Subsection 6: Personal interview

The French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons will summon the asylum seeker to a personal interview by any means guaranteeing confidentiality and personal receipt of this summons. It may dispense with this in the following situations:1° It is preparing to take a decision recognising the applicant as a refugee on the basis of the information in its possession;2° Medical reasons, lasting and beyond the control of…

The asylum seeker introduces himself and answers in person the questions put to him by the agent of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons during the personal interview. He/she will be heard, under the conditions laid down in article L. 521-6, in the language of his/her choice or in another language of which he/she has sufficient knowledge.

During the personal interview, each adult asylum seeker is heard individually, without the presence of family members. The French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons may hear a minor applicant individually, under the same conditions, if it considers it reasonable to believe that he or she may have suffered persecution or serious harm of which the family members are unaware.The Office may conduct an additional interview in…

The asylum seeker may attend the personal interview accompanied either by a lawyer or a representative of a human rights association, an association defending the rights of foreign nationals or asylum seekers, an association defending the rights of women or children or an association fighting persecution based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The conditions for authorising associations and the procedures for approving their representatives by the French Office for…

The absence of a lawyer or a representative of an association does not prevent the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons from conducting an interview with the applicant.Without prejudice to article L. 531-38, the absence without legitimate reason of the applicant, who has been duly summoned to an interview, shall not prevent the Office from ruling on his/her application.Without prejudice to the necessities arising from the…

If the applicant so requests and if the request appears to be manifestly well-founded due to the difficulty for the applicant to explain all the reasons for their asylum application, in particular those relating to sexual violence, the interview shall be conducted, as far as possible, by an official of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons of the applicant’s preferred gender and in the presence…

Where this is justified for the proper conduct of the interview, the asylum seeker with a disability may, at his/her request and with the authorisation of the Director General of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, be accompanied by the health professional who usually follows him/her or by the representative of an association providing assistance to people with disabilities.

The transcript is communicated, at their request, to the person concerned or their lawyer or the association’s representative before a decision is taken on the application.Where the accelerated procedure provided for in Articles L. 531-24, L. 531-26 or L. 531-27 is applied, this communication may be made when the decision is notified. >

As an exception to Book III of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration, when the personal interview has been transcribed and audio recorded, the applicant may only have access to this recording after notification of the negative decision of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons on the asylum application and for the purposes of appealing against this decision. This access, which…

The procedures for organising the interview are defined by the Director General of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons.The procedures for transcribing the personal interview, the cases in which it is the subject of an audio recording or is followed by a collection of comments, as well as the cases and conditions in which it may take place by means of audiovisual communication for reasons…