Asylum
Asylum is a legal program that serves the humanitarian purpose of allowing a person who fears persecution in his or her home country to stay in the United States. A person who has been granted asylum, called an asylee, may apply for permanent residency in the United States one year after asylum has been granted. An asylee may also apply for derivative asylum status" for his or her spouse and children under the age of twenty-one.
Who Can Apply for Asylum
In order for a person to be able to apply for asylum, that person must be physically present in the United States or at a port of entry.
To be eligible for asylum the person must be unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. The persecution must be because of the person’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
Application Process
An application for asylum must be filed within one year of arriving in the United States. There are two exceptions to this rule: (1) changed circumstances in the person’s home country now cause a person to have a well-founded fear of persecution if he or she returns; and (2) extraordinary circumstances delayed the filing of the application for asylum.
To apply for asylum, a person first files an Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, which is also known as Form I-589. The Application for Asylum should also include a Declaration from the applicant. The Declaration is simply a written statement that gives the applicant an opportunity to tell his or her story. The Declaration should be a personal story, telling about past acts of persecution and explain why the applicant fears returning to his or her home country.
An asylum petition can be filed as a stand-alone petition, or it can be filed as a defense in removal proceedings.
Along with the Application for Asylum, an applicant should file documents that support his or her case. This can include reports from the U.S. Department of State or other international organizations detailing human rights abuses that exist in the home country.
