The Commissione territoriale and the intervista (interview)

Your international protection application will be examined by a special commission called Commissione Territoriale per il Riconoscimento della Protezione Internazionale (CTRPI). This commission decides whether you will be given international protection or not. 

The Commissione will call you for an intervista (interview) after receiving your request.

You will receive a letter to your address with the date of the interview. If, on the other hand, you live in a centro d’accoglienza (reception center), the people who work in the centro will tell you the date of the interview. Don’t worry if you haven’t been summoned after a long time.

This letter may arrive a few weeks or months after the submission of your request.

The intervista (interview)

The intervista (interview) is the most important part of the request. You will be asked questions to get to know 

• your identity
• the reasons you left your home country
• the reasons why you need international protection.

Furthermore, during the interview:

• If you have special needs, you can request that a male or a female interview you.
• If you need support, you can ask for your social worker or psychologist to be there.
• You can ask for your lawyer to be present.
• There will be an interpreter who will translate everything you say to the Commissione. If for some reason you want to change interpreter, you can ask the Commissione.

The Commissione has the obligation of confidentiality, that is, to keep everything you say secret. So, don’t be afraid to talk about more intimate and personal aspects of your life if these are part of the reasons you fled your country.

Your intervista will be videotaped and everything you say during the interview will be written in a report. At the end of the interview, the Commissione will read the report aloud. If you find that some things written in the report do not match what you have told them, you can ask for those things to be changed. You will be given a copy of the report.

After the intervista, the Commissione decides whether you get one of the three types of protection or not.

The esito (outcome)

The esito (outcome) of your request will be communicated to you in a letter that you will receive at your home or from an operator of your centro di accoglienza (reception center). The time to get the answer varies a lot depending on the city you live in. It usually takes a few months. If you applied with the help of a lawyer, you can ask him for clarification on the waiting time.

The ricorso (appeal)

If the esito of your request is negative, you can appeal with the help of a lawyer within the time indicated in the letter you received from the Commissione. The time can be 15 or 30 days, this depends on your case.

You can stay in Italy until the Court decides on the esito of your ricorso. However, there are some cases in which you cannot stay in Italy. Your lawyer will explain to you if you can stay in Italy until the court decision or not.

The time you have to wait for the outcome of the appeal changes according to the city in which you live, but generally the answer comes after a few months. If the Court’s response doesn’t come, don’t worry. Keep waiting.

Read on this page how to make a ricorso.