Asylum basics and the one-year filing deadline

Who can qualify

To qualify as a refugee for asylum purposes, you must show that you were persecuted or have a well-founded fear of future persecution, and that one of the five protected grounds is at least one central reason for it. Persecution generally means serious harm, and it usually must come from the government or from people the government is unable or unwilling to control.

Some people are barred even if they meet the definition, for example because of certain criminal convictions, persecution of others, or firm resettlement in another country before arriving. Related forms of protection, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture, have higher standards of proof but are not subject to the one-year deadline.

Affirmative and defensive asylum

If you are not in removal proceedings, you file an affirmative application with USCIS and are later interviewed by an asylum officer. If USCIS does not grant the case, it is often referred to immigration court, where you can present it again before an immigration judge.

If you are already in removal proceedings, you file defensively with the immigration court, and the judge decides the case after a hearing with testimony and evidence. In both settings your written declaration, your testimony and your documents must be consistent with each other.

• Form I-589 is used for asylum, withholding of removal and Convention Against Torture protection.
• You may include your spouse and unmarried children under 21 who are in the United States.
• Applications must generally be submitted in English, with certified translations of foreign documents.

How the one-year deadline works

The deadline runs from your last arrival in the United States, not your first. If you left and came back, the clock generally restarts with the most recent arrival, although an attorney should review this carefully. The application counts as filed when it is received by USCIS or the immigration court, not when you mail it.

Two kinds of exceptions exist. Changed circumstances, such as new events in your home country or a change in your own situation, can allow a later filing. Extraordinary circumstances related to the delay, such as serious illness or maintaining another lawful status, may also excuse a late application. In either case you must still file within a reasonable period after the circumstance arises.

Work permits, travel and safety

Asylum applicants do not receive work authorization automatically. There is a waiting period after filing before you may apply for an employment authorization document, and delays you cause can stop that clock. Traveling to the country you fear can seriously damage your claim. Never let anyone file an asylum application for you without your full understanding of what it says, since false statements can make you permanently ineligible for immigration benefits.