Asylum & Refugee Status
If you have fled persecution and fear returning to your home country, U.S. law may protect you. We build asylum cases with the depth and precision they deserve.
The One-Year Filing Deadline
You must file your asylum application within one year of your last arrival in the United States. This deadline is strict. Exceptions exist for changed or extraordinary circumstances, but they are narrow. If you believe you may have an asylum claim, do not wait — contact us immediately.
What You Must Prove
To win asylum, you must demonstrate that you have suffered persecution — or have a well-founded fear of future persecution — on account of your race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The persecution must be carried out by the government or by a group the government cannot or will not control. The standard is not that persecution is certain — only that it is a reasonable possibility.
Affirmative vs. Defensive Asylum
If you are not in removal proceedings, you file affirmatively with USCIS and are interviewed by an asylum officer. If you are in immigration court, you raise asylum defensively before a judge. The evidentiary requirements are the same, but the process and dynamics are very different. We handle both tracks and build the same rigorous evidentiary record regardless.
Building a Winning Case
A strong asylum case requires a detailed, internally consistent personal declaration; country condition evidence from authoritative sources (State Department, Human Rights Watch, academic research); corroborating documents (police reports, medical records, photographs, witness letters); and sometimes expert witnesses who can testify about conditions in your country or the psychological impact of what you experienced. We build cases that hold up under aggressive government cross-examination.
Only if you qualify for an exception to the one-year rule. Exceptions include changed circumstances that materially affect your eligibility (such as a coup in your home country) or extraordinary circumstances that prevented timely filing (such as a serious illness). These exceptions are narrow but real. Contact us to evaluate whether an exception applies to your situation.
If denied by an asylum officer (affirmative process), your case is referred to immigration court where you can renew your request before a judge. If denied by an immigration judge, you can appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). If the BIA denies, you can petition the federal circuit court of appeals. The process can take years — and we pursue every legitimate avenue.
Yes. Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 who are in the U.S. can be included as derivatives on your asylum application. If they are abroad, they can follow-to-join you after you are granted asylum, through a separate process.
Applying for asylum generally does not prevent you from pursuing other immigration benefits you may be eligible for. However, the interaction between asylum and other applications can be complex. Speak with an attorney about your full situation before filing.
