Asylum status is a permanent immigration status. Asylum status leads to legal permanent residency and citizenship. After holding asylum status for one year, an asylee can apply to become a legal permanent resident (“green card” holder). After maintaining legal permanent resident status for four years, an asylee can apply to naturalize and become a U.S. citizen.

Asylees can petition for spouses and unmarried children who were under 21 at the time the asylum application was filed. Beneficiary family members can either be already in the United States or outside the United States. In addition, spouses and unmarried children under 21 already in the U.S. and included on an asylum application automatically obtain derivative asylum status at the same time the principal applicant is granted.

Current processing of asylum applications granted at the asylum office take approximately two months. However, applications that were filed prior to January 2018 are in a backlog of cases that may take years to complete. Please note that processing times can change at any time.

All asylum applicants need to establish identity; usually this is done with a passport or birth certificate. Applicants with derivatives (spouse or children) included in the application must establish the relationship to that derivative beneficiary; usually this is done with marriage and birth certificates. Depending on the case, some applicants may need to provide mental health reports, medical reports, police and court documents, or witness statements to support their case. Applicants may also need to provide information about the conditions in their home country. For our cases Oasis provides extensive reports on the country an asylum seeker is fleeing as part of the supporting documentation for the case.

Yes. Asylum is a legal protection for individuals who have suffered persecution or have a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of one of five enumerated grounds. LGBTQIA+ and HIV+ individuals may establish a claim to asylum based on any of the enumerated grounds, including their membership in a particular social group related to their LGBTQIA+ and/or HIV+ status (e.g., “sexual minorities” or “imputed sexual minorities”).

Yes, possibly. Asylum law requires that an applicant file within one year of last entry into the United States. There are two exceptions to the one year filing deadline: 1) changed circumstances that materially affect the applicant’s claim, and 2) extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing within the first year after applicant’s last entry. Note, even if the applicant can establish an exception to excuse the late filing, the applicant is still required to file the application with a “reasonable time” given the circumstances in order for the application to be accepted.

No. There is no quota or limit on the number of people granted asylum in the United States.