Immigration Blog Luba Smal Attorney at Law - Smal Immigration Law Office

Asylum I-589 New Filing Rules Effective May 9, 2024

4/9/2024

On April 9, 2024, USCIS made the following announcement:

Effective May 9, 2024, we will reject affirmative asylum applications improperly filed at service centers instead of at the lockbox with jurisdiction over your place of residence. We announced this change in filing location on May 31, 2023, and finalized the associated revision to Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, in the Federal Register, 88 FR 60703 (Sept. 5, 2023). We expect this change to help streamline asylum processing and improve adjudication efficiency by digitizing paper filings.

Certain categories of affirmative asylum applicants must continue to mail their applications directly to the Asylum Vetting Center.

Unaccompanied children (UCs) in immigration court proceedings must mail their applications to the lockbox.

Online filing is also available to affirmative asylum applicants who are not in immigration court proceedings and who do not have to submit their application to the Asylum Vetting Center.

See the “Where to File” and “Special Instructions” sections of our Form I-589 webpage for more information and to learn where to file your application. You can also use our Filing Instructions Tool to determine where to file your Form I-589.

Affirmative Asylum Applicants Must Bring Their Own Interpreter to Asylum Interview

9/19/2023

On September 13, 2023, USCIS reminded affirmative asylum applicants that, starting today, you must bring an interpreter to your asylum interview if you are not fluent in English or wish to proceed with your interview in a language other than English.
If you need an interpreter and do not bring one, or if your interpreter is not fluent in English and a language you speak, and you do not establish good cause, we may consider this a failure to appear for your interview and we may dismiss your asylum application or refer your asylum application to an immigration judge. We will determine good cause on a case-by-case-basis.
The interpreter must be fluent in English and a language you speak fluently and must be at least 18 years old. The interpreter must not be:

Your attorney or accredited representative;
A witness testifying on your behalf;
A representative or employee of the government of your country of nationality (or, if you are stateless, your country of last habitual residence); or
An individual with a pending asylum application who has not yet been interviewed.

On Sept. 23, 2020, we published a temporary final rule (TFR) requiring affirmative asylum applicants to use our contracted telephonic interpreters for their asylum interviews, instead of bringing an interpreter to the interview. We published this TFR to reduce the spread of COVID-19 during asylum interviews with USCIS asylum officers while the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency were in effect. We published four subsequent TFRs extending the requirement, with the current extension effective through Sept. 12, 2023. This fourth extension provided additional time after the national and public health emergencies expired to allow USCIS to prepare to return to the prior regulatory requirement. With the expiration of the TFR, we are reverting back to the long-standing regulatory requirement for an affirmative asylum applicant to provide an interpreter under 8 CFR 208.9(g).

How to Apply for Asylum at the Border Under Biden Proposed New Rule

2/26/2023

On February 21, 2023, the Biden administration recently announced a proposed asylum regulation. It would create a new asylum application process for adults and families who present themselves unannounced to U.S. border officials to request asylum, and had traveled through another country on their way to the U.S. without applying for asylum – and being denied — there.

The government insists that every asylum seeker has the power to avoid the ban by sticking to what it calls “lawful pathways”, that implies it’s unlawful to seek asylum if you enter the United States between ports of entry. And the regulation creates a whole procedure to determine whether and how the ban applies.

So, to illustrate the steps of the proposed regulation, here is “How to Seek Asylum In the United States (Under the Biden Administration’s Proposed Asylum Transit Ban), In 12 Not-At-All-Easy Steps" created by a non-profit organization American Immigration Council.

