Asylum (How to get it?)

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robinlow

Registered Users (C)
I'm from Singapore, and I have a H1B for 6 years and I started a company in the US. But due to some of political views and beliefs about Singapore. And some of the views I publicly expressed in Singapore when I was there a few months ago, I now fear persecution from the government.

One of my close friend who was running in an election few years back is now living in UK as he "slandered" the prime minister and was forced into bankrupcy due to a lawsuit. I have a friend who did a paper on the political system of Singapore, detailing some facts about the lack of democracy and he is now in custody when he just returned to the country after his education in US.

We shared the same views and I also have written and published some of my comments, and I now fear that if I return, I may be arrested.

I would like to know the process, and how can I be considered an asylee.

I am in the US for 6 years already, and I am in the country legally. Can I still qualify as I'm not really a refugee?
 
Regarding the process, you have to file an asylum application (form I-589) with the USCIS service center handling your area of residence. You will hopefully get an answer saying your application was received and is being handled or will be forwarded to the asylum office. They'll tell you some time later to go to get fingerprinted and photographed. You will be eligible to apply for a work permit if you don't get an interview within 3 or 5 months (I forgot how long exactly).

As of the substance, my personal advice for you is to get a good immigration attorney to help you prepare an affirmative asylum case.
Asylum in the united states is granted upon the applicant (you) proving a well founded fear of persecution and/or past persecution based on a political opinion, membership of social or ethnic group. Being threatened does not entitle to asylum in the US; there is a precedent.

You also will have-as your future attorney will tell you- to explain why you have waited all this time to apply. Obviously, he/she will help you provide an explanation in order to demonstrate a new development in your home-country that will justify your request as current immigration law stipulates that asylum-seekers have one year to apply for the status from the day of their arrival, or else, demonstrate why they did not.

Your first shot will be with an Asylum officer who will interview you and make a credibility determination on your claim. He/she might grant, make a recommendation to grant or deny your request. If you're denied you will be referred to an Immigration Judge, your attorney will be able to talk and actively defend you unlike during the first interview. If the immigration judge denies your claim, your case will be referred to the Board of Immigration Appeals, they will either confirm the judge's ruling (denial) or grant you asylum (somewhat rare) or order a new hearing back with an immigration judge.
The next step after being denied by the BIA is to go to the federal courts system. There is a debate whether a Federal judge can grant asylum (has happened but very controversial), what most frequently happens if your case has merit or if there was a gross error committed by the immigration system then you'll be sent back to the immigration system.
After federal court, it's the United States supreme court.

Finally, I wish you good luck and success with this endeavor, asylum tends to be a long portracteded and complex process that would easily, and unfortunately, often take YEARS to be concluded with NO GUARENTEE of the final outcome.

Please weigh carefully all your options before starting, and please do not succumb to the bravado of going it alone, GET an attorney before you apply. The burden of proof is very high in asylum and it rests squarely on you to provide the evidence to back up your claim.
 
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neutron said:
Regarding the process, you have to file an asylum application (form I-589) with the USCIS service center handling your area of residence. You will hopefully get an answer saying your application was received and is being handled or will be forwarded to the asylum office. They'll tell you some time later to go to get fingerprinted and photographed. You will be eligible to apply for a work permit if you don't get an interview within 3 or 5 months (I forgot how long exactly).

As of the substance, my personal advice for you is to get a good immigration attorney to help you prepare an affirmative asylum case.
Asylum in the united states is granted upon the applicant (you) proving a well founded fear of persecution and/or past persecution based on a political opinion, membership of social or ethnic group. Being threatened does not entitle to asylum in the US; there is a precedent.

You also will have-as your future attorney will tell you- to explain why you have waited all this time to apply. Obviously, he/she will help you provide an explanation in order to demonstrate a new development in your home-country that will justify your request as current immigration law stipulates that asylum-seekers have one year to apply for the status from the day of their arrival, or else, demonstrate why they did not.

Your first shot will be with an Asylum officer who will interview you and make a credibility determination on your claim. He/she might grant, make a recommendation to grant or deny your request. If you're denied you will be referred to an Immigration Judge, your attorney will be able to talk and actively defend you unlike during the first interview. If the immigration judge denies your claim, your case will be referred to the Board of Immigration Appeals, they will either confirm the judge's ruling (denial) or grant you asylum (somewhat rare) or order a new hearing back with an immigration judge.
The next step after being denied by the BIA is to go to the federal courts system. There is a debate whether a Federal judge can grant asylum (has happened but very controversial), what most frequently happens if your case has merit or if there was a gross error committed by the immigration system then you'll be sent back to the immigration system.
After federal court, it's the United States supreme court.

