Political Asylum Question
Hi Rajeev,
This service is the best I have ever seen. You help so many people, thank you for your generosity.
I have a two-part question about a political asylum case.
Some quick background: I do aid work in orphanages in Ukraine. During this work I met an orphan long ago who later we sponsored to come to US to study. He is 16, now lives with us in US and has a J-1 visa. Learning more about his life, we realized the intense persecution he suffered (it is a complex story, his persecution was at hands of government authorities, including slave labor.) We went to a local immigration lawyer (we are in the midwest) who said that he can clearly show former persecution and reasonable fear of return (they know all these complex details of our case) but that showing orphans to be a social class is not likely, even though this is a label that officially follows a person in Ukraine for life. They also said BIA is being very difficult on this issue now and it is too risky.
They said that if he applies for asylum now (he is a minor, almost 17) that he will never get another education visa in the future. They said our other option to keep him safe and here is to transfer to an F-1 next year to complete high school, then stay on F-1 through university, then hopefully to get an H-1 and file for green card.
So here are two small questions:
1. Do you think that it is useless to try for asylum using orphan as a social class, if we can show that there was serious persecution by government because of being an orphan, and serious fear of return?
2. If we did try for asylum, does that mean he will be turned down for a non-immigrant visa (F-1, H-1) in the future (will the USCIS see this as 'intent to immigrate' and deny?) He is capable of graduating university, very bright, high marks in school, etc. If he were denied asylum we don't want him to then get no education...
Thanks!