A day in the life of an Asylum Decision Maker in the Home Office

Hi, my name is Sarah and I have been an Asylum Decision Maker in the Home Office for just over a year now. ?

You will have seen from Avril’s article that we’re advertising for over 100 Asylum Decision Makers based in Cardiff, London, Leeds and Bootle. I wanted to let you know a bit about how I came to join the Home Office, and what it’s like to work here.

I wanted to join the Home Office because I was interested in doing a job which would help change people’s lives for the better. I also wanted to contribute to the Home Office achieving its vision of being a world-leading immigration service and delivering a safe and prosperous United Kingdom.

My day to day work is varied and can involve a number of different things happening all in one day. However, the most important part is when I am assigned a particular claimant’s case. To ensure the right decision is made for the claimant first time round, I need to go over their case carefully. This means communicating with the claimant – either directly or through their legal representatives – to ensure I have all the information I need to review their claim and make a fair decision. This can often involve reading lots of documents relevant to that claimant’s case and, in more complex cases, talking things over with more senior colleagues. I often need to liaise with other parts of the Home Office to request more information or refer the claimant to them.

What I really enjoy about my job is that I am helping to change the lives of the customers I serve. It is a great feeling to know that you are making a huge difference to applicants from all over the world who have left the their countries of origin for one reason or the other and have come to the UK seeking protection.

The Home Office is an organisation that is diverse, all-inclusive and welcoming. Staff get to experience the different parts of the Department and how they work together to achieve the Home Office vision. It is fast paced, but there are amazing colleagues who are always ready to help and support you every step of the way.

The Home Office also has great flexible working arrangements, which have made it possible for me to work whilst also taking care of my young family. The recent introduction of the hybrid working system, which enables staff to work either at home or the office – or a mixture of both – has created even more opportunities for people to join the Department.

If, having read all this, you are interested in applying, the closing date for these roles is 23:55 on 5 January 2022 you can access the full advert here .

We’ll be bringing you more examples of how to apply for different Home Office jobs, at a range of levels, in future; in the meantime, you can check out all our currently advertised vacancies on the Civil Service Jobs website .