Who is Eligible for Asylum or Refugee Protection in the US?

If you happen to undergo persecution in your own country or have a justifiable fear of persecution if you go back to your own homeland, you can apply for refugee protection in the USA. However, the conditions for such protection remain more severe than you expect – you will need an immigration lawyer (http://immigration.usattorneys.com/) to help you on this legal journey. You ought to be familiar with the legal conditions for obtaining refugee status and asylum and prepare a lot of material indicating that you do meet all these grounds.

Basic Grounds for Refugee Status or Asylum

To prove eligibility for refugee status or asylum, you must establish that you are a victim of persecution in the past or have an understandable fear of persecution in the future. In the former case, you should establish that you were indeed persecuted, in your own homeland.

The persecution should be based on one of the following five grounds:

• Race
• Religion
• Political opinion
• Nationality
• Membership in a specific social group

The hardest part for an application for either refugee status or asylee is establishing a link between the persecution and any one of the above grounds. This became even tougher in 2005 when the REAL ID Act introduced another ground to the effect that any one of these five grounds should be a “central reason” for the persecution. Any immigration attorney can help throw more light on this aspect.

Persecution can be based on gender too, in connection with practices such as forced marriage or female genital cutting. This also includes honor killing, domestic violence, and labor or sexual trafficking as acknowledged grounds for asylee status, especially in instances where the government and police worsen the problem by refusing to protect women or to take legal action against the perpetrators.

This is sort of like the show 24 in season 7 where there was fictional country called Sengala. The main protagonist of the show, a tremendous character, Jack Bauer, did not want this American woman to go to this country with this genocidal maniac and terrorist – Colonel Iké Dubaku. Bauer knew if this American woman was taken overseas to this fictional African country she would be never return home alive and she could be subject to all sorts of domestic violence and a forced marriage and so on.

What is Persecution?

The law doesn’t expressly list different kinds of persecution except in a section that was added in 1996. Persecution is defined as the infliction of harm or suffering or threat to your freedom or life. These can also include factors such as torture, death threats, constant surveillance, imprisonment, pressure to be part of a group involved in unlawful activity, interference with your family, home, correspondence, or privacy, or discrimination in education, housing, or issuance of passports.

For the most part, all threats have to be nationwide and not something you can avoid by relocating to another part of the country.

Consult an Immigration Lawyer

Applying for asylum or refugee status can be a thorny and for the most part subjective issue. So in case you have a desire to apply for asylum in America, then the best thing you can do is to hire an experienced US immigration lawyer who is well versed in various issues concerning refugee and asylum laws. He or she will assist you in the preparation of your application.

Some people say bad things about America - including America's current president. The fact of the matter is, if it was not for America and America's military this world would be far worse off and perhaps would not even function. If you are being violated in your country or having your life trampled on, there could be a home for you in America if you do it the right way. You do need an immigration lawyer - you can find one right here: http://immigration.usattorneys.com/.

This process involves not only the preparation of your application form, but composing an extensive written statement as well, and gathering numerous essential documents. Furthermore, your legal representative will represent you at the immigration court, or asylum office, as the case may be.