Jordan does not have a national asylum law and is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, meaning there is no statutory framework in domestic law that establishes procedural standards relating to efficient asylum procedures at first instance, such as specific timelines.

In practice, the asylum decision-making process is administered by UNHCR under the 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Jordanian government. The UNHCR conducts refugee status determination (RSD) in accordance with international best practices, which include interviews, evidence assessment, and verification of claims against the 1951 Convention refugee definition. While these procedures are designed to meet international standards of efficiency and consistency, they are administrative rather than judicial, and there is no domestic legal obligation for Jordanian authorities to adhere to them. As a result, procedural safeguards, such as timelines for applications to be processed or decisions made are not codified under Jordanian law. Access to refugee status determination (RSD) procedures depends on registration with UNHCR, while unregistered asylum-seekers may face challenges in accessing protection and assistance. Furthermore, access to registration has been affected by the Government of Jordan's 2019 decision to suspend new UNHCR registrations for asylum-seekers, limiting access to the RSD process for individuals who are unable to register with UNHCR. Furthermore, the availability of the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) process is linked to UNHCR registration, which has not been open to new asylum-seeker registrations since 2019 due to Government instructions.