Referral Notice - Notice to Appear (NTA)
- Thread starter pithna
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2023sf
Member
Yes very mad. It is gambling and this is the cost of gambling. Some asylum seekers in NY moves back and forth, from NY to NJ and back to NY, but get a worse judge, and they have to move again... this is why the NY immigration court does not approve to move to NJ.
For instance, an NY IJ seldom grants asylum to people from a certain region of China, and she deliberately denies they asylum cases (this is true). When the asylum seekers from this region of China get this NY judge, they spare no efforts to move to avoid this judge.
Both NY and SF have god-damned good judges and god-damned bad judges, so probably getting a favorable judge needs multiple times of moving if the asylum seeker is very unlucky. Consequently, Chinese asylum seekers shifted focus to Honolulu, HI cuz both of the two Honolulu judges's grant rates are approximate 80%. With the influx of Chinese asylum seekers to the Honolulu immigration court, the two Honolulu judges's grants rates becomes lower since 2018... lol you can check on the Syrcause University's website.
A lot of Chinese asylum seekers are from Fuzhou, China. The Fuzhou people pay as high as $60,000 USD to human smugglers to get to the U.S., they directly fly to Mexico first or they travel to Hong Kong first and then Paris, South America, Middle America and finally Mexico. And then boat across the Rio Grande river or the mountain to enter the U.S. illegally. Comparing to this endeavor, moving is not that a hard thing.
2023sf
Member
An attorney who does not screw up the case is a good attorney.
For asylum interviews, attorneys are rarely helpful. You don't need an attorney because the attorney is not allowed to speak during your interview.
Even the Individual Hearing, in some cases, those god-damned merciful IJs grant asylum in 10 minutes. Once, a government lawyer only asked two questions, the attorney does not speak, and then the IJ granted asylum very fast.
So, attorney? Probably helpful. lol.
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Huh? I thought the main purpose for having a attorney to speak for me during interviews or infront of immigration Judge. My mind will goes blank if I am super nervous.
2023sf
Member
During the interview with the asylum officer, your lawyer is only supposed to sit there and remain silent. Your lawyer is only allowed to give a closing statement at the end of the interview.
Before the immigration judge, the process is like this:
(1) First, your lawyer asks your questions in order to present your case to the judge.
(2) Second, the government lawyer asks you many many tricky and tough questions in order to question your credibilities and persuade the judge to remove you.
If your lawyer thinks one or some of the government lawyer's question(s) is(are) tooo tricky, you lawyer can say: Objection! And it is up to the judge whether allows the government lawyer ask this tricky question.
If you bring a witness, the witness may be or may not be called to the courtroom. If so, you lawyer asks the witness questions and then the government lawyer asks the witness questions...
(3) If you lawyer thinks you did not answer well on some questions asked by the government lawyer, your lawyer continues asking you questions in order to let you clarify yourself.
(4) The judge is not required to ask questions, the judge's role is only to hear. This is why the court is called HEARING. The judge may ask questions, may not.
HoustonAssi
Active Member
Would you know your Judge before IMH? When you should decide to move? What we need to give in order to tell them that i've moved?
Just my 2 cents. I had moved during my case after master calendar and before individual hearing. Unless some rules have changed, merely moving and changing address does not move your case. You need to file a motion to change venue with the court, which the judge has to approve. My motion was opposed by the government lawyer but the judge still granted it since he wanted the case out I guess.
Just read this epic post. Hats off to you man. I knew barely anything about asylum or immigration laws until I got my citizenship case held up. Wish I was proactive. I may have saved 2-3 years. In hindsight I feel that my case lacked preparation. I would have done it differently and better if I knew 10 years ago what I know now.
Why I warned these guys in my original post - moving can be fatal if you don't get your address issues fixed. For most people, they don't do this they just move without being proactive about their cases, that is why their cases get super complex. Of course, with the bravado of being new to the system, the posts above completely ignored the advice given. Which is fatal, but then again, all we can do it to point out the best things to do, it's up to these guys to take the advice or leave it. Had I known what I know now, my case could have been done in under three weeks!
HoustonAssi
Active Member
Like... Please share the Tips that you're referring to ...
Unfortunately, I was not as proactive as @7of9. I came as a student and applied for asylum in a hurry because I heard that you have to apply within 1 year. I did not realize that being in a valid status is an exception to the rule. So my documents were not prepared properly - it was based on the advice of some people who had gone through the process before (they got asylum but weren't really aware of all the laws/regulations etc). Anyway, I spent a lot of money on this work and could not pay for school. Hence I had to drop out. The interview didn't seem bad at the time at all, but now I can tell that I had not prepared my case in an airtight manner with all legal precedents, etc. so I got referred to the IJ. I had to move as I found a job elsewhere, so I moved my case with a motion to change venue. I started taking some courses online in an effort to finish college. I had a lawyer this time and he prepared the case, again I was stupid, but thankfully this time around, the IJ granted me asylum. It took around 2.5 years or so. I applied for my GC exactly after 1 year. It got approved in around 5 months although I had to show up for an interview. I paid $500 to take a lawyer with me just in case, but it was merely a 5 min interview. The officer even remarked that she is unsure why my file was sent to the local office.I finished college while working and also got a few certifications in the meanwhile. Traveled internationally quite a few times both for work and pleasure, so got a bunch of RTDs and RPs. Never got a single secondary inspection at CBP unlike what others have experienced but the airlines did give me a hard time during check-in.
Approx 5 years later I applied for citizenship and got a really terrible adjudicator. My citizenship was delayed and I had to sue USCIS in federal court. The pinned thread on this forum was very useful to me at the time. I read a lot, studied case law, regulations etc. and prepared my case. That experience is detailed in the post below.
It's been over a year and a half now - but I am glad the journey is over. If I can give one tip I would say that do not put your life on hold while your case is going on. In most of these years, I lived my life normally and didn't even think much about the case until when it was required. I have seen many people put their entire lives on hold until their case is resolved and end up wasting years.
The system says I have posted 475 posts on this forum over the years. Each and everyone of those posts is a valuable tip. Search the username. Good luck.
if I had prepared my case well and got my asylum during the first interview with the AO, I would have saved 2.5 - 3 years. In hindsight I should have slowly prepared my case over a period of a year or two while I was a student, studied the laws just like I did for my federal case. That would have helped me stay in school as well instead of dropping out and going back later. People who advised me, never told me about the exception to the 1 year bar (being in valid status). Anyway what’s done is done. By the way @7of9 , I never knew that you can go and observe immigration court hearings until I read your post. I think that’s very helpful to know. Thanks a lot for that.
I hear you on the 2.5-3 years, Same with me, had I been given advice, I would have been done with my case in four weeks. Instead, because I had no advice, poorly prepared, my case took more than 19 months! If only I had the advice we are giving these guys here, I could have done well. tragic part? During those 19 months of waiting, I lost a lot of things, including having no income - wasted productivity. Can't get that back. I guess for most people these days, they are able to get EADs while the case is pending. Back then, case processing was fast, so EADs were rare.
HoustonAssi
Active Member
I would refer you to 7of9’s post which details how you can prep. Every case is different so you would obviously need to tailor it to your needs. Good luck