The asylum procedure conducted by the Agency for Refugees is used to make a decision on whether you will be allowed to remain in Bulgarian and what type of status will be granted to you – refugee status or humanitarian status.
For more information about the difference between the two statuses, please, read the section “Refugee or humanitarian status”.
In order to make this decision, the Agency for Refugees will ask you to appear for an interview.
They will do this by giving you a document to sign, which indicates the date and time when you must have the meeting with the interviewer from the Agency who has been designated to examine your case.
What do you have to do during the interview?
Tell about the reasons for leaving your country of origin with all the details. When possible, indicate the exact dates of the events that you are describing, if you can recall them. Do not invent and do not present any false information! This can easily be detected by the interviewer, and will have a negative effect on your case. Do not forget that you bear the whole responsibility for the information and the data about yourself which you present during the interview.
Tell your real names, because if you do not so and you receive a status, you will not be able either to use your original national documents which are also valid in Bulgaria (for example, an education diploma, a driver’s license) or to be reunited with your family and relatives. If you notice that your name was not correctly written during the registration, inform about this during the interview.
Submit documents which prove your story, if you have such documents. This will help speed up the decision on your application for asylum.
During the interview you are entitled to have an interpreter speaking a language that you understand. You can ask for another interpreter, if you do not understand the one designated for the interview. You also have the right to ask that your interview is conducted by an interviewer and an interpreter of the same sex as you – a man or a woman.
The transcript of the interview must be read out to you in a language that you understand before it is given to you to sign it. If your statements are not recorded precisely, this may negatively affect the decision on your status.
