

After you have been registered, a person from the staff of The Agency for Refugees – a man or a woman – will be designated as responsible for your case. This person is called an interviewer. Please, remember the name of your interviewer.

The first thing the interviewer will do is deciding whether your case will be examined in Bulgaria or in another European state. The decision-making process for this purpose is called a Dublin procedure.

This is why, only if you have relatives in another state of the European Union who were already in that state before you entered Bulgaria, you can request to be sent to that state and have your application examined there. You must, however, also meet the following additional conditions:

• You are aged under 18, and you have a father, mother, brother, sister or grandfather or grandmother in the other state;
• or your husband or wife is in the other state;
• or your minor child (or children) is in the other state.

The Agency for Refugee, however, will not consider this issue at all, if they do not know that you have family members (a spouse, children aged under 18) or other relatives in another European state.

If you have such family members or relatives, you must declare this before the interviewer from the Agency for Refugees upon your registration, and show documents – originals, copies or electronic files on your telephone – certifying your marriage, the children’s birth, your family relationship, as well as their documents certifying residence in the other European state.

In addition, you must sign a written declaration with your consent that Bulgaria sends you to the other European state. Such a declaration has to also be signed by your relative living in the other European state and sent to the Bulgarian Agency for Refugees – by post, fax or e-mail. The declaration signed by your spouse, child or relative has to indicate your consent to join them.