Our story for an asylum. Possible?
Hi. Briefly about my situation:
We work on my father's asylum application, who is currently on a tourist visa here in the US. We hired a very experienced lawyer who I believe has built a very good case for us. Our two downtown stores were burnt down and looted during a 2005 revolution in my country. We experienced a significant financial loss. Now, in 2010 we again had a revolution when all businesses in my city were destroyed, burned down and looted again. Since we didn't open any businesses after 2005, my family just watched the destruction of the city. However, both in 2005 and 2010, the men of my family was defending our house with a hunting riffle outside, while women of my family were hiding in fear. Neighborhood men put barricades on our streets to protect themselves from these destructive looters because those looters, who burned businesses decided to destruct neighborhoods too. So both in 2005 and 2010 my family had a very rough time living in our city.
Now, our lawyer just sent me this email:
I still feel it is a good case. The chance of prevailing at the initial interview is in the 50% range, but eventually prevailing with the immigration judge has a 75% chance pf winning. The weakest part is the lack of past persecution. We argue that the incident involving the looting of the stores was persecution, but the law generally requires more (e.g. being kidnapped, beaten, jailed, etc.).
My father, an applicant, was never kidnapped or beaten, but our local officials and policemen always single him out as an ethnic minority who does not speak local language, and they demand money, demand bribes while abusing their power. Their actions are always ethnic-based.
Guys, I know that many of you have a very rich experience of your own and many of you applied for asylum. What do you feel about our situation? What do you think my father should say at an interview since we have a 50/50 chance of winning it? Overall, what do you think?
P.S. Should we hire a translator or my father's son-in-law can go and be a personal translator at an interview?
Thank you for all meaningful suggestions, thoughts and advices.
Hi. Briefly about my situation:
We work on my father's asylum application, who is currently on a tourist visa here in the US. We hired a very experienced lawyer who I believe has built a very good case for us. Our two downtown stores were burnt down and looted during a 2005 revolution in my country. We experienced a significant financial loss. Now, in 2010 we again had a revolution when all businesses in my city were destroyed, burned down and looted again. Since we didn't open any businesses after 2005, my family just watched the destruction of the city. However, both in 2005 and 2010, the men of my family was defending our house with a hunting riffle outside, while women of my family were hiding in fear. Neighborhood men put barricades on our streets to protect themselves from these destructive looters because those looters, who burned businesses decided to destruct neighborhoods too. So both in 2005 and 2010 my family had a very rough time living in our city.
Now, our lawyer just sent me this email:
I still feel it is a good case. The chance of prevailing at the initial interview is in the 50% range, but eventually prevailing with the immigration judge has a 75% chance pf winning. The weakest part is the lack of past persecution. We argue that the incident involving the looting of the stores was persecution, but the law generally requires more (e.g. being kidnapped, beaten, jailed, etc.).
My father, an applicant, was never kidnapped or beaten, but our local officials and policemen always single him out as an ethnic minority who does not speak local language, and they demand money, demand bribes while abusing their power. Their actions are always ethnic-based.
Guys, I know that many of you have a very rich experience of your own and many of you applied for asylum. What do you feel about our situation? What do you think my father should say at an interview since we have a 50/50 chance of winning it? Overall, what do you think?
P.S. Should we hire a translator or my father's son-in-law can go and be a personal translator at an interview?
Thank you for all meaningful suggestions, thoughts and advices.
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