Asylum Interviews in Maryland

Any individual who submits an affirmative application to an US Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) office must undergo an asylum interview. This interview takes place in a USCIS office and involves the applicant, the applicant’s attorney, a translator if necessary, and the USCIS adjudicator. Sometimes, individuals will be subject to more than one interview. These interviews involve extensive questioning of the applicant meant to corroborate all statements made in the applicant’s declaration and to analyze the applicant’s claim. In general, asylum interviews take about three hours.

If you are applying for asylum in the United States, contact a Maryland asylum lawyer for a consultation and assistance through the interview and application process.

Interview Process

Upon arriving at the office at the scheduled time, the applicant will first make sure that he or she has submitted all evidentiary documents within the time frame allotted. The applicant will then undergo extensive questioning by the USCIS officer about the merits of his or her claim.

The interview timeline depends completely on the nature of the individual’s case. Asylum interviews are often as quick as two hours or as long as four hours, sometimes even longer. Occasionally, they can take multiple days. Generally, however, asylum interviews are completed in approximately three hours.

The initial part of the interview will essentially review the information contained in the application form itself, including biographical information and other identifying information such as address and employment history. This ensures that all information contained in the application is accurate and up-to-date. The next part of the interview will review the basis of the applicant’s claim that he or she fears persecution upon return to his or her home country. Generally, this review will be conducted in a chronological manner.

How to Prepare

The first thing an individual can do to prepare for an asylum interview is to review everything that he or she stated in his or her declaration and application. If, upon reviewing these documents, the applicant notes any errors, misstatements, or items that need clarification before the interview, he or she must be prepared to do so at the very beginning of the interview.

In some USCIS interviews, the applicant’s credibility is the most important aspect of the application as many of these cases are based on people’s own experiences, declarations, and fear of return. Thus, the applicant must be a credible person. The USCIS adjudicator must believe the factual basis for the claim and will thoroughly review every single fact and statement set forth in an application to ensure that a story is indeed credible. Because of this, an applicant must make sure that he or she knows what he or she has submitted and remembers the details of his or her story.

Often, this is difficult for applicants as they have experienced truly difficult, traumatic experiences. Sometimes, applicants are suffering from PTSD or just have hazy memories of horrible things that have happened to them. Because of this, applicants must make sure they are honest about any fogginess in memory and attempt not to make contradicting statements so that their credibility will not be damaged.

Language Barriers

An applicant who requires an interpreter is responsible for providing his or her own interpreter. Even with an interpreter, language barriers can be an issue. Sometimes, little details may be lost in conversation. For instance, an individual’s declaration may state that he or she was kidnapped by someone in a car, but in a later interview this experience is translated as involving a van. The interviewer may attempt to focus on little details such as this and try to impeach the applicant’s credibility on things that may have simply been lost or changed in translation. An attorney can be incredibly helpful in these situations as he or she will be very cognizant of the manner in which statements and details are being relayed to the USCIS officer over the course of the interview.

Prejudices Against Nationalities

The government does not admit to having prejudice against certain peoples and groups. However, in reality, such prejudice likely does occur. The main reason for this is that there are some groups of people that have many more applications submitted with same type of claim. Within these groups, fraudulent claims can occur. Many individuals have used the application volume among certain groups to attempt to submit fraudulent claims and many of these claims have been granted almost automatically. The government is aware of this, and may direct USCIS officers to review applications from these groups with greater scrutiny to prevent fraud.