The short answer. Mostly in session. The Requests Chamber decides when the Commission sits, and the Statute requires at least three sittings a year. In 2026 there have been three — 28 January to 10 February, 3 to 16 June, 30 September to 13 October — and a fourth comes in December only "if required". A request filed today is unlikely to be examined before the first sitting of 2027.
Admissibility starts the Commission’s clock. The session calendar decides when it stops.
What happens at a session
Article 16 of the Statute: the Commission “shall meet at least three times a year”, in camera, and must publish its planned timeframe; preferably a month beforehand, the General Secretariat receives each session’s list of issues. The Commission’s own Secretariat prepares the files; the five members of the Requests Chamber decide on written submissions, by reasoned, written decision. Under Article 31(3) the Chamber must tell you the date your request will be examined and the deadline for additional submissions. That deadline is the one that matters.
What changed in 2026
The 137th session, which closed on 13 October, was the last of three fourteen-day sittings the Commission calls a pilot: longer sessions, more remote online case reviews, and wider delegation to the Rapporteur and Chairperson for “appropriate non-complex cases”. The Statute allows it: Article 17 permits delegation “including the power to take decisions in between sessions”. For a contested deletion, expect the full Chamber and a session.
What happens after the session
Under Article 41 the decision goes to the General Secretariat within a month; a correction or deletion is implemented within a further month; you are told within a month of that — for access, within a month of adoption. Hence the Commission’s advice: wait at least three months after the session before asking. For the sitting that closed on 13 October, that means letters from late October into January, and when a notice is deleted every country that received it is told.
Why the calendar beats the targets
The targets — four months for access, nine for deletion, from admissibility — have their own post. A request filed now needs an admissibility decision, the General Secretariat’s 45-day check that data exist and the requesting country’s reply before a member reads it; unless December is convened, the next sitting is the first of 2027. So file complete: evidence arriving after the submissions deadline may wait a whole cycle, and a strong request is complete on day one. If extradition is imminent, provisional measures under Article 37 do not wait for a session.
All seven Commission seats fall vacant on 11 March 2027; the next Commission is elected in Hong Kong, 30 November to 3 December, from twenty eligible candidates — the people who will decide most of 2027’s cases.
Related
- What is INTERPOL’s CCF, and what can it do?
- How long does Red Notice deletion take?
- What does a strong deletion request look like?
- Statute of the CCF, Articles 16, 17, 31, 33, 37, 40 and 41 — interpol.int
- CCF — Sessions and decisions: the 2026 pilot and session dates — interpol.int
- CCF — Frequently Asked Questions: how requests are analysed; how long before a decision — interpol.int
- CCF — Elections of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files, 2026 — interpol.int
- INTERPOL — 94th General Assembly, Hong Kong, 30 November to 3 December 2026 — interpol.int
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