How should you challenge a negative asylum decision or any other decision issued by the Police or Ministry of Interior/Migration Office.
If you consider that a decision of the Migration Office violates your rights, you can appeal it to the Regional Administrative Court using the procedure provided in the Code of Administrative Court Procedure.
Deadline
You can bring a lawsuit to the Regional Administrative Court in Bratislava / Regional Court in Košice within 20 or 30 days (it depends on the type of the decision) from delivery of the decision. During the court proceeding you are authorised to stay in the Slovak Republic.
Fees
Appeals submitted to the Regional Administrative Court in matters of asylum, detention and administrative expulsion are exempt from the fee.
Content of the appeal
The Code of Administrative Court Procedure provides instructions on the content of the appeal and the information that needs to be included. The appeal must be submitted in Slovak . In order to be able to follow the requirements of the appeal procedure, asylum-seekers have the right to free state legal aid . Read about how to apply for state legal aid for your appeal proceedings.
After the judgment
If your asylum application is rejected as manifestly unfounded or inadmissible, the authorisation to stay in Slovakia depends on the consent given by the court, which should be given within 15 days from filing of the proposal. If your lawsuit is unjustified, it will be rejected, so the decision of the Migration Office will not be cancelled. If your objections are justified, the decision of the Migration Office will be cancelled and the case will be returned back to the Migration Office for reassessment. In such a case the Migration Office is bound by the legal opinion of the court.
If you are not satisfied with the decision of first instance court (regional court), you can bring a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court, within is 30 days from the delivery of the judgment of the court of first instance. If your complaint is unjustified, the Supreme Administrative Court will reject it, so it will confirm the decision of the court of first instance. If your complaint is well-founded, it shall cancel the judgement of the court and return it for reassessment or it can change the judgement of the court and to cancel the decision of the Migration Office. In this case, the Supreme Court shall return the case to the Migration Office for new proceedings.
After the judgment of the Supreme Court, you may have the option to submit an application to the European Court of Human Rights. For example, if your expulsion would result in a violation of the prohibition on torture. In the field of asylum law, the European Court of Human Rights has emphasised that it does not examine the actual asylum application. Its main concern is whether effective guarantees exist that protect the applicant against arbitrary expulsion.
Read more about how to apply to the European Court of Human Rights.