Asylum - citizenship interview

A

Aysel1

Registered Users (C)
During the citizenship interview, could the immigration officer ask me anything about my asylum case? In other words about the things that happened to me in my home country. I just applied for my citizenship and I'd like prepared for it. I got my green card through political asylum.

Thank you.
 
Aysel1 said:
During the citizenship interview, could the immigration officer ask me anything about my asylum case? In other words about the things that happened to me in my home country. I just applied for my citizenship and I'd like prepared for it. I got my green card through political asylum.

Thank you.
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Don't know. There was a thread not long ago. The OP was from Iran and he was interviewed twice. There seem to be some issue
that IO tried to find as many problem as possible. For example, they asktehd OP why he did not put down the arrest in Iran on
the N-400 (maybe on old visa form too) while that arresr was part of reason why the OP soughty aslylum in teh first place
ectc.

The OP of that thread case has been pending for soem time since his first interview but maybe only one month from second interview.
Many advised him to sue USCIS and we have yet to hear any update

It seems to be marriage based and asylum based GC got more scrutiny at citizenship interview than employment based GC
 
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Should I say I was detained in my county too? Then I may have to talk for hours. I submited my affidavit years ago. The IO should have it at the interview, right?
 
Aysel1 said:
Should I say I was detained in my county too?
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Did you disclose that in your asylum based GC application? If you did, then you dislcose it on N400 to be consistent.

the N400 does not exclude arrest/detention in other countries regardless of teh fact soem of those arrest/detention
are political motivated and perhaps pure human right violation by American standard. USCIS just want you to dislsocse
and their nature are USCIS to determine. You can say your were arrested because you held a pro-American rally
peacefully in a anti-American country but you still need to disclose that
 
No I did not include them in my GC application either thinking that I only needed to write if they were in the US. It's just something that I dont wish to talk about again. I'll just hope that IO won't want me to go into detail.
 
Aysel1 said:
No I did not include them in my GC application either thinking that I only needed to write if they were in the US. It's just something that I dont wish to talk about again. I'll just hope that IO won't want me to go into detail.
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Not wanting to talk about something is not a good legal defense. In fact, a very bad one.

I do not know whether you should volunteer it or not, but if asked, you better be able to narrate it without taking a breath ... you know what I mean.
 
The officer has the full discretion to ask you anything about your original case. However knowing that usually asylum seekers in the 90s got adjusted in the 2000s, they dont expect you to rat off everything you said when you interviewed.

However questions like reason for visiting your COP or reason for renewing NP are all valid questions. If you tell the truth, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. They are not out to get you...they see your file the first time so if you know your story more than them..wouldn't that be the logic?
 
Just in case Jack's comment about rattling off everything was in response to my post, I do not intend to say (but I wrote it that way) that you need to rattle it off like there is no tomorrow, BUT that trying to skip the issue because you are embarrassed, ashamed, or just fearful of being hurt is not good. If asked, you need to answer. So better prepare how you are going to answer those questions.
 
Aysel1 said:
No I did not include them in my GC application either thinking that I only needed to write if they were in the US. It's just something that I dont wish to talk about again. I'll just hope that IO won't want me to go into detail.
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You need to disclose your arrest/detention on your N400 as depending on the reason it could be a material fact. I think you're taking a very convenient line with he 'I thought the arrest had to be in the US' approach and either you'll end up lying at the interview (I've never been arrested/detained in my life) or owning up to the arrest/detention at the last moment (when I was in country ABC,...) - neither of which is a good situation.

You sign the N400 under penalty of perjury in the presence of your IO, who would have verbally confirmed each of your answers (yes, they go over the entire form verbally). So, correct this when you go in for your interview before the IO has a chance to start grilling you on this.
 
agree with the other posts...You need to disclose all arrests without limitation on time and country..Remember the questions ask "EVER". Yes, this may be a painful experince and challange (given you did not disclose this before), but piling up on one non-disclosure (read fraud) on another one may result in serious consequences for you, your GC and your right to stay in this country.

I think you made a big mistake by not disclosing your prior arrests during your asylum case...and I-485 (Adj. of Status) application for GC, which is a fraud from Immigration Perspective. It is one thing to forget about to mention a speeding ticket you got in home country in India, Russia, Africa, Europe, etc, it is another thing to hide an arrest /detention...Nowdays, with interpol and everything, policy/law enforcement agencies can exchange and obtain such data.

Also, remember you will be under oath during the interview...be careful.

Good luck. If you can afford it..get an advice from a competent immigration lawyer...As the others stated, you should be focusing on collecting info/documentation to explain the case.
 
Aysel1 said:
No I did not include them in my GC application either thinking that I only needed to write if they were in the US. It's just something that I dont wish to talk about again. I'll just hope that IO won't want me to go into detail.
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Did you disclose detention on asylum application? Interestingly the I-589 (asylum form) has a question about detention,whereas the I-485 (GC form) does not.
 
In my opinion it’s a lose-lose situation in any way you guys look at it for the Asylee.

