Home Office Positive Decision

The Home Office may take many months, sometimes several years to make a decision on your asylum claim. If you are worried you’ve been waiting too long for a decision, or if there are specific circumstances which mean that you need a decision quickly, you can ask your lawyer to contact the Home Office.

You can also contact your local Member of Parliament (MP) if your case has been delayed. Find your MP here.

During this time, it is important for you to keep strong, and keep in touch with groups and support networks who can help to support you. You are not alone, and having a community makes going through this process slightly less difficult. 

When the Home Office has made a decision about your claim, they must tell your social worker and lawyer what they have decided. The Home Office will either decide to grant you immigration status to stay in the UK, or refuse your claim (read the next page to find out more about this). 

If the Home Office makes a positive decision on your asylum claim, you will be granted leave to remain in the UK (you are allowed to stay). Since the ‘Illegal Migration Act’ was passed, there have been changes to the types of leave (permission) you will be granted. You can read more about that here.

Most commonly, you will be granted Refugee Status or Humanitarian Protection. If you applied for asylum after 28 June 2022 and you are granted refugee status, you will have 5 years’ leave to remain. You will be able to apply for settlement after 5 years.

If you have Refugee Status, or Humanitarian Protection you can apply for family reunion. This process allows people who were in your family before you left your home country to come to the UK to be with you, if certain conditions are met. Speak to your lawyer about how this works.