Overview
Asylum offers legal safety, residence, and permanent protection to foreign nationals present in the United States who have suffered past persecution or hold a well-founded fear of future persecution in their home countries. Mobility Immigration handles both Affirmative Asylum claims with USCIS and Defensive Asylum claims in Immigration Court.
Requirements
Past persecution or well-founded fear
An applicant must establish that they have suffered past persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution inflicted by government forces or non-state actors the government is unable or unwilling to control.
One of five protected grounds
The harm suffered or feared must be explicitly based on one of five statutorily protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
The one-year filing deadline
Applicants must generally submit Form I-589 within one year of their arrival in the United States, unless extraordinary circumstances or changed country conditions apply.
Affirmative or defensive posture
Affirmative claims are adjudicated during non-adversarial interviews at a USCIS Asylum Office, while Defensive claims are litigated before an Immigration Judge within Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) court proceedings.
Key benefits
- Legal status and protection against deportation or removal to a home country.
- Eligibility to apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) while the application is pending.
- Derivative protection for accompanying spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21.
- Direct entitlement to apply for a Green Card (Lawful Permanent Residence) one year after asylum approval.