POLITICAL ASYLUM

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides relief for foreign nationals who, because of suffering past persecution or having a well-founded fear of persecution, both on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, are unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin. While this well-founded fear standard does not necessarily mean physical harm (torture, imprisonment, harassment, etc.), unless you have a strong claim, your application could be referred to the Immigration Court.

If you had a problem in your home country due to gang-related incidents or other events that occurred before you came to the United States or that occurred while you were in the United States, you might be eligible for political asylum. The preparation of a solid asylum application is labor-intensive. Further, the application for political asylum must be filed within one year after the person arrives in the U.S., failure of which can only be excused by establishing material changes of circumstances or other extraordinary factors relating to the delay in the filing of the application. We highly recommend that you seek professional legal advice to assess your potential application.