Asylum can be granted under about five different ways. It’s usually based on race, gender, creed, religion and politics. That’s usually what are the reasons that folks can seek asylum. Everyone is entitled to asylum from another country, but this is what you have to be able to show. You have to be able to show that you are being persecuted in your home country. Asylum is very hard to prove. You don’t just get to say I’m being persecuted and then you’re let in. You’re let in temporarily but you’re granted an opportunity to either seek assistance from an organization, or seek an attorney to assist you and rep resent you in an asylum hearing, but you have to be able to prove that you are truly being persecuted, whether it’s through a video, pictures, clothing, newspaper articles that can show that something happened.

Maybe political upheaval is going on in your country. A good example would be that there is civil unrest going on in Haiti right now. But there is civil unrest going on in Paris right now. So it could be any country, and that assists you in your argument, saying that listen, I’m seeking protection from what’s going on in this country because I was involved in politics in that country, and so now I can’t return because maybe another political government has taken over. And so it goes against everything that I believe in and now they’re seeking to kill myself and my family, and I need some protection. So that’s what asylum is about.

There are many different visas, and so we have family based petitions and then you have maybe employment based petitions. There are many different ways to come to the United States. The most prevalent one would be family based. There are different forms of those, but the main one is the I-485, and that is where there is a relative in the United States, hopefully a direct relative. For example a spouse, a parent, or a child who is a U.S. citizen, and they can petition for you to come and join them in the United States.

So the most prevalent one would be you marrying a U.S. citizen and they petitioning for you to come to the U.S. You may do that by way of filing the I-485 or you may do that by way of filing a K-1 Visa. They would have to come here and within 90 days the parties have to make the decision to get married within those 90 days. And if they fail to get married, then that other party would have to return back to their country. Sometimes the fiancé visa may be denied, and so then the parties would have to go through what’s called counselor processing, which means they would have to process their petition through the consulate, a U.S. Consulate in that country.

And then the other way is that the U.S. citizen here in the United States, you know, marries a non-citizen, and then they file an I-485 petition. In the U.S. they have different visas that they give out. They have numbers. It’s a numbers game, but these are unlimited. If you are getting married to a U.S. citizen, you are a child of a U.S. citizen, or a parent of a U.S. citizen and the child is older than 21, then that child can petition for you. And those visas or those petitions move a lot swifter.

Then you have the family based petitions where it’s a brother or a sister that’s petitioning for you. So if they’re petitioning for you the U.S. is looking to see are you married and have children? If you are married and have children, it may take you a little bit longer than someone who is unmarried and doesn’t have children. Right. Because obviously what we don’t want is there to be a whole bunch of folks coming to the U.S. and then they become a burden. So obviously if someone is young and single, they’re more aptly to come to the U.S., get to work and be able to provide to the economy. You know, pay bills, pay taxes and you don’t have to worry about their money being sent back to the other country, and then kind of splitting where that money goes. Right.

So there are different categories depending on who can come and how quickly they can come, but I can tell you on average for those types of visas and petitions, you’re looking at 15 to 20 years before someone can get approved, get an interview and come to the U.S. And people do it. People actually petition and wait those 10, 15, 20 years to get to the United States. But the most prevalent ones are going to be the ones where you’re married to a U.S. citizen, you’re a parent to a U.S. citizen, or you’re the parent and you have a minor that you’re bringing here to the U.S.

A K-1 Visa is the fiancé visa that I was referring to. That is where the person traveled to your country, and you met and you guys fell in love, or you travel to the U.S. Maybe you traveled on a tourist visa and you met someone while you were here. And now you guys have decided that you want to be married. Well here is the issue. A tourist visa means that I’m coming to the United States for a limited period of time. I’m coming on vacation, or I’m coming to see family, or I’m coming to visit and I am going to return back to my country because I have very strong ties to my country. I have a home. I have employment. I have family. And so I’m only here for a limited time. And that visa runs for about six months.

So after six months you usually have to head back to your country. It doesn’t mean you can’t come back, but you definitely have to leave. What you don’t want to do is you don’t want to overstay a visa, especially if it whatever visa it is. They give you a certain period of time that you could be in the country, and then you have to leave, and so you have to abide by that. Now circumstances may happen. Maybe you get sick. Maybe you get injured. Maybe you can’t leave per doctor’s orders. At that juncture you then have to file what’s called an extension to your visa.

You want to notify United States Immigration that you understand that you are required to leave, however something has happened and you’re going to need an extension for a period of time. And a lot of times they will honor that as long as you have filed it before that six month period. But if you don’t do that and you overstay your visa, then you are looking at a potential bar from either being able to return to the United States for a certain period of time. Usually it’s two to three year bar. If you stay over a year you’re looking at possibly a lifetime bar, and nobody wants that. You want to be able to come and go and be able to visit the U.S., be able to visit family. So you definitely want to stay within the guidelines that the Immigration Office or what we call USCIS tells you to stay within those guidelines.

One of the ways that it can happen or the most common ways is either you have a U.S. citizen spouse, or you have a child who is over 21 who is a U.S. citizen. Or you are the parent of a minor child who is seeking citizenship. And so what you would have to do is you would have to file what is called I-485. There used to be a time where you could petition Immigration yourself for that, but things have gotten a little bit more difficult because the immigration policies have gotten a little bit more tighter and they are scrutinized a lot more than they’ve ever been.

And so you want to ensure that you have an attorney that is going to assist you in preparing that petition, because that petition entails several other petitions and that people don’t realize that. And so when you’re submitting a package, your Petition to Immigration, you’re actually submitting a package to Immigration, and so they’re going to ask you for a lot of evidence.

One thing that you have to start with is that you have to start with the fact that I am related to this person. You have to prove to immigration that you’re related, and that you’re related either by marriage or by blood. And so you would have to fill another form that says I am related to this person and this is how I’m related to this person. You got to start there. And then you will then, in addition to that add your 485, your Petition for Adjustment.

But here is the other thing. That person is going to now sponsor you financially, which means they are responsible for you financially. So let’s say you and the love of your life that you met while you were visiting here have gotten married and you’re now ready to adjust status. And then you move in together and you start living together, and seven months down the road things aren’t going so well. So now that spouse says I’m going to file for a divorce. And so the parties enter into divorce. Well guess what? Just because you’re divorced, according to Immigration you’re still responsible for that person financially until they become a U.S. citizen.

Once again, is to ensure that that person doesn’t become a burden on the state, either through welfare or whatever other means. We want to ensure that that person is going to be financially able to continue to live in the United States until such time that they are able to work, because initially when you’re adjusting status you may not have a work permit. That means you’re not legally eligible to work in the United States. So until that work permit is approved, you should absolutely not be working in the United States, because that can count against you.

And then even when you begin working, Immigration still does not feel that they’re comfortable enough to say okay, well then you’re no longer responsible for that person because you’re no longer married to that person. So what they will do is they will say that until that person becomes a U.S. citizen, you are financially responsible for them and they can come after you for that.