Prince William County Asylum Application to USCIS
Someone should submit an asylum application to USCIS if they are present in the United States and in removal proceedings. The USCIS is in charge of evaluating and issuing a decision on initial or affirmatively filed asylum applications. They grant or deny the first asylum application to USCIS if the individual is not already in an immigration court proceeding.
If you are seeking more information about applying for asylum with USCIS, contacting a compassionate asylum attorney can give you the peace of mind you need to proceed with your case.
What to Know before Applying
The most important thing that is neglected from people who are filing an asylum application without an attorney is that they do not understand the amount of supporting documentation that needs to be submitted. It is not enough just to present a person’s statements and fill up the asylum application and then hope that it is approved. It is their responsibility to document and provide evidence of the fact that these conditions exist in their home country in the asylum application. This can be done in a variety of ways like submitting country condition reports from the US Department of State.
The individual can submit documents with their application for asylum from all sorts of different international human rights organizations, like EMC International, or just newspaper articles and any media and any other venue that exists in their home country or here that can help to corroborate their claim for the asylum application.
The United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS)
USCIS is the department that is designated by the Department of Homeland Security to grant benefits to individuals in the United States. It is the entity that a person will submit their asylum application to. If they are not in immigration court, it is a separate entity than immigration court and they will have the initial opportunity to approve or deny the asylum application. They approve all other types of immigration benefits like asylum application to family-based status or employment-based status, they apply with the USCIS.
If an individual’s asylum application to USCIS is denied then they have discretion on whether or not they issue a notice to appear in immigration court and they will begin their case in front of the immigration judge. In asylum application to USCIS cases where the case has not been approved, the individual will almost always be referred to immigration court.
In other cases where it is a family-based asylum application to USCIS application or another perhaps a victim-based application like a VAWA or U-Visa, it is not guaranteed that they will refer a person’s case to the immigration court; it is a matter of discretion.
Attorney Help vs. Asylum Applications with the USCIS
The first thing that attorneys do for an asylum application to USCIS is have a thorough discussion with the applicant about what the basis for their claim is. This includes defining the reason that they fear returning to their home country, and how to frame their case to make it fit into the asylum law framework.
USCIS are not advocates for immigrants in the United States; they do not help people with their claims. They are not providing any service to immigrants; they are evaluating asylum applications that a person submits to them; the USCIS just adjudicates the merits of that individual’s case.
USCIS and Other Organizations
There is definitely communication between different areas within the Department of Homeland Security in regards to asylum applications to USCIS. For instance, when people are detained at the border when attempting to enter the United States, they will be caught by a border patrol official or an ICE officer.
ICE is a different department of Homeland Security and those people can detain the individual and place them into removal proceeding. At that point, they will send the file or the case to the immigration court. In some asylum cases, like for juveniles who have arrived in the United States unaccompanied, a person can actually request to terminate their case in front of the immigration court and submit an asylum application to USCIS first.
There is some communication that is done between the immigration court, which is under the Department of Justice, and USCIS when terminating a case like this. It is in conjunction with other organizations but it is a separate application; the adjudication of an affirmative asylum application to USCIS happens exclusively with USCIS.