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Asylum

Serving clients across Chicago, Schaumburg, Naperville, Madison, and beyond, Francis Law Center brings families together, advocates for humanitarian relief, and helps professionals and businesses with complex immigration issues, including Family-Based Immigrations, Humanitarian & Citizenship, and Employment-Based Immigration.

Asylum immigration attorney
Asylum immigration attorney

Get the Assistance You Need for Your Asylum Case

If you have recently come to the United States and have a “well-founded fear” of persecution or have been persecuted in your home country, you may qualify for asylum. The persecution you are subject to must be due to you identifying under one of the five protected grounds. There are two paths to apply for asylum once you are in the United States, affirmative and defensive.

Affirmative asylum with a local USCIS Asylum Office

To obtain asylum through the affirmative asylum process, you must be physically present in the United States. You must apply for asylum within one year of the date of their last arrival in the United States, unless you can show:

  • Changed circumstances that materially affect your eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing
  • You filed within a reasonable amount of time given those circumstances.

You may apply for affirmative asylum by submitting Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, and supporting documents, including country condition reports, to USCIS. If you’re considering applying for asylum, you’ll need to be extra careful when completing your Form I-589 and preparing your supporting documents. This means leaving no unanswered questions on the form and submitting every relevant piece of evidence.

Defensive asylum with a local Immigration Court

If your affirmative asylum case is not approved by a local asylum office and you do not have a legal immigration status, we will be issued a Form I-862, Notice to Appear. Your case will be referred to an Immigration Judge. The Immigration Judge conducts a “de novo” hearing of the case. This means that the judge conducts a new hearing and issues a decision that is independent of the decision made by USCIS.

What are the five protected grounds for asylum?

In order to be eligible for asylum, an applicant must meet the definition of refugee in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The INA defines refugee as:

Any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

The persecution must have been based on at least one of five grounds, either your: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Proving this connection between the persecution and one of these five grounds is one of the most difficult parts of successfully applying for asylee or refugee status-especially because you must show that one of the five grounds was or will be a “central reason” for your persecution. In brief, this means showing that you are either the victim of past persecution or you have a well-founded fear of future persecution. In the case of past persecution, you must prove that you were persecuted in your home country or last country of residence.

What Can We Do for You?

Based out of Schaumburg, IL, with additional offices in Chicago, IL, and Madison, WI, our firm is committed to serving the immigration needs of clients throughout the world. Our clients include people coming to the United States from India, Mexico, China, Serbia, the Philippines, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Brazil, and around the world.

Francis Law Center is committed to practicing immigration law; in fact, it is the only kind of law we practice. Immigration Attorney Jae Francis Lee brings experience as a professional working as a Professor of U.S. History at the University of Wisconsin and holds a Ph.D. from New York University. He understands the importance of in-depth research and meticulous documentation required for a successful marriage-based green card case. Your mind will rest easier knowing that we are working on your behalf for your successful spousal green card case.

Schedule an Initial Consultation: Call us at 866-868-1596. You can also reach us online. We look forward to hearing from you.

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