To apply for asylum in the U.S., you must be physically present in the U.S. or be seeking entry into the U.S. at a port of entry.<\/p>\n
There are two paths to\u00a0claim\u00a0asylum in the U.S. The\u00a0affirmative asylum process<\/strong> is for individuals who are not in removal proceedings and the\u00a0defensive asylum\u00a0process<\/strong> is for individuals who are in removal proceedings. Removal proceedings<\/strong> are when the United States government orders that you be removed (deported) from the United States (click here for more information<\/a>).<\/p>\n Individuals are in removal proceedings<\/strong> after being apprehended (taken into custody) in the United States or at a U.S. port of entry without proper legal documents or in violation of their immigration status. This also applies to those who were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trying to enter the United States without proper documentation, were placed in the expedited removal process, and were found to have a credible fear of persecution or torture by an Asylum Officer.<\/p>\n In both the affirmative<\/strong> and defensive <\/strong>process, individuals have a right to a lawyer. However, unlike the criminal court system in the U.S., the U.S. government does not provide lawyers for individuals in immigration court, even if they are unable to hire a lawyer on their own.<\/p>\n There are other forms of protection in the United States besides defensive asylum. Withholding of Removal<\/strong> and the<\/strong> Convention Against Torture<\/strong> (CAT) are other defences against removal. The same form (form I-589<\/a>) is used to apply for Withholding of Removal, CAT, and defensive asylum.<\/p>\n Even if you do not qualify for asylum, you may still be eligible for withholding of removal. If you are granted withholding of removal, you will not qualify for a green card but you will be allowed to remain and work lawfully in the United States. To win Withholding of Removal, you must demonstrate that it is more likely than not that you will suffer future persecution if returned to your home country because of your race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The standard of proof for withholding of removal is higher than for asylum: you need to show that there is more than a 50 percent chance you will be persecuted.<\/p>\n If you fear torture in your home country, you may qualify for another form of relief under the CAT<\/strong>. You must prove that you are more likely than not to be tortured either directly by the government or with the \u201cacquiescence\u201d of the government if returned to your country of origin. \u201cAcquiescence\u201d generally means the government is aware of the torture but does not try to stop it.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To apply for asylum in the U.S., you must be physically present in the U.S. or be seeking entry into the U.S. at a port of entry. Forms of asylum There are two paths to\u00a0claim\u00a0asylum in the U.S. The\u00a0affirmative asylum process is for individuals who are not in removal proceedings and the\u00a0defensive asylum\u00a0process is for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/582"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.unhcr.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Other forms of protection: Withholding of Removal and CAT<\/h2>\n
Withholding of removal<\/h3>\n
Relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT)<\/h3>\n