Appeal – Migration Court
Your parents will send your appeal to the Migration Agency. The Migration Agency considers your appeal to see if the decision should be changed. If the Migration Agency considers that there are no reasons to change the decision your appeal is forwarded to the Migration Court.
When your parents appeal they can say that they want to have a meeting at the court. The meeting is called verbal negotiation. There your parents will have another opportunity to talk about what you have been through. It is the Migration Court that decides whether there will be a verbal negotiation or if the written information is enough.
The Migration Court will look at what they have received and see if more information is needed. Then the court will make a decision. The decision is called a judgement.
Who will be at the verbal negotiation?
If the court decides to have a verbal negotiation it's usually attended by a judge, three lay assessors and report submitter. The report submitter is a trained lawyer and prepares the negotiations. The judge is also a trained lawyer. A lawyer is a person who is trained in the Swedish legal system. Lay assessors are not trained lawyers. They have other jobs when they are not in court.
Now it is no longer the Migration Agency that makes the decisions.
The Migration Agency is one party (one side) and is represented by a Litigation Officer. The Litigation Officer is a trained lawyer. At the negotiations your parents are the other party (other side). They will be helped by their public counsel. The public counsel is a trained lawyer. It is unusual for children to be allowed to be at a negotiation. The court will assess whether it is suitable for children to be there.
An interpreter will be there so that everyone can understand each other.
It is the judge who leads the negotiations and decides who can talk. At the negotiations your parents, helped by your public counsel, will have the opportunity to say everything they want to the judge and the lay assessors. When they have finished talking the Litigation Officer from the Migration Agency will have the opportunity to ask questions to your parents. After that the judge may ask some questions. Then your parents and your public counsel will conclude by again explaining why you cannot return home. After that the Litigation Officer will explain what the Migration Agency thinks.
Decision from the Migration Court
The Migration Court will make a decision which is either approval or refusal.
Approval means that the Migration Court thinks that you can stay in Sweden.
It is important that you know that the Migration Agency can appeal a judgement from the Migration Court in the Migration Court of Appeal. This means that the decision can be changed again. If the Migration Agency hasn't appealed the decision within three weeks, the decision is upheld. You will then receive a residence permit. You and your guardian will be called to a meeting with the staff at the Reception Unit.
Refusal means that the Migration Court has said no. It won't change the Migration Agency's decision. The judgement from the Migration Court can be appealed to the Migration Court of Appeal, but the Migration Court of Appeal does not consider all cases.
Can anyone read the court's decision?
A decision in a court is called a judgement. The court's judgements are mostly public, which means that other people can read them. If parts of the judgement are confidential (secret) they can only be read by the people affected by the decision. The actual decision (yes or no) is never confidential (secret). It is the Migration Court that decides about confidentiality.