You will have a 1st interview with the IND in ter Apel
Share on social media:
Your 1st interview will be with the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). During this interview, the IND will ask questions about you and your journey to the Netherlands. Read below about how you can prepare for the interview.
The invitation to the interview
You will receive an invitation for the 1st interview with the
You can also check online via MyCoa to see if there is post for you. If you type in your V-nummer there, you will see either a green or a red envelope. A green envelope means there is post for you. A red envelope means there is no post for you.
My COA - living
The IND asks this during the interview
During the interview, the
No lawyer is present during this interview
Your 1st interview with the IND is alone, without a lawyer. You will only get a lawyer just before the 2nd interview.
It is very important that you say the same thing in the 2nd interview with the IND as you did in the 1st interview. For example, about your family members. Be honest about your family members during the interview. If you later want to apply for family reunification, the IND will check if you talked about your family members during the interview.
During all spoken interviews with the IND, you are allowed to take notes. You can make a timeline to remember important dates. If you cannot remember a date, be honest with the IND. During the interview with the IND, you can hand in documents that support your story.
This is how to submit documents to the IND during the asylum procedure
There is an interpreter who speaks your language at the interview with the IND
The IND employee asks the questions in Dutch. The interpreter translates them for you. The interpreter also translates your answers into Dutch. The interpreter is independent, does not work for the IND and has no influence on the decision about your asylum application. As interpreters are very busy, you might get an interpreter who speaks a different dialect. Tell me immediately if the interpreter and you cannot understand each other properly. It is important that no misunderstandings arise because the interpreter and you do not understand each other well.
Accompanying children may also have an interview with the IND
The asylum procedure is mainly focused on adults because the IND mainly talks to adults. But children who have fled together with their parents sometimes also have the right to their own interview with the IND. Children do not have to have an interview with the IND if they do not want one. But the IND has to ask the child and the parents.
Children as young as 15 will be asked if they want their own interview with IND
Children are not automatically given an interview. The IND does ask children older than 15 during the 1st interview whether they had their own reasons for fleeing. And whether they also want an interview with the IND about the reasons for their flight.
Children between the ages of 12 and 15 are asked via their parents if they would like their own interview with IND
The IND must also ask the parents of children between the ages of 12 and 15 in the 1st interview if those children want an interview. If the IND does not ask the parents during the 1st interview, but the child does want to have an interview, this can still be passed on to the IND through the lawyer at the start of the asylum procedure. Often children between 12 and 15 do not have an actual interview with someone from the IND. Usually children are given the opportunity to put down on paper what they want to say.
There are long waiting periods at the IND
You now wait an average of 20 weeks for your first interview with the IND.