Prince William County Asylum Lawyer

There are a number of criteria that a person needs to satisfy in order to be granted asylum but the threshold requirement is that they generally need to apply for asylum within a year of the date that they entered the United States. Additionally, they need to prove that they are going to be subject to persecution in their home country based on their membership in one of the protected groups of people based on one of the protected grounds for asylum. The topics include race, religion, political opinion,  nationality, gender, or particular social group. Contacting a Prince William County asylum lawyer is critical if you are facing any of these brutalities. To learn more or discuss the specifics of your situation, consult with an immigration attorney in Prince William County today.

Social Groups and Political Belief

A political opinion can be if a person has a political opinion that has a reasonable likelihood of subjecting them to persecution if they return to their home county. If they are a member of a political group that is in opposition to the ruling government in their home country and that they may be persecuted based on this membership; membership in a particular social group is a much broader area and most asylum claims fall within this category.

Particular social groups can be a country-specific and case-specific designation and a person can argue that the specific particular group that they belong to should be considered a protected social group. An example of that would be Guatemalan women who are subject to domestic abuse and are unable to escape their relationship.

They are specific and a person can create a new social group if they have proof of a new or type of social group that is going to subject them to torture that has not been presented to the courts or asylum offices before. That is an emerging area, a constantly changing, constantly growing, and evolving area of Prince William asylum law in that particular social group category.

Others Protected

Other cruelties, such as female genital mutilation can absolutely be in a particular social group but that is where a Prince William asylum attorney can help a person defining their particular social group. In some situations, if she is a young woman who is in the community where female genital mutilation is common, then she may be at a heightened risk because of the area that she lives and her age and other people that have been subjected to female genital mutilation in similar situations in the area that she is from. Or if a person were a mother who has been a victim of female genital mutilation herself and she has a child that is at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation, she could define her category in a different way depending on the actual or the specific circumstances.

Persecution for Asylum

There is no difference in applying for asylum in Prince William County as opposed to any other country in the United States, it is federal law and so it does not matter where a person is applying to. That being said, there are differences in approval rates in different USCIS offices and in front of different asylum judges, there are different approval ratings in different regions in the country but the case law and the statutory requirements are the same everywhere.

If they have been persecuted in the past, there will be a presumption that they will be persecuted in the future. It is easier to be granted asylum if they have been persecuted in the past because it just creates that presumption in their favor. However, a person does not actually ever have to have been subjected to persecution in order to qualify for asylum, they just need to prove that there is a reasonable likelihood that they will be subjected to persecution if they return.

Proving Asylum Requirements

Proving whether or not a person qualifies for asylum is going to be completely different depending on what their specific claim is in the country that they are from. If a person has been persecuted in the past and has any documentary evidence to prove this, like if they have police reports or medical records, then those are going to be extremely important to submit in their case, but in many situations people have fled dangerous situations and they do not have a body of evidence that they have been able to carry with them. A lot of times the evidence that a person is going to create and submit will be collected and assembled here in the United States and in all cases, the most important piece of evidence is going to be their own personal statement about their fears of returning, their membership in the particular social group, and how that membership in a particular social group is going to subject them to persecution.

Contact a Prince William County Asylum Lawyer

It is important to have an attorney, especially in cases where there is not a big body of documentary evidence such as police reports or hospital records. Every claim needs to be as well documented as possible. That includes an affidavit, or, if the applicant has been subjected to any physical harm in past, any medical report issued here in the United States.

Getting help when granting asylum is crucial. A Prince William County asylum attorney can guide you through the difficult process and offer support. Please contact an experienced Prince William County asylum lawyer today.