Scenario 1 – you disclose you are arrested. IO asks you about it and you explain that it’s outside United States. IO definitely won’t make the decision right away as IO need more information about your arrest. Police Documentation, proof, why and how details and if you don’t have this or cannot obtain it or have it and lost the proof, you can kiss your citizenship goodbye. In any case, you have extended your decision time indefinitely…at least by 120 days before any decision can be made

Scenario 2 - you don’t disclose it and IO asks you ‘how come you said you were arrested in country ABC in your asylum case and you didn’t disclose it?’ about it and you explain that you thought the question only relates to arrest in United states and all the territories, IO will definitely suspect that you lied and won’t make the decision right away or you will be asked a serious of questions about your asylum case and you have now almost 2:00 hours into your interview and IO still have the ‘deer-in-the headlight’ look and still tells you decision cann't be made. Again you have extended your time line indefinitely…at least by 120 days before any decision can be made

Not to end my sour thought in the negative mode, it all depends on the IO and your luck. Please look at the sticky for Asylee citizenship experience where there are a lot of cases where the final outcome is in fact encouraging and some even unbelievable.
 
Bobsmyth said:
The IO never mentioned he was arrested. He was detained.
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Arrest and detention may be the same thing in this matter. It is just that the maker of these form
can not exhaust all wordds. It is just like N400 ask if you have been charged,
you can not answer No if you have been indicted by arguing that you were indicted but not charged. The same
thing for cited. One can get a citation but teh ticket is officially called summon and there is no word "cited"citation" on the
summon ticket. One can not use that as an excuse to say "I have never been cited".

It also depends upon how the OP applied for asylum. If he gave teh reason that he was arrested/cited for political reasons
in his home country but leave arrest/detent out in teh crminal history part of the application form, the USCIS may still
approved his aslym by overlooking inconssitency but now they may catch this incosnsiitency.

This may or may not be an issue. If the examination of crminal history is to determine that the applicant is not a common
crminal, USCIS may forgive you if later they find you did not disclsoe yoru arrest and then fidn arrest if because
you held a peaceful pro-USA rally in an anti-USA country.
 
WBH said:
Arrest and detention may be the same thing in this matter. It is just that the maker of these form
can not exhaust all wordds. It is just like N400 ask if you have been charged,
you can not answer No if you have been indicted by arguing that you were indicted but not charged. The same
thing for cited. One can get a citation but teh ticket is officially called summon and there is no word "cited"citation" on the
summon ticket. One can not use that as an excuse to say "I have never been cited".

It also depends upon how the OP applied for asylum. If he gave teh reason that he was arrested/cited for political reasons
in his home country but leave arrest/detent out in teh crminal history part of the application form, the USCIS may still
approved his aslym by overlooking inconssitency but now they may catch this incosnsiitency.
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Detention and arrest do not mean the same thing, just as conviction and indictment do not mean the same.
An indictment is a formal charge, so one can't they weren't charged when they were indicted. Similarly, a citation is a summons to court so one can't argue they were never cited if they received a summons.
 
Bobsmyth said:
Detention and arrest do not mean the same thing.
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There is no clear cut and we do not know what it exatcly meant in OP's case. It is just the police deprived your
freedom for a period because you do something. So who knows whether it is detention or arrest. An arrest does not
mean there is arrest warrant issued by court and a police office solumnly tell "In name of whater I arrest you".
 
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WBH said:
There is no clear cut and we do not know what it exatcly meant in OP's case. It is just the police deprived your
freedom for a period because you do something. So who knows whether it is detention or arrest.
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Legally they mean two different things. Also, arrests are documented so there is a paper trail to follow whereas detention are generally not on public record.
 
Bobsmyth said:
Legally they mean two different things. Also, arrests are documented so there is a paper trail to follow whereas detention are generally not on public record.
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Not necessarily. A cop can formally place soemone under arrest by reading his miranda right and as he bring the arrestee back
to the police stattion he realize he make a total mistake so he let the person go . In that case, there is no arrest record
whatsoever. Also we are talking about a foreign country where rule of law may be in very crude state. Most likely the OP
was just taken into custory because he did something the government of that country does not like. So who determined
whether it is a legal arrest or just legal detention?

At least there is great oberlapping area between arrest and detention and we do not knoow the specific of the OP's case.
 
I was arrested by undercover police and tortured in my home county. I submittted my affidavit with my asylum application and told the judge everything that happened. I will of course talk about it when asked but it is not easy to talk about it again. I just wasnt sure if I should say yes when asked if I ever arrested or not. I was almost 100% sure that it was only for arrests/detensions in the US.

I did go back to my country 8 years later. I went there, saw my very sick father for couple of weeks and came back. No traveling within the country, didn't see the old friends etc. Things didn't improve much in my country. In fact it seems worse.
 
Aysel1 said:
I was arrested by undercover police and tortured in my home county. I submittted my affidavit with my asylum application and told the judge everything that happened. I will of course talk about it when asked but it is not easy to talk about it again. I just wasnt sure if I should say yes when asked if I ever arrested or not. I was almost 100% sure that it was only for arrests/detensions in the US.

I did go back to my country 8 years later. I went there, saw my very sick father for couple of weeks and came back. No traveling within the country, didn't see the old friends etc. Things didn't improve much in my country. In fact it seems worse.
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if this is a case i do not understand why you did not include this in your GC application
 
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