Step 1: If you are from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Ukraine or Venezuela, and you have not irregularly entered Panama (through the Darién) or Mexico: go to step 2. If not, go to step 3.
Step 2: If you have people in the U.S. willing to sponsor you who make enough money, cash for airfare, a passport, and time to wait: apply for humanitarian parole, which will allow you to fly into the U.S. and work legally for 2 years. If you don’t, go to Mexico and Step 3.
Step 3: Try to find safe shelter on the Mexican side of the border (while evading Mexican immigration enforcement if you don’t have permission to be in Mexico). If you can find it, and you have the ability to freely travel to a port of entry (instead of having your smuggler decree where you’ll be crossing), go to step 4. If not, cross into the U.S. between ports of entry, request asylum, and go to step 7 for your eventual screening interview.
Step 4: If you have a phone that can install CBP One, the ability to read English, Spanish, or Haitian Kreyol (but really just English, since that’s what the error messages are in), and patience to try to search for appointments day after day when the limited slots fill up or the app glitches: download CBP One and keep trying to get an appointment until you access the normal asylum process. If you run out of patience, money, or hope, go to step 5.
Step 5: Go to the port of entry – assuming there aren’t U.S. or Mexican officials positioned in front of it preventing you from setting foot on U.S. soil. Try to get the attention of an officer and request asylum if you make it onto U.S. soil, then go to step 6.
Step 6: Wait for your credible fear interview with an asylum officer. You can argue to them that you were unable to use CBP One due to an “ongoing and serious obstacle”; the burden is on you to prove that. If you can persuade the official it is more likely than not you were thus prevented, go to the normal asylum process, starting with a credible fear interview. Otherwise, go to step 7.
Step 7: The asylum officer will ask whether you applied for—and were denied—asylum in another country before coming to the U.S. If you didn’t, you are now presumed barred: ineligible for asylum. Go to step 8.
Step 8: The asylum officer will now find out if you qualify for an exemption to the bar – in legal terms, whether you “rebut the presumption” of ineligibility. If you were subject to an “acute” medical emergency; in “imminent and extreme danger;” or being trafficked in a “severe form” and can demonstrate all of this to the asylum officer’s satisfaction, you will be allowed to access the normal asylum process, including a credible fear interview. Otherwise, go to step 9.
Step 9: At this point, the interview will proceed like a normal asylum screening interview, with questions about persecution faced in your home country and why you fear return. But the standard for passing the interview has shifted. Instead of the normal asylum process, which uses a “credible” standard met by 60 percent of interviewees over the last year (though it’s been higher in the past), you’re now subject to a “reasonable” standard that about a third of interviewees have met over that period. If you can pass the higher bar, you pass the interview and will be allowed to stay in the U.S. to appear before an immigration judge; go to step 11. If you can’t, go to step 10.
Step 10: You fail the interview. If you want to appeal to a judge, request it in writing and go to step 12; otherwise, you will be deported.
Step 11: You are allowed to apply for asylum before the immigration judge. However, it’s not clear from the draft regulation what happens next. The text of the draft regulation doesn’t say anything further has to happen, so judging by that, you will be allowed to access the normal asylum process. But the way DHS says the new system will work—in the preamble published in the Federal Register alongside the draft regulation, and on its website—is more complicated, and suggests you may still be ineligible for asylum and could only apply for “withholding of removal.” That means it’s possible the final regulation will be changed to reflect the more complicated process, and if not, the ambiguity may be used to your disadvantage. For that, go to step 12.
Step 12: The judge reviews your interview transcript with the asylum officer and does their own review of whether you have demonstrated that you meet an exception to the bar (like the asylum officer did in step 8). If they find you do, you will be allowed to access the normal asylum process. If not, they’ll then review whether you demonstrate “reasonable fear” (as in step 9). If they find you do have a “reasonable fear,” you may be allowed to access the normal asylum process, or may be restricted to withholding of removal. If they find you don’t, you will be deported.

This chart is not meant to be legal advice. Because if this seems convoluted—not to mention unclear—then know that the government is giving both itself and the public less than the usual amount of time to comment on and revise the draft regulation before it’s finalized.

