Attorneys at Law
521 Fifth Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10175
Tel: (212) 488-6899 · ImmigrationLex.com
U.S. immigration law is federal:
Our attorneys can represent you from New York,
no matter where you are located,
in any state, in any country.
Attorneys Practicing U.S. Immigration Law Since 1991
Asylum is protection the United States gives to people who are already here and who fear returning home. If asylum is granted, you may stay in the United States, work, and after one year apply for a green card. Asylum is not a visa and you cannot apply for it from abroad — you must be physically present in the United States, and you may apply whatever your current immigration status is.
You must meet the legal definition of a refugee: you have suffered persecution, or fear future persecution, because of your race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. It is not enough to face hardship, poverty, or generalized violence. The harm must be tied to one of those five grounds, and your government must be behind it or unable or unwilling to protect you.
File Form I-589 within one year of your last arrival in the United States. Missing that deadline usually ends the case before the merits are ever considered. Narrow exceptions exist for changed circumstances that affect your eligibility and for extraordinary circumstances that explain the delay, but you must still file within a reasonable time. If you are near or past the one-year mark, treat it as urgent.
Most people who are not in removal proceedings file affirmatively with USCIS and are interviewed by an asylum officer. People who passed a credible fear screening after expedited removal may have their case decided by USCIS in an Asylum Merits Interview. People already in removal proceedings apply defensively before an immigration judge, where a government attorney opposes the application. The evidence is much the same in all three; the setting, and the consequences of losing, are not.
Asylees may live and work in the United States immediately, with no separate work permit required. You may apply for a refugee travel document before any trip abroad — and you should never return to the country you fled without legal advice, because doing so can undermine or end your status. One year after the grant you may apply for permanent residence, and citizenship becomes possible later.
Cases often take a long time. You may file Form I-765 for a work permit 150 days after your asylum application is filed, and USCIS can approve it once the application has been pending 180 days. Delays you cause — rescheduling an interview, missing an appointment, filing evidence late — pause that clock, so keeping the case moving protects your ability to work.
A spouse and unmarried children under 21 who are in the United States can be included on your application at any point before a final decision. If they are abroad, you may petition for them with Form I-730 within two years of your grant; there is no filing fee.
Asylum applications used to be free. They are not. There is now a filing fee for Form I-589 and an annual fee for each calendar year your case remains pending, and the annual fee cannot be waived. If that annual fee is not paid on time, USCIS will reject your pending application, deny any related work permit application, and end your work authorization — and it keeps the filing fee. Check the current amounts on the USCIS fee schedule before filing, and calendar the annual payment.
Some problems block you from applying at all: the one-year deadline, a prior asylum denial by an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals, or removability to a safe third country. Others block a grant even if your fear is genuine: persecuting others, a particularly serious crime, a serious nonpolitical crime committed abroad, security or terrorism-related grounds, or having firmly resettled in another country before coming here. Certain people who crossed the southwest border between May 2023 and May 2025 also face a presumption against eligibility that is still being litigated. If any of this may apply to you, get advice before filing — and ask about withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture, which have different standards and may remain available.
Last reviewed: July 2026