HOW TO PREPARE YOUR ASYLUM CASE [August 2021]

-Some suggestions from a lawyer who has seen many applicants get denied by mean asylum officers

1. Be chronological: know your own life history, perfectly.

    Get  your passport; hold it in your hand. When was it issued?

Look at each stamp: where were you, on each date? Use this as an outline for your case: I was born on July 4, 1990; my first passport was issued on 5 May 2006 is a way to start.

2. Prepare a chart of all of your international travel. Asylum Officers are trained to focus on this information.

3. How did you get your US visa? First, you, or your friend, sat at a computer, and filled out Form DS-160? On that form, did you say you were not arrested?

      Second, you had a face-to-face interview, at the US Embassy? You told them some lies?

4. Did you suffer physical harm? Describe it, by month/year/city

5. Did anyone threaten you with harm? Describe it, by month/year/city

6. What did you see with your eyes? what did you hear with your ears? what thoughts went through your mind?

7. How did you spend your last 90 days in your country? How come you were not arrested?

8. As you departed from your country, how  come you were not arrested at the airport?

9. Describe your life in the USA: you are a person of strong political and religious beliefs? How do you express yourself here in the USA?

10. How was your Form I-589 prepared?

11. You have lived in the USA for a long time; your government has forgotten about you? Have you done anything, here in the USA, to bring yourself to the attention of your goverment?