Please note that this is still a proposed rule. The period for public comment is short—30 days instead of 60—and the time the government will take to read those comments could be constrained. The Biden administration has said that it anticipates it will have a new policy regime in place to succeed Title 42 when the national COVID emergency ends, which is currently set to happen on May 11, 2023. This regulation is written to serve as that policy: it says it won’t go into effect until Title 42 ends, which means the administration thinks there’s a good chance it will be finalized before then. That gives the government as little as six weeks for a process that often takes up to a year.

Read more here.

USCIS Clarifies Physical Presence Guidance for Asylees and Refugees Applying for Adjustment of Status

2/2/2023

Effective immediately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that both asylees and refugees must have been physically present in the United States for one year when USCIS adjudicates their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, rather than at the time they file their adjustment of status application. This applies to all Form I-485 and Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, applications pending on Feb. 2, 2023, and those filed on or after that date.

This update will promote consistency across asylee and refugee adjustment of status applications. If we cannot determine whether an applicant satisfies the one-year physical presence requirement by reviewing their file or our records when we adjudicate their Form I-485, we may request additional evidence.
This policy manual update also:

Clarifies that asylee and refugee adjustment of status applicants previously admitted in J-1 or J-2 nonimmigrant status and otherwise subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 212(e) do not need to meet that two-year requirement (or obtain a waiver) to adjust their status under INA 209; and
Makes minor technical updates, including clarifying processing steps for refugees seeking waivers of inadmissibility, removing references to the obsolete Form I-291, Decision on Application for Status as Permanent Resident, and adding regulatory citations related to asylum termination procedures.

Welcome Corps Program: Private Sponsorship of Refugees by American Citizens

1/19/2023

On January 19, 2023, the US Department of State announced creation of a new Refugee Resettlement program. The government decided to involve private American citizens into sponsorship, resettlement and taking care of the needs of the refugees. A new program is called The Welcome Corps.

The Department of State, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, is pleased to announce the creation of the Welcome Corps, a new private sponsorship program that empowers everyday Americans to play a leading role in welcoming refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and supporting their resettlement and integration as they build new lives in the United States. Over the past year, the American people have extended an extraordinarily welcoming hand to our Afghan allies, Ukrainians displaced by war, and Venezuelans and others fleeing violence and oppression. The Welcome Corps will build on Americans’ generosity of spirit by creating a durable program for Americans in communities across the country to privately sponsor refugees from around the world. The Welcome Corps is the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades.

Since the formal inception of the USRAP in 1980, the Department of State has partnered primarily with non-profit resettlement agencies to provide initial resettlement assistance to newly arriving refugees. The Welcome Corps creates new opportunities for everyday Americans to engage directly in refugee resettlement through private sponsorship, independent of and complementary to existing avenues for volunteering with resettlement agencies. By tapping into the goodwill of American communities, the Welcome Corps will expand our country’s capacity to provide a warm welcome to higher numbers of refugees. The launch of the Welcome Corps fulfills the U.S. Government’s commitment to develop a private sponsorship program for resettling refugees in the United States, as directed by President Biden through Executive Order 14301 on “Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees” in February 2021. The establishment of the Welcome Corps is also an aspect of the U.S. Government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen, modernize, and expand the USRAP. The Welcome Corps incorporates lessons learned from other emergency initiatives launched over the past year, including the Sponsor Circle Program for Afghans and sponsorship-based parole programs overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, including Uniting for Ukraine.

Year One of the Welcome Corps

The Department of State will roll out the Welcome Corps in two phases to identify, evaluate, and scale-up the most successful elements of private sponsorship as an innovative, community-led model of resettlement, with the goal of cementing the Welcome Corps as an enduring feature of our refugee resettlement system.

In the first phase of the program, private sponsors participating in the Welcome Corps will be matched with refugees whose cases are already approved for resettlement under the USRAP. The Department of State will begin facilitating matches between private sponsors and refugees arriving within the first six months of 2023.

