Preparing for RSD Interview: Tips & Role-Play for Success

1. Preparing for Your RSD Interview

2. Agenda (1 hr.) • Introduction/icebreaker (10 min.) • What the UNHCR Wants to Know • Prior to the Interview • Introduction to the Interview • Problems with Interviewer/Interpreter • Telling Your Story • Being questioned • End of the Interview • After the Interview • Activity: Role Play (20 min.)

3. What the UNHCR wants to know: • Why did you leave your country? • Why are you afraid to return? • What might happen to you if you did return? • Why you have been targeted? • Is what happened to you persecution? • If so, is it persecution based on one of the five Convention grounds?

4. What the UNHCR wants to know (cont.): • Are you fleeing generalized violence rather than targeted persecution? Extra Note: • UNHCR is testing you to see if your claim is credible and plausible so they will ask you detailed questions about your country and your situation

5. Prior to the Interview • Take all your original documents with you and be prepared to answer questions about them • Include copy of your statement • Include your UNHCR asylum seeker’s certificate • ARRIVE ON TIME • Postponed interviews might be postponed • There may be a long waiting time so be prepared • The interview may take anywhere from 2-4 hours or the whole day

6. Introduction to the Interview • Your UNHCR interviewer will make a short introduction • Explaining definition of a refugee • Confidentiality • Your duty to tell the truth • Interviewer should check that you and the interpreter understand each other and are comfortable with one another

7. Problems with the interviewer or interpreter • If you suspect that either individual has a bias against you, you have the RIGHT to request a different interviewer and/or interpreter • Interview will be postponed • If you feel that your interpreter is not correctly translating, do your best to let the interviewer know

8. Telling Your Story • Tell your story in the order that it happened • It must be consistent with your written statement

9. Telling Your Story • Provide dates • If unsure, DON’T MAKE IT UP, provide approximates (at the beginning of May, 2011) • Provide the where • Identify who did something to you • If you don’t know their identities, describe their appearance • Identify how often events occurred

10. Being questioned • Ask for clarification, if needed • Be ready to face tough questions and a difficult interviewer • Do NOT get defensive or upset • Try to be as precise as possible • If you are unsure about something, let the interviewer know that you are unsure • Ask for a break when you need or want one

11. At the End of the Interview • If you feel that there were important points that were left out, bring them up at this point • Ask the interviewer to read back important parts of your interview transcript • If you (or the interpreter) have written anything down, have the interviewer retrain a copy in the file

12. At the End of the Interview (cont.): • You will be given a slip of paper stating when you can expect a decision (within 3 months) • You may be called back from an additional interview

13. After the Interview: • Write down the names of the interviewer and the interpreter • Record when the interview started and ended • Write down as many of the interviewer’s questions as you can remember (write down answers as well) • Write down any concerns/complaints you had about the interview