INS COMMENTS ON EXEMPTION TO NEW ASYLUM FILING DEADLINES

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is being urged by a number of organizations to interpret liberally provisions which allow persons who have missed the new one year asylum filing deadline to be exempt from the rule. Under the new asylum laws, applicants are required to file asylum applications within a year of entering the US unless the applicant can either show a substantial change in the circumstances in his or her country or be able to explain why it was beyond the applicant’s control that an application was not filed.

Representatives of immigrant rights organizations as well as members of Congress have been urging the INS to not take a hardline approach in reviewing deadline exemption requests. They have also been requesting the INS to require asylum applicants to explain orally, rather than in writing, why the deadline was missed. The INS rejected this request and has included a question on the soon to be published I-589 asylum application which directs applicants who have missed the deadline to “explain why you did not file within the first year.”

INS Asylum Office Director Jeffrey Weiss and Kelly Ryan of the INS’ General Counsel’s office explained the INS’ approach in a meeting with a group of non-governmental organization representatives. According to the two, if an applciant does not write any explanation at all on the form, the INS Service Center will reject the application and treat it as if it was not filed. It will mail the application back to the applicant with an explanation of why the application was not accepted. If the applicant resubmits the application within a “reasonable” period of time, then the INS will backdate the filing date to the date the application was originally submitted.

If an applicants puts anything in the box regarding why the application was not filed on time, even a statement that the applicant will explain at a later time, then the application will be accepted (assuming all of the other filing requirements are met) and an interview will be scheduled.

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