In the second phase of the program, which will launch in mid-2023, private sponsors will be able to identify refugees to refer to the USRAP for resettlement and support the refugees they have identified. Further details on the second phase of the program will be forthcoming. The Welcome Corps will ultimately be a key part of the U.S. refugee resettlement system, providing a life-saving lifeline to vulnerable people in need of resettlement. In the first year of Welcome Corps, the Department of State will seek to mobilize 10,000 Americans to step forward as private sponsors and offer a welcoming hand to at least 5,000 refugees. If more than 10,000 individual Americans join the Welcome Corps in 2023, we will seek to pair additional private sponsors with refugees in need of a warm welcome.

Participating Organizations

The Department of State is funding a consortium of non-profit organizations with expertise in welcoming, resettling, and integrating refugees into U.S. communities to support the Welcome Corps. This consortium is being led by the Community Sponsorship Hub, and includes Church World Service, IRIS – Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, the International Refugee Assistance Project, the International Rescue Committee, and Welcome.US. This consortium will offer expert guidance and support to Americans joining the Welcome Corps.

The consortium will manage the Welcome Corps’ program infrastructure including:

Overseeing vetting and certification of private sponsors through an application process;
Providing training, additional resources, and connections to equip private sponsors with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to welcome refugees; and
Monitoring the program to ensure privately sponsored refugees are getting the support they need for success and collecting data to evaluate the program.

Community organizations and institutions may also apply to participate in the Welcome Corps as Private Sponsor Organizations (PSOs) to mobilize, support, and oversee private sponsors. As the Welcome Corps launches, a range of organizations are stepping forward as PSOs including Alight, Every Campus A Refuge, HIAS, Home for Refugees USA, IRIS – Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, the International Rescue Committee, Rainbow Railroad, and WelcomeNST. With strong support from private philanthropists, the consortium will make funds available to qualifying PSOs to support their efforts. To complement the work of both PSOs and the consortium, the Department of Health and Human Services will continue to support U.S. states as they build infrastructure and outreach capacity to welcome and support new arrivals’ integration into their new communities.

How to Join the Welcome Corps

Groups of at least five individual American citizens or permanent resident adults will be able to apply to the Welcome Corps to privately sponsor the resettlement of refugees in the United States. Private sponsors will be responsible for independently raising funds and directly providing essential assistance to refugees for their first 90 days in their new community. This assistance includes helping refugees find housing and employment, enrolling children in school, and connecting refugees to essential services in the community. For more information on the Welcome Corps or to become a private sponsor, visit the Welcome Corps website.

https://www.state.gov/launch-of-the-welcome-corps-private-sponsorship-of-refugees-2/

Here is the official DOS site for prospective sponsors to register for this program:

https://welcomecorps.org/

I-589 Asylum Receipt Delays Update

7/28/2022

07-28-2022 Update: USCIS is currently experiencing delays in issuing receipts for Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. Due to these delays, you may not receive a receipt notice in a timely manner after you properly file your Form I-589. For purposes of the asylum one-year filing deadline, affirmative asylum interview scheduling priorities, and Employment Authorization Document eligibility based on a pending asylum application, your filing date will still be the date that we received your properly filed Form I-589 (not the date we processed it). If you did not properly file your application, we will reject it and note any deficiencies in your filing. If you do not receive your receipt notice in a timely manner, please do not submit multiple Forms I-589, as this may further delay your case.
Properly filing your Form I-589 allows us to process your form with fewer delays. Please review the reminders below to ensure you are properly filing your Form I-589:

You must submit your application for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States (one-year filing deadline), unless you can establish that there are changed circumstances that materially affect your eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances directly related to your failure to file within one year.
You must type or print all of your answers in black ink.
You must provide the specific information requested about you and your family and answer all the questions on the form. If any question does not apply to you or you do not know the information requested, answer “none,” “not applicable,” or “unknown.”
If you file your application with missing information, we may return it to you as incomplete.
You are strongly urged to attach additional written statements and documents that support your claim. Your written statements should include events, dates, and details of your experiences that relate to your claim for asylum.
Put your Alien Registration Number (A-Number), if you have one, your name (exactly as it appears in Part A.I. of the form), the date, and your signature on each supplemental sheet and on the cover page of any supporting documents.
Follow the instructions in the Where to File section and the Special Instructions section on the Form I-589 webpage to determine where to file your Form I-589.
If you are applying for asylum as an Afghan Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) parolee, please review the Afghan Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) Parolee Asylum-Related Frequently Asked Questions page.

