What an Interpol Red Notice Is
An Interpol red notice is a request circulated by the Organization asking member countries to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition. It is not an international arrest warrant, and it does not oblige any country to act. It is issued at the request of a single member country, on that country’s own material.
Because the notice rests on material supplied by the requesting state, its accuracy is only as good as that material. Where the request is politically motivated, or the underlying data is incomplete, deletion can be sought — this is the work of a red notice removal lawyer, and it is decided by the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files rather than by any court.
A red notice is frequently reported as an “international arrest warrant”. No such instrument exists. Every arrest that follows a notice is made under the domestic law of the country where the person is found.
What the notice contains
- Identity data
- Name, date of birth, nationality, physical description and, where supplied, photographs and fingerprints.
- Judicial data
- The offence alleged, the law relied on, and a reference to the warrant or judicial decision behind the request.
- Requesting state
- One member country. A notice is never issued by the Organization on its own initiative.
- Publication
- Most notices are not published. A small subset is shown publicly at the requesting country’s discretion.
How to find out whether one concerns you
Not through the public extract, which shows a minority of notices. The route that establishes anything is a request for access — check whether a red notice exists.
Whether Interpol can arrest you
The Organization has no officers of its own and no power of arrest anywhere. What follows a notice is a decision by the country you are standing in, under its own law — whether Interpol can arrest you.
What it means in practice
The effects reach beyond borders into banking, visas and residence — consequences for travel and banking.
What happens after a notice is circulated
Circulation
The notice is distributed through the Organization’s channels to the national bureaux of member countries.
Encounter
The alert surfaces at a border, in a visa process, or in a bank’s compliance screening.
National decision
The country where the person is located decides, under its own law, whether to detain.
Review
In parallel, an application can be made to the Commission for access and deletion.
Which countries take part, and how Interpol differs from Europol
A notice reaches the national bureau of every member country, and the membership is larger than that of the United Nations — the list of Interpol member countries. Membership obliges a country to receive a request, not to act on it.
Europol is a separate organisation with its own mandate and its own territory, and the two are routinely confused once an alert surfaces — how Interpol and Europol differ.
If a notice may concern you
The first step is establishing what is actually on file. We do that before advising on anything else, and the initial assessment costs nothing.
Request a free case assessmentFrequently asked
Is a red notice an arrest warrant?
No. It is a request to locate and provisionally arrest, addressed to member countries, each of which decides for itself under its own law.
Who can request an Interpol red notice?
A member country, through its National Central Bureau. The Organization does not issue notices on its own initiative.
What information does a red notice contain?
Identity data, judicial data about the alleged offence, and a reference to the warrant or decision behind the request.
Is a red notice public?
Usually not. A small subset is published at the requesting country’s discretion.
Does a red notice expire automatically?
There is no fixed term. Notices are subject to periodic review and can be renewed by the requesting country.