Decision Notification
Once a decision on your application has been taken, you will be given an appointment to come and collect it from the International Protection Agency. If you are in detention or in prison, you will be given your decision there. You will have an appointment with an IPA officer at front office, who will notify you with the outcome of your application. You will receive three documents during notification, which are:
- The decision paper, including details on your right to appeal, as applicable;
- The transcript of your personal interview and any further questioning, as applicable;
- The assessment report with the legal reasoning that led to the decision.
Please feel free to ask any questions you might have during the decision notification process. If you are uncontactable by phone, the Agency reserves the right to notify you by email or by post if necessary.
Types of Decisions
The International Protection Agency may issue you with an Inadmissible decision, indicating that your application is not admissible to the procedure in Malta, for e.g., because you already have international protection from another EU Member State. In this case, your decision will be reviewed automatically by the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) within 3 working days from the date of the decision. The IPAT will either reconfirm the Agency’s decision or overturn it.
If your application is admissible, you will then receive one of the following decisions:
- Refugee Status
- Subsidiary Protection Status
- Temporary Humanitarian Protection
- Rejection
- Excluded from international protection
If you are granted international protection, meaning Refugee Status or Subsidiary Protection Status, you will continue to have the right to reside and work in Malta. You will be issued an IPA Protection Certificate, valid for three years, indicating your status as a beneficiary of refugee status or subsidiary protection status.
Please note that while the renewal date is listed on your protection certificate, it is your obligation to ask the IPA for an appointment to renew your protection certificate on the indicated renewal date, and in any event, before your protection certificate expires, by emailing frontoffice@ipa.gov.mt.
Once your protection certificate is issued, you may go to Identità to apply for a residence permit on this basis.
REFUGEE BROCHURE
For more information about
refugee status, please refer to
this brochure.
SUBSIDIARY PROTECTION BROCHURE
For more information about subsidiary
protection status, please refer
to this brochure.
If you are granted Temporary Humanitarian Protection, you will continue to have the right to reside and work in Malta. You will be issued with an IPA Protection Certificate, valid for one year, indicating your status.
It is important to note that when you come in to IPA to renew your THP certificate, you need to present evidence that the conditions under which you were granted THP still exist, for e.g., if you were granted THP due to a medical condition then you need to present updated medical documentation prior to renewal describing your medical condition.
The scope of your rights and obligations will be communicated to you together with the decision.
If you are notified with a negative decision, i.e., a rejection or exclusion decision, you will be asked to hand in your Asylum Seeker’s Document as you are no longer an asylum seeker. The IPA officer who notifies you will also explain your options as regards appealing the decision. Please see this section for further information on the appeal procedure.