Please note: Do not submit any Forms I-589 to the Vermont Service Center (VSC). The VSC is not currently processing Form I-589 and submitting your Form I-589 to the VSC will result in additional delays.
We continue to experience receipt issuance delays in other workloads across some service centers.

Form I-589.

Ukraine Update: Refugees, Asylum, US Embassy in Kiev

2/25/2022

UKRAINE Update: 02/25/2022

Новости из Белого Дома. Пресс секретарь объявил, что США готовы принять беженцев (refugees) с Украины.

Вначале им нужно покинуть страну и стать беженцами - например, уехать с Украины в Европу, и затем подавать на статус беженца.

Если украинцы находятся на территории США, то они могут подавать на политическое убежище (political asylum), статус asylee.

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, it's estimated that up to 5 million Ukrainians may flee their country. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the United States is ready to accept some of those refugees.

Since the invasion began early Thursday, Ukrainians fleeing the fighting have entered Poland, Romania, and Moldova, and there are centers set up at the borders to provide assistance.

In December 2021, Ukraine's defense minister estimated that between 3 and 5 million Ukrainians might be forced to leave their homes if Russia invaded. In comparison, about 1 million refugees entered Europe between 2015 and 2016 from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and nearly 1.5 million people were displaced in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea.

Read here.

https://news.yahoo.com/white-house-u-prepared-accept-030505583.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

UKRAINE UPDATE: 02/24/2022

UKRAINE UPDATE:

The US embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine evacuated and all consular services were suspended.

If you have a immigrant visa case assigned to Ukraine, consult your attorney to decide what to do, and if your case can be transferred to another US embassy in another country.

In Russian: с 12 февраля 2022 все консульские сервисы и выдача виз (даже без интервью, как вейвер) были приостановлены в посольстве США в Киеве в Украине. Более того, посольство было эвакуировано. По последним данным многие сотрудники выехали в Польшу после Львова.
Если у вас есть дело на иммиграционную визу (грин карту) по воссоединению семьи в посольстве в Киеве, обсудите с вашим адвокатом ваши шаги по переводу дела в доугое посольство США в другой стране, возможно ли это, что для этого нужно сделать.
В настоящее время невозможно предсказать когда ситуация вернется в норму.
Желаем вам мира!

Official announcement is here.

On February 12, 2022, the Department of State ordered the departure of most U.S. direct hire employees from Embassy Kyiv due to the continued threat of Russian military action. The Department previously authorized the voluntary departure of U.S. direct hire employees and ordered the departure of eligible family members on January 23, 2022.
On Sunday, February 13, 2022, the Department of State suspended consular services to include interview waiver services at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Applicants for U.S. nonimmigrant visas may apply in any country in which they are physically present and where there are appointments available. As each U.S. Embassy has specific application procedures, you should contact the U.S. Embassy or Consulate where you wish to apply directly. Contact information for U.S. Embassies and Consulates is available at www.travel.state.gov.
If you have an immigrant visa case currently pending with U.S. Embassy Kyiv and would like to transfer processing of an immigration case to another U.S. Embassy, you must contact the receiving U.S Embassy in that country to authorize and initiate transfer. The Embassy will have a list of requirements which must be satisfied in order to begin the transfer process.

https://ua.usembassy.gov/visas/

USCIS Updated Green Card Interview Requirements for Refugees and Asylees

12/15/2020

On December 15, 2020, USCIS announced updated guidance expanding the discretionary criteria USCIS officers use to determine whether to interview applicants filing Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, based on refugee or asylee status. Whether an interview is necessary to determine the admissibility of an alien applying for lawful permanent resident status under INA § 209. The updates do not change the eligibility requirements to adjust status. 
The list of interview criteria can be found in the Policy Manual, Volume 7, Part L, Chapter 5, Part B. Each determination by USCIS to waive or require an interview will continue to be made at the discretion of the USCIS officer on a case-by-case basis. The updated criteria may result in more applicants requested to appear for an interview.

