Asylum

INTRODUCTION

Political asylum may be granted to people who are in the United States and are unable to return to their home country because of persecution or fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or because of political opinion.

Political Asylum

A grant of asylum by an immigration asylum officer or immigration judge, allows a person to work and live in the United States indefinitely.

• Once a person is granted asylum, he or she may apply for permanent residency a year later.
• Asylum can be broken down into Offensive and Defensive Asylum.
• Offensive is filed initially with the Asylum Office in your geographical location within the United States.

Defensive Asylum is when you are sent to an immigration court and you plead your case before an immigration judge.   As an experienced Asylum Immigration Lawyer, Robert West can assist you with the political asylum process and obtain work authorization for you if you are eligible.  Offensive Asylum is when you apply to the local Asylum Office within one year of entry into the United States.  If the Asylum Office denies the case, then your case switches to a defensive asylum because you have to been sent to Immigration Court to fight your case.

Political Asylum has become more difficult since the passage of the Real ID Act. The more documentation you have the better the case you can present. If you or a loved one is seeking asylum, please contact our office to set up a consultation with Las Vegas Immigration Attorney Robert West.

Convention Against Torture

Convention Against Torture relief also known as CAT is an asylum type form of relief.  To be successful in an Immigration Court, an applicant must prove that he or she would be more likely than not be tortured if he or she returned to the home country. Past events of persecution can be used to meet this burden.  Also, CAT relief is somewhat common when a person waited to apply for asylum for more than one year from the time of entry into the United States.

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