Understanding the Aspects of Political Asylum

It is common for an individual to have various beautiful memories associated with his/her home country. However, destiny can take a U-turn and the same country can become a living hell making an individual seek asylum from another country. The United States is one such country that welcomes people seeking asylum. There are thousands of asylees that enter United States every year escaping torment in their home counties.

In the section below, one of the best immigration law firm in the New York City talks more about the various aspects of political asylum -

Understanding the concept of political asylum

In most cases political asylum is available to those immigrants who are already residing in the United States. An individual can apply for asylum if he/she has a well-founded fear of persecution or actual persecution in their home country. The various reasons on which this persecution may take place are on the grounds of nationality, religion, race, political opinion and membership of a given social group. This gives rise to an important question. What is the measure of determining the well-founded fear of being persecuted? It is whether a sensible person will fear persecution under the same circumstances.

Being Eligible for political asylum

There are various prerequisites required by an individual in order to qualify under the category of political asylum. An individual seeking asylum needs to establish that he/she would be persecuted upon arrival in the home country. The general background of an individual could be considered in order to apply for an asylum status. The officer at the immigration agency such as USCIS needs to be convinced of the possibility of persecution, which is present under the well-founded fear standard.

An alternative method of claiming for a political asylum includes past persecution. There are various things that can be considered as evidences of past persecution. These may include personal accounts, records of arrests and affidavits of witnesses. Once past persecution has been established, it is likely to assume future persecution. The greater is the severity of past persecution, the easier it is to establish the well-founded fear of persecution.