Finally, I wish you good luck and success with this endeavor, asylum tends to be a long portrayed and complex process that would easily, and unfortunately, often take YEARS to be concluded with NO GUARENTEE of the final outcome.

Please weight carefully all your options before starting, and please do not succumb to the bravado of going it alone, GET an attorney before you apply. The burden of proof is very high in asylum and it rests squarely on you to provide the proof to back up your claim.
Click to expand...

What a nice, well-written and concise description! it took me 15 years to get my green card from the time of applying for asylum in 1991. Although the cap has been removed, it does not guarantee speedy process.
 
15 years?

wow .. that is such a LONG TIME. I wonder "what is actually" the reason that some people can get approved quickly but some people have to wait that long. Is it the case? the race? the religion? the gender? the country of origin?
 
Miss.PinK said:
wow .. that is such a LONG TIME. I wonder "what is actually" the reason that some people can get approved quickly but some people have to wait that long. Is it the case? the race? the religion? the gender? the country of origin?
Click to expand...

Miss Pink, you are lucky to come to U.S after 1996. Pre-1996, you would submit an application and wait in line for an interview. Theoretically, millions submitted asylum applications and to interview each of them, it took eternity.

So in 1996, Mr Bill Clinton decided to fix the asylum system. His fix was to have an interview and approval/denial within 6 months to year. So all the millions of cases were decided in few years after 1996.

Hence the backlog. The asylee cap was developed for the right reasons but after 1996, it was a crazy law. Clinton should've lifted that too but he didn't. That created back logs.

So I applied asylum in 1993 and I got interview in 1999. 5 years of wait for no reason. People I know applied for asylum in 1997 and got interview/approval within a year.

So there goes the fairness?

As lot of people know, with USCIS its not first in first out, its last in, first out policy. Lots of cases were so old that USCIS requested to apply for asylum again because they had lost most of the early 1990's cases.

It was a mess. Clinton created another mess by opening the flood gates. So people like us had to wait 5 years for the interview and then another 5-6 years for our GC whereas others waited less than that..

Such is the mystery of immigration laws in this great country of ours.
 
that is so sad.

seriously. :( . that is why I feel bad seeing asylee who's time line is wayyyyyy longer than me :( .. it's like I'm takin' their spot. I wish everybody the best. especially the one who's been waiting for more than 5 years. u guys deserve to get citizenship :)
 
robinlow said:
I'm from Singapore, and I have a H1B for 6 years and I started a company in the US. But due to some of political views and beliefs about Singapore. And some of the views I publicly expressed in Singapore when I was there a few months ago, I now fear persecution from the government.

One of my close friend who was running in an election few years back is now living in UK as he "slandered" the prime minister and was forced into bankrupcy due to a lawsuit. I have a friend who did a paper on the political system of Singapore, detailing some facts about the lack of democracy and he is now in custody when he just returned to the country after his education in US.

We shared the same views and I also have written and published some of my comments, and I now fear that if I return, I may be arrested.

I would like to know the process, and how can I be considered an asylee.

I am in the US for 6 years already, and I am in the country legally. Can I still qualify as I'm not really a refugee?
Click to expand...


Hey robinlow, you must be quite a high profile, considering your friend is running election.

Good luck for the asylum application. Im sure if the case is strong, there would be no problem.

As for the "why you did not apply within one year", In my case, the interview officer got all excited about the incident that happended to me that he forgot to ask me that question. Im the one who told him the reason.
 
Which state are you right now? If you're in San Francisco, I would recommend that you speak to a well known immigration lawyer. His name is Robert B. Jobe and check out his web site at www.jobelaw.com.

Good luck in your endeavour and it's such a long lenghty process that you need to ask yourself whether is worthy of trying. Think carefully!
 
robinlow said:
I am in the US for 6 years already, and I am in the country legally. Can I still qualify as I'm not really a refugee?
Click to expand...
I think the fact that you have been legally all those 6 years and that you have been in your country in the past few months will remove the 1 year requirement for you. Good luck!
 
Miss.PinK said:
wow .. that is such a LONG TIME. I wonder "what is actually" the reason that some people can get approved quickly but some people have to wait that long. Is it the case? the race? the religion? the gender? the country of origin?
Click to expand...

Mine 13 years.
Atique.
 
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