What is Asylum?

Every year people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Following are the 2 ways to claim Asylum in the United States:

Types of Asylums

I. Affirmative Asylum

  1. The first step to becoming an asylee is actually entering the United States. Once you are in the U.S. you must file for asylum using Form I-589, the application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal within one year of the entry unless you qualify for the following exceptions:
    • Changed circumstances that materially affect your eligibility for asylum or extraordinary
      circumstances relating to the delay in filing, and
    • You filed within a reasonable amount of time given those circumstances.
  2. After you submit your I-589 application you will receive a date for a fingerprinting application, which is called biometric collection.
  3. Next, USCIS sends a letter asking you to come in for an interview at an Asylum office near you. When you go to your asylum interview you will need to bring any dependents that need asylum as well.
  4. The Asylum officer carefully reviews the entire case and conducts an extensive interview to ensure that you are eligible for asylum in the United States and you don’t have any other conditions that may bar you from claiming asylum.
  5. Lastly, the decision will be made on the asylum application. You may be asked to pick up the decision at the asylum office on the specified date or they may mail out the decision to your listed address.

II. Defensive Asylum

For asylum processing to be defensive, the foreign national must be in removal proceedings in immigration court with the Executive Office for Immigration Review. In this immigration court, the judge will hear arguments from the foreign national (and his or her attorney, if represented) and an attorney from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Our office assists the clients throughout the affirmative and defensive asylum application. We prepare the asylum application, draft affidavits based on the information provided by the clients and submit all the necessary documents related with the case. We also prepare our clients for the asylum interviews at USCIS and represent them at the asylum interviews and in the immigration court and provide them with competent representation at every stage.