Use free-of-charge legal advice before your interview. You can also contact a lawyer. However, this entails costs. Go through all transcripts from earlier hearings again. Only in individual cases can your legal counsel accompany you to the interview. Unaccompanied refugees who are minors are accompanied by a legal counsel to all appointments. Please be punctual for the interview and take all information with you.
Important: If you are ill, the interview must be cancelled as quickly as possible. You then have to ask for a new appointment. You then have to submit a confirmation from a doctor to the BFA.
During the interview, you explain why you had to leave your home country and are seeking protection in Austria. It is important that you tell everything that you want to say. Also relate your personal circumstances and your fears if you were to return to your home country. A further interview is not envisaged and will only be conducted in individual cases. Only say what you know for sure. If you cannot answer a question, say that you do not know that. Even if you are asked questions that you have answered before, it is important that you answer them. The interview can last several hours. You have the right to take breaks. The interview is confidential. This means that nobody may tell others what you said in the interview.
An interpreter translates during the interview. At the end, a transcript of the hearing is issued that is back-translated into your language. Please check the transcript for errors. With your signature, you confirm that the transcript is correct. Have a copy of the transcript handed to you.
In addition to yourself and an employee of the Austria Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) a person of trust can also be present at the interview. However, this person is not allowed to speak for you. An interpreter is also present. This person must either speak your native tongue or another language in which you are conversant. Please say immediately if you do not understand the interpreter. You have the right to be given a new interpreter. A representative or a legal counsel may only take unaccompanied refugees who are minors to the interview. For adults, this is only possible in individual cases.
If you have filed an application for asylum together with your family, you will be given so-called "family proceedings". This means that all family members will be interviewed. Children who are already of full legal age will be interviewed in separate asylum proceedings about their personal reasons for fleeing their home country.
