Asylum and international protection in Slovakia

International protection means asylum on grounds of persecution or subsidiary protection on grounds of serious harm, such as the death penalty or general danger due to armed conflict. Both are granted for an indefinite period. The law also knows a national status: asylum or subsidiary protection for family reunification, and asylum on humanitarian grounds. Temporary protection (dočasné útočisko) for people displaced from Ukraine is a separate procedure handled by the foreign police.

The procedure begins when you express, in person, the intention to apply for international protection before a unit of the Slovak Police Force with competence at the external border, in the area where the foreigner is staying, at an asylum facility, or at a detention facility for foreigners. Official information describes the procedure only for people on Slovak territory or at its border; it does not provide for applications at Slovak embassies abroad.

After the claim is registered you are fingerprinted and photographed for the reformed Eurodac database (from June 2026), interviewed personally by an official of the Ministry of Interior, with an interpreter in a language you understand, and given information leaflets prepared with the EU Asylum Agency. You can ask for a UNHCR representative to attend the interview. Some claims are examined in a border procedure, during which you stay in the border procedure facility in Humenné.

Under Act No. 69/2026 the Ministry of Interior decides on an application for international protection within four months of the registration data being provided, and may extend this by up to four months in cases allowed by EU law. The Migration Office states that it decides most cases within six months. The application can be rejected as inadmissible, unfounded or manifestly unfounded, or you can be transferred to the responsible state.

Applicants have the right to remain in Slovakia under the conditions of EU law. While living in an asylum facility they receive accommodation, meals or a food allowance, basic hygiene items and pocket money, free of charge unless their own means allow them to contribute. Reception conditions also include health care, education and access to employment. The Migration Office runs a reception and border procedure facility in Humenné, accommodation facilities in Opatovská Nová Ves for vulnerable people and in Rohovce for single men, and an integration centre in Zvolen. The Ministry provides free legal counselling in a language you understand, and you may be represented by a lawyer, the Legal Aid Centre or a non-governmental organisation.

Pocket money can be withdrawn for three months if, for example, you leave Slovakia and are returned or do not cooperate.

The Dublin Unit of the Migration Office determines which state is responsible for your claim. Since the EU Pact, this follows Regulation (EU) 2024/1351 on asylum and migration management, which replaced the Dublin Regulation; criteria include family members in a member state, a residence permit or visa issued by a member state, a diploma from a member state and irregular entry from outside the EU. If none applies, the state where the claim was first registered is responsible.

There is no internal appeal (rozklad) against the main decisions; they are reviewed by an administrative court on an administrative action (správna žaloba). An action does not suspend a transfer to the responsible state, a relocation decision or certain inadmissibility decisions. You can waive the right to sue against a Dublin transfer in writing, irrevocably.

People granted asylum or subsidiary protection who had no residence in Slovakia before receive a one-time allowance for accommodation and basic needs and an integration allowance for six months, together with social, psychological and legal counselling and Slovak language and cultural orientation courses. Refugees may work without a work permit. The first residence document is free of charge, and family members of protection holders are exempt from the family reunification fee.