Filing an Application for Asylum in the US

Asylum in US Immigration service

Often the decision to file a claim for asylum in the US Immigration system is a difficult one. People love their homeland, but have reasons for not wanting to or not being able to return to their homeland. In order to file for asylum, the applicant must be unwilling to return to their homeland because he fears persecution.

1

The application is filed on form I-589 (www.uscis.gov)

Fill the application out as completely and fully as possible, setting out explicitly all the grounds you feel are important, paying particular attention to the 5 enumerated grounds as to why you feel that you would be harmed in your home country. The 5 grounds are: race,religious, political opinion, nationality, membership in a particular social group. You may wish to enumerate what happened to you in a separate declaration that you attach to the form I589. It is important to carefully collect all supporting documentation that you feel reasonably and logically supports your claim. Additionally, make sure all non-English language documents are translated into English correctly and properly. In all likelihood, your interviewing officer will not speak your language and will rely on the English translations of your documents. So, if they are not accurate, you stand to weaken your claim substantially. Please always provide true and legitimate documentation in support of your claim. If you are filing for asylum in Los Angeles/Sherman Oaks, California, where we our firm is located, your application is supposed to be filed at the Laguna Niguel service center of the USCIS.

2

Take a lawyer to the interview and an interpreter if English is not your first language.

If English is not your first language, please consider taking an interpreter with you to your asylum interview. Making the officer understand your case clearly is vital to a successful asylum bid. Moreover, make sure you take an immigration lawyer with you to your asylum interview. Your lawyer is the only person who can takes notes at your interview (aside from the asylum officer, whose notes remain in the government file) and who can argue for your case at the end of interview if necessary. Make sure to have all original documentation with you at interview for your asylum officer to review. The easier you make the asylum officer's job by being well-prepared and organized in your preparation for the interview process, the more time he/she can spend understanding your claim and less time on figuring out what paper belongs to whom and which translation purports to be a translation of which document. As stated before, do not use fake documents. Honesty and integrity are crucial to you.

Mansouri & Sheeno

www.coming2usa.com