Can Your Application for Asylum Include Your Family?

Your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 may be included in your asylum application. Additional applicants can “ride” on the lead alien’s application. However, there are two conditions. The family members must be physically present in the United States and they must be able to establish a basis for asylum on their own.

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Can an Asylum Applicant Work in the United States?

Asylum applicants cannot apply for work permits at the same time as filing their asylum applications. Rather, they must wait 150 days from the date they filed their properly completed original asylum applications. The emphasis in on completed. If you are still in the process of adding supporting documents to your application, it is not considered completed, and you may not request authorization to work while your asylum application is pending.

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Can You Travel Outside the U.S. While Your Asylum Application Is Pending?

While you are waiting approval for asylum, you can leave the United States. However it is not generally a good idea. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will make the decision on whether or not to approve your request for asylum. If you leave while that application is pending, immigration laws allow the USCIS to presume that you have abandoned your asylum application. Presumptions mean that they are allowed to guess at your reasons for leaving without having any evidence of why you left the United States.

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What Are Your Options Following Denial of Your Asylum Application?

If an immigration judge denies your asylum application, you have three options: accept the decision, request that your case be reopened, or appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. If you accept the immigration judge’s decision, then removal proceedings will continue against you and, in all likelihood, you will be returned to your native country. On the other hand, requesting to reopen the case or appealing to the Board of Immigration Appeals are possibilities, but require strict compliance with immigration laws and procedures.

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Can I Submit Asylum Documents in a Language Other Than English?

You may submit a document completed in a foriegn language with your asylum application, but it must have a certified English translation with it. The certification must include the name, signature, and address of the person who prepared the translation. When the translator signs to certify the translation, he or she must also date when they completed the translation and state which languages they are fluent in. This certification requirement applies to documents submitted at any stage of your asylum application.

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Will Your Asylum Case Come Before an Immigration Judge?

An immigration judge will hear an asylum case if it falls within one of the following categories: affirmative applicants whose cases were denied by the asylum officer; arriving asylum seekers who are detained under the expedited removal or credible fear procedures; and, those arrested by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) who are applying for asylum for the first time in immigration court. This latter type of asylum request is known as defensive asylum processing, because the asylum seeker is essentially defending against involuntary removal.

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Who Is Eligible for Political Asylum?

An immigrant asylum seeker is eligible for political asylum in the U.S. if they are subject to persecution in their native country because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Asylum seekers must be located within the United States or at a U.S. port of entry at the time of application.

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