How should you challenge a negative asylum decision or any other decision issued by the Office of Citizenship and Migration?
If you consider that a decision of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs or State Border Guard violates your rights, you can appeal it to the Administrative Court using the procedure provided in the Administrative Procedure Law and Asylum Law.
Deadline
A decision on the rejection of an application or revocation of international protection may be contested in the Administrative Court within one month of the announcement of the decision. In case of an accelerated procedure – within 15 working days, but in Dublin procedure cases you must appeal within 5 working days. All administrative acts must contain a reference to the deadline and the procedure for challenging it.
Fees
If you appeal a decision in your asylum case you do not have to pay any fees. If the court decides to hold an oral hearing they will also provide a translator.
Content of the appeal
The Administrative Procedure Law provides instructions on the content of the appeal and the information that needs to be included. 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 the appeal is successful, the Administrative District Court will instruct the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs to grant you refugee status or subsidiary protection. The judgement of Administrative District Court is final and can’t be appealed. Also after a negative judgement in the asylum case the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs are allowed to issue return decision.
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. Because of this reason you may want to appeal the return decision in Latvian courts first.
Read more about how to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.