B. Interview Criteria

The decision to interview a refugee applicant for adjustment of status is made on a case-by-case basis.[1] Interviews are generally required when an officer is unable to verify identity or determine admissibility based solely on the immigration records available to the officer. Although the decision to conduct an interview is made on a case-by-case basis, an officer should generally refer a case for interview if it meets one or more of the following criteria:

The officer cannot verify the identity of the applicant through the information in the A-File.
The officer can verify the identity of the applicant through the information in the A-File, but the applicant is claiming a new identity.
Immigration records are insufficient for the officer to determine whether or not the applicant has refugee status.
The applicant has an approved Form I-730, but, if granted overseas, was not interviewed as part of the derivative refugee process or, if granted in the United States, was not interviewed prior to the approval.
The applicant’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) fingerprint results indicate that further processing is needed.
The officer cannot determine the applicant’s admissibility without an interview.
The officer determines that the applicant is inadmissible but that an interview is necessary to determine if a waiver is appropriate.
The applicant has an articulable national security or terrorism-related ground of inadmissibility concern.
Other eligibility fraud, identified on a case-by case basis, where Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS), Center Fraud Detection Operations (CFDO), or Background Check Units (BCU) recommends interview.
Immigration records are insufficient for the officer to determine whether or not the applicant is inadmissible based on past or current placement in removal proceedings at any time.[2]
The applicant has conflicting or multiple identities, other than properly documented by legal name changes.
A sworn statement is required to address the applicant’s admissibility.
An interview would yield clarifying information, such as with an unclear response to a request for evidence concerning the applicant’s admissibility.
The applicant is a citizen of, or last habitually resided in, a country that is now, or was at the time of last residence, a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
The officer has any other articulable concern regarding identity, inadmissibility, national security, public safety, or fraud, and recommends an interview to help resolve that concern.

Traveling Abroad as Asylum Applicant, Asylee, or Lawful Permanent Resident

2/19/2019

Traveling Outside the United States as an Asylum Applicant, an Asylee, or a Lawful Permanent Resident Who Obtained Such Status Based on Asylum.

Asylum applicants, asylees, and lawful permanent residents who obtained such status based on their asylum status are subject to special rules with regard to traveling outside the United States.

--> An asylum applicant who leaves the United States without first obtaining advance parole shall be presumed to have abandoned his or her asylum application. Advance parole (see: USCIS Form I-131) allows certain aliens to return to the United States without a visa after traveling abroad.
Asylum applicants must receive advance parole before leaving the United States.
Advance parole does not guarantee that the alien will be paroled into the United States. Rather, the asylum applicant must still undergo inspection by an immigration inspector from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

--> Asylees: Asylees (individuals who have been granted asylum) may travel abroad with the prior approval of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Such prior approval comes in the form of a refugee travel document. A refugee travel document is valid for one year and is issued to an asylee to allow his or her return to the United States after temporary travel abroad.
Generally, the asylee should obtain the refugee travel document prior to departure from the United States, though the applicable regulations also permit the issuance of a refugee travel document abroad under certain circumstances. Like advance parole, a refugee travel document does not guarantee admission into the United States. Rather, the asylee must still undergo inspection by an immigration inspector from CBP.

--> Lawful Permanent Residents: Lawful permanent residents who obtained such status based on their asylum status may also travel abroad with refugee travel documents.

Read more here and here.