General (scope, criteria, time limits)
An admissibility procedure is provided for in the national legislation.[1] The Head of the Office for Foreigners is the authority responsible for deciding on admissibility. If an asylum application is deemed inadmissible, the Head of the Office for Foreigners issues a decision on the inadmissibility of the application.[2]
An asylum application is considered inadmissible under the following exhaustive grounds:
- Another Member State has granted international protection to the applicant;
- A third country can be considered a First Country of Asylum with regard to the applicant;
- The applicant submitted a subsequent application after receiving a final decision, based on the same circumstances;
- A spouse of an applicant lodged a new asylum application after the applicant received a final decision and when the spouse’s case was part of an application made on their behalf and there are no facts justifying a separate application of the spouse.[3]
The application is considered inadmissible if there is a first country of asylum where the applicant is treated as a refugee and can enjoy protection there or is protected against refoulement in any other way.[4]
The Office for Foreigners delivered the following inadmissibility decisions in 2022:
| Inadmissibility decisions: 2022 | |
| Ground for inadmissibility | Number of persons |
| Subsequent application | 749 |
| Application by dependent (spouse) | 42 |
| International protection in another Member State | 2 |
| First country of asylum | 0 |
| Total | 792 |
Source: Office for Foreigners, 3 February 2023.
There are no specific time limits that must be observed by the Head of the Office for Foreigners in this procedure, so the rules governing regular procedures are applicable; the general deadline is 6 months. There is no data on whether the time limits for taking a decision are respected in practice. In 2022, 9134 decisions were issued within the 6-month time limit – but this includes all the proceedings, not only admissibility.[5]
Personal interview
The rules concerning personal interviews are the same as in the Regular Procedure: Personal Interview. There is no data on how many interviews were conducted in admissibility procedures in 2022. The admissibility procedures depend greatly on whether the case requires a detailed interview, as in the regular procedure, or whether it focuses only on specific issues (e.g. new circumstances).
SIP reported a case, where despite the fact the applicant brought up new, significant circumstances in the subsequent application, no interview was conducted by the Office for Foreigners. Both administrative authorities and the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw claimed that the obligation to conduct an interview was fulfilled in previous proceedings and there is no need to repeat it.[6]
Appeal
Generally, the appeal system in the admissibility procedure does not differ from the one in the Regular Procedure: Appeal, as for the proceedings before the Refugee Board. The deadline for the appeal is 14 days. As for the onward appeal before the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, the complaint to the court is generally not granted a suspensive effect and therefore does not withholds return proceedings.
Legal assistance
Free legal assistance is offered under the same conditions as described in the section on Regular Procedure: Legal Assistance. State legal aid covers preparing an appeal and representation in the second instance.[7]
[1] Article 38 Law on Protection.
[2] Article 38(4) Law on Protection.
[3] Article 38 Law on Protection.
[4] Article 38 Law on Protection.
[5] Information provided by the Office for Foreigners, 26 January 2022.
[6] Legal Intervention Association (SIP), Raport SIP w działaniu, Prawa cudzoziemców w Polsce w 2021 r. [Report SIP in action. Rights of foreigners in Poland in 2021], available (PL) at: https://bit.ly/43Cozbo, page 34.
[7] Article 69e(1)d Law on Protection.