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Political Asylum in USA
Political Asylum in USA
 
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1) Comments: Advice from someone who has successfully processed a case for a mentally retarted member.

Procedure For Filing For Affirmative Asylum in the United States For A Foreign National With a Physical and/or Mental Disability


1) A foreign national with a physical and/or mental disability can file for Asylum in the United States within one year of physical presence in the United States. It is possible to file for asylum after one year of arrival in the United States only if exigent circumstances prevented the person for filing within the time period of initial one year in the United States.

2) A disabled person can file for asylum under “Membership in a special group” category for asylum. For instance, the U.S. immigration grants asylum to foreign nationals who face credible fear of persecution based on their sexual preferences, unwillingness to practice population control methods, physical and/or mental disability.

3) The family of disabled applicant MUST make themselves very familiar with the description of Asylum on www.uscis.gov website and keep track of any changes in the regulations.

4) The applicant only needs to file I-589 form within one year of arrival in the United States to meet the deadline of one year. The remaining processes such as interview, fingerprinting, can be done after the one year deadline.

5) The family of disabled applicant MUST hire an immigration attorney who has successfully handled asylum cases. They should hire an attorney who has been successful in getting asylum based on applicant’s disability.

6) After filing I-589 form, the applicant receives a Notice of Receipt and Notice for Fingerprinting.

7) The applicant receives Notice for Interview at a local USCIS office within 3-4 months of filing I-589 form.

The attorney needs to arrange for a Translator if the applicant’s family member cannot converse in fluent English.

9) The attorney should file the following at the time of interview as supporting documents:

(a) Attorney’s Statement regarding the case wherein he presents the applicant’s personal situation and research of similar cases where asylum was granted based on disability.
(b) Applicant’s medical records which should clearly state the date of diagnosis, tests conducted to diagnose the condition, impairment of major life activities due to disabling condition, current skills of the applicant. Various hospitals in the United States offer this “evaluation of mental disability” and “determination of IQ”. A medical statement from physicians in US hospitals is more credible compared to any report written by physician in the applicant’s home country.

(c) Affidavit from applicant’s family members which needs to include a very detailed description of applicant’s disability, effect on his daily activities, any incidents of mistreatments by family as well as society, reasons why the family is requesting asylum for the applicant, future of applicant in home country if cannot immigrate to the United States, any plans to provide medical treatment as well as rehabilitation to the applicant in the United States. Affidavit should be submitted by a one or more family members who have been the caregivers of the disabled applicant most of his/her life.

(d) Research articles collected by the attorney regarding the condition and mistreatment of people with applicant’s health condition in their home country. Information about “Country Conditions” can be found on www.uscis.gov and www.state.gov websites.

A 2006 report of Human Rights Practices in India can be found on www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78871.htm. This report mentions “Mental health care was a problem. Hospitals were overcrowded and served primarily as dumping grounds for persons with disabilities. Patients generally were ill-fed, denied adequate medical attention, and kept in poorly ventilated halls with inadequate sanitary conditions.”

10) The disabled applicant’s family needs to take an active role in the whole process and not rely on the attorney fully. Don’t be surprised if the attorney keeps procrastinating and does not research the applicant’s condition. The attorney needs to help the family member to prepare an affidavit that is truthful and pertinent to the case.

11) The applicant’s family MUST do research on the internet with various search terms such as “mental retardation and India”, “Down’s syndrome and India”, “treatment of Down’s syndrome in India”, “mental asylums in India”. The research will show articles on the internet, newspapers, magazines and journals. The family should provide as many of these articles to the attorney as possible. The attorney can decide the merit of each article if it will help the case. For instance, there are several articles on an incident in South India where the mentally retarded people were chained to the beds in a lunatic asylum. All of them died in a fire because they could not escape due to being tied with the chains.

12) The family member/s providing the affidavit need to prepared with the answers to such questions during the interview:

Why are you requesting asylum for the applicant?
Have you or the applicant ever been mistreated because of the disability?
What does the applicant do on a daily basis?
Do you intend to institutionalize the applicant in the United States?

13) The applicant will receive a “Notice to Approve/Deny Asylum” after few months of interview. If the asylum is denied, the decision can be appealed in an immigration court.

14) The KEYS to successfully obtaining asylum in the United States based on disability are accurate medical records, competent attorney and most importantly, genuineness of the case.
Name: Member
Location: United States
Posted on: Jun 3, 2007  Email this link to friend(s)
2) Comments: Hello Everyone,

I want to thank God and all of you for your support, tips and informations. I wish you all the best. Again, Thank you so much.

I got an email and another LUD change today with a message saying:

" This case has been approved. On August 1, 2006, an approval notice was mailed. If 30 days have passed and you have not received this notice, you may wish to verify or update your address. To update your address, please speak to an Immigration Information Officer during business hours ".

I-485 Notification Date(ND) from NSC: March-2005
Transferred from NSC to TSC: January-18-2006
Case received at TSC: January-24-2006
Request For Intital Evidence (RFI): January-27-06
RFI received by TSC: February-24-06
Last update (LUD) change: February-25-06
BIO(Code 3) requested: March-17-06
BIO(Code 3) done: April-07-06
Last update (LUD): 04/24/06; 05/24/06, 07/28/06, 7/29/06:welcome notice, 07/31/06
08/01/06: Approval
Another LUD: 08/02/06
Green card in hand: 08/04/06.

For more information on this topic click here
Name: maket
Location: United States
Posted on: Aug 31, 2006  Email this link to friend(s)
3) Comments: I finally got green card from NSC

Hi everyone,

Last Friday I received an Email saying that My I-485 has been approved and they have ordered the new card for me. It is a big surprise since my LUD did not change at all since they received my RFI in January. It is also a big relief after 10 years of waiting patiently.

I particularly want to thank for all of you in this Forum who have shared their valuable experience and have supported me in the past. I have not posted much since I did not have much experience on many things, but I will definitely stay with this forum in the future.

One more thing I want to share: In May I asked the Senator to send a letter to check my status in NSC, but they replied they could not help me because they were still processing the case with ND of 2001. I was very disappointed and thought the letter did not help. But now I think the letter probably helps to expedite my case because they might have started to touch my case when I did the inquiry of my status. My husband got his green card in July and mine is in August. I hope this can help you.

Good luck to all of you!

For more information on this topic click here
Name: betty33
Location: United States
Posted on: Aug 23, 2006  Email this link to friend(s)
 
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