Applets remain in a suspended state until they are explicitly selected. Selection occurs when the Java Card RE receives a SELECT FILE APDU command in which the name data matches the AID of the applet. Applet selection can also occur on a MANAGE CHANNEL OPEN command. Selection causes an applet to become the currently selected applet. For more details, see Section 4.5, Applet Selection.

Prior to calling select, the Java Card RE shall deselect the previously selected applet. The Java Card RE indicates this to the applet by invoking the applet's deselect method or, if concurrently selected on more than one logical channel, its MultiSelectable.deselect method (for more details, see Section 4.2, Multiselectable Applets).

The Java Card RE informs the applet of selection by invoking its select method or, if being concurrently selected on more than one logical channel, its MultiSelectable.select method (for more details, see Section 4.2, Multiselectable Applets).

The applet may decline to be selected by returning false from the call to the select method or by throwing an exception. If the applet returns true, the actual SELECT FILE APDU command is supplied to the applet in the subsequent call to its process method, so that the applet can examine the APDU contents. The applet can process the SELECT FILE APDU command exactly like it processes any other APDU command. It can respond to the SELECT FILE APDU with data (see Section 3.3, process Method for details), or it can flag errors by throwing an ISOException with the appropriate returned status word. The status word and optional response data are returned to the CAD.

The Applet.selectingApplet method shall return true when called during the select method. The Applet.selectingApplet method continues to return true during the subsequent process method, which is called to process the SELECT FILE APDU command.

If the applet declines to be selected, the Java Card RE returns an APDU response status word of ISO7816.SW_APPLET_SELECT_FAILED to the CAD. Upon selection failure, the Java Card RE state is set to indicate that no applet is selected. See Section 4.5, Applet Selection for more details.

After successful selection, all subsequent APDUs directed to the assigned logical channel are delivered to the currently selected applet via the process method.