You can now receive an asylum decision by post
Nu kan du få asylbeslut i posten – engelska
Until now, the Swedish Migration Agency has notified (served) decisions in asylum cases at a meeting at the applicant’s Unit for Reception. Now that procedure is changing. Starting on 1 March, if you have applied for asylum in Sweden, you can instead receive the decision by letter, via the post.
From 1 March, the Swedish Migration Agency can notify you of a decision in your asylum case in different ways. We can notify you about our decision at an in-person meeting with a case officer, or notify you by post. Notifying you of the decision is called “service”, and notifying the decision by post is called “simplified service”.
When the Swedish Migration Agency notifies you via simplified service, we will send the decision by post to the address you have given us. The next business day, we will send a new letter with a verification message to the same address, informing you that we have sent you our decision. The verification message states the date on which the decision was sent. The Swedish Migration Agency considers that you have been notified of the decision (served) two weeks after that date.
The Swedish Migration Agency already uses simplified service to issue decisions regarding matters such as financial support and extended residence permits.
Information about the decision
Even if the Swedish Migration Agency chooses to notify you of the decision by post (via simplified service), you will always be summoned to an in-person meeting at your Unit for Reception. At this meeting, you will receive information about the decision with the help of an interpreter. If you visit the Unit for Reception Unit within two weeks of the date on which the decision was sent to you, the Swedish Migration Agency will count the day of the meeting as the day on which you were served of the decision.
The decision takes effect
The date on which service took place is important. If you do not agree with the decision, you have three weeks to lodge an appeal, counted from the date on which you were served. Once three weeks have passed from the date of service, the decision takes effect (gains the force of law) and you can no longer appeal it.
This means that when the Swedish Migration Agency uses simplified service, the decision takes effect five weeks after it was sent.
If the decision is a rejection, you are often given two or four weeks to leave Sweden voluntarily, from the date the decision takes effect. If you do not leave Sweden within that timeframe, you will lose your right to accommodation and financial support.
More decisions can be implemented
The reason for the change in how the Swedish Migration Agency notifies applicants about decisions is that we have sometimes made decisions that cannot take effect, because the asylum seeker does not come to the in-person meeting at which we were to inform them about the decision. With simplified service, the decision takes effect even if you do not show up when you are summoned to a meeting with the Swedish Migration Agency.
Provide your address
It is important that your correct address is registered with the Swedish Migration Agency and that the names of all the adult members of your family member are listed on your letterbox. Check your post regularly and notify us if you move to a new address.