I think you have to clarify when you give some insights and informations about “one year rule”.
This is what you wrote:
“ 1. Affirmative Asylum - When you apply after 1 year deadline, officers don't tend to accept the facts/reasons for late application submission. In fact, officers use failure to submit the application as an excuse not to review the application: instead of the review, they automatically refer the case to immigration court. Even if you have compelling reasons, officers seem to always refer cases to immigration court for all applications filed after the one year deadline.”
Did you clarify that this 1 year rule doesn’t applies to those who in status and applied after one year (F-1, OPT)? I can’t find this in your writings.
Let me tell you one example - about myself. I applied in second year of living in the US and when I was finishing my advanced degree, and I was in status. I was in status when I applied for about 3 months, and during these 3 months I didn’t receive anything from Asylum Officer. Then my status ended but I still have pending asylum case, and IF in some moment my case will be referred to IJ(which I hope won’t happen) then the reason most likely will be different than “one year rule”. It could be anything like there’s “no future harm”, or “case inconsistency” or something else. This is what I’m talking about.
There’s those who applied for asylum after one year rule and still/was in status AND there’s those who applied after one year rule while being out of status.