HOW TO APPLY FOR ASYLUM - The Florence Project

• WHO DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR ASYLUM OR WITHHOLDING OF REMOVAL
The law does not allow you to apply for asylum if:
1) You were in the U.S. more than one year before filing the asylum application (there are exceptions to this
rule!).
2) You applied for asylum in an immigration court in the U.S. before and lost (there are exceptions to this rule
also!).
The law does not allow you to receive a grant of asylum if:
1) You established strong enough ties to another country that you are considered to have “firmly resettled”
there.
2) You have been convicted of an “aggravated felony” (explained later).
3) You have been convicted of a “particularly serious crime” and are a danger to the community (explained
later).
4) You participated in the persecution of someone else because of his or her race, religion, nationality,
membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
5) You committed a serious crime outside the U.S. that was not a political crime.
6) You are considered a terrorist or a danger to the security of the United States.
The law does not allow you to receive withholding of removal if:
You have done anything in numbers 3 through 6 immediately above.
If you have a conviction for an “aggravated felony,” you may or may not be eligible for withholding. If you
have one or more aggravated felonies and the sentences for those aggravated felonies add up to five years, you
are not eligible for withholding. If the sentences for your aggravated felony or felonies are less than five years,
you might be eligible for withholding but only if you can prove the felony or felonies were not “particularly
serious.” We will discuss later how to prepare this kind of case.
• What is the rule about applying for asylum within one year of arrival
Starting April 1, 1998, you cannot apply for asylum unless you can show that you have been in the U.S. for
less than one year before filing the application. It is up to you to prove to the judge how long you have been
here. There are some exceptions to this rule.
The one-year deadline does not apply to you if you can show that since you came to the United
States, one of these two things happened:
1) There have been important changes – such as changes in your home country, in your life, or in the
U.S. asylum laws – which affect your asylum case. For example, if you were in the United States for
2 years and then a government came into power in your country that is persecuting people like you,
you can show that you have a good excuse for not applying for asylum before (since you were not in
Page 10 of 49
FIRRP- last update June 2007