Repeated application

PROCEDURE
Audio file

You may once have been refused by the Agency for Refugees to be granted a status in Bulgaria.

If you did not appeal this refusal before a Bulgarian court or you appealed it but the court upheld the refusal, then you lose the right to stay in Bulgaria.

In that case the Agency for Refugees will refuse to extend the validity of your registration card and will take it back.

In this situation you may be detained (arrested) and returned (deported) to your country of origin by the Bulgarian immigration police. In such cases the police will also impose a prohibition on entry into Bulgaria for 5 years which is also be valid for all the other states of the European Union.

The law allows you to lodge another application, a repeated application, before the Agency for Refugees in order to stay in Bulgaria as a refugee.

You should know, however, that the lodging of a repeated application does not oblige the Agency for Refugees to either open a new asylum procedure or issue a new temporary document (registration card) for you. In order for the Agency for Refugees to open a new asylum procedure for you, your repeated application must be accompanied by written documents providing new information about your case and explaining the danger you will face if you are returned to your country of origin.

Within 2 weeks (14 days) from the registration of your repeated application the Agency for Refugee will make a decision on whether it will open a new asylum procedure for you or will refuse to re-examine your case.

Whatever decision is taken, the Agency for Refugees must serve this decision on you against your signature certifying the receipt. If the decision is a refusal to have your case re-examined, you have the right to lodge an appeal before the court.

The appeal before the court must be lodged within 7 days from receiving the refusal against your signature certifying the receipt!

  • Do not miss this deadline! If you do not lodge the appeal within this time limit, the court will not examine it, and you will lose the right to have your case re-examined.
  • Seek immediately assistance from the lawyers of the Helsinki Committee or from another lawyer!

European Union

In 1951 the states in Europe started the process of unification which lasted till 1992 when a treaty was signed on the establishment of the European Community, which in 2009 was renamed into European Union (EU). The EU has passed its common laws – regulations and directives – which apply to all the states that are members of the EU. As of 30 June 2014 the EU has 28 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cypress, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom.