Humanitarian Asylum Requirements

Asylum is a humanitarian protection that the U.S. offers to allow individuals who reasonably fear persecution in their home countries to live in the U.S. permanently.

To meet humanitarian asylum requirements, you must meet the standard asylum elements; humanitarian factors may strengthen your application or influence discretion.

At the Law Office of Rosina C. Stambaugh, we help clients pursue and understand asylum claims. Our firm focuses on immigration matters, including deportation defense, asylum, family-based petitions, bond for detained immigrants, and appeals.

We guide clients through every stage of the asylum process, from preparing evidence to defensive applications and appearing in court.

What Is Asylum?

Asylum is a legal status and humanitarian protection that allows a person to stay lawfully in the U.S. when returning to their home country would put them at risk of persecution.

Once you receive asylum protection, you gain the right to stay in the U.S. After a year, you get the right to apply for a green card so you can remain in the U.S. permanently.

Core Humanitarian Asylum Requirements

When a United States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) officer or judge from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) evaluates your asylum claim, they specifically consider whether you meet the legal elements of asylum.

Understanding humanitarian asylum requirements means understanding the key elements of an asylum claim.

Persecution or Well-Founded Fear of Persecution

To qualify for asylum, you must show that you suffered persecution in the past or that you fear persecution in the future. Persecution means extreme harm, like:

• Physical violence or torture;
• Severe psychological harm;
• Credible threats or death, physical violence, or sexual violence;
• Sexual violence or gender-based harm;
• Kidnapping, forced recruitment, or prolonged detention; and
• Destruction of property.

Your fear of persecution must be well-founded. You must believe that this harm is likely to happen again if you return, and that belief must be objectively reasonable. That persecution occurred in the past often indicates that it will happen again. However, you can receive asylum based on fears of future persecution.

Protected Ground

Asylum requires proving that your persecutors were motivated by at least one protected ground, meaning a characteristic that you have. To qualify for asylum, your persecutors must have been motivated by your:

• Race,
• Religion,
• Nationality,
• Membership in a particular social group, or
• Political opinion.

The persecutors may have been motivated by your actual characteristics or by characteristics they wrongly believe you have.

Government Involvement or Inability to Protect

You must show that your government either participated in harming you, could not protect you, or was unwilling to protect you. For example, you may qualify for asylum when your story involves:

• Police officers who refuse to intervene,
• Corrupt officials who protect the persecutors,
• Militia groups that operate freely without punishment, or
• Government actors who commit violence directly.

The U.S. asylum system does not require you to go to the police if doing so would be dangerous or pointless.

Internal Relocation Is Not Safe or Reasonable

Decision-makers examine whether you could avoid danger by moving to another part of your home country. Factors officers consider include:

• Whether the persecutor could find you in other regions;
• Your age, health, or medical needs;
• Whether the danger is nationwide;
• Language or cultural barriers; and
• Lack of access to medical care, housing, or support.

Humanitarian factors such as trauma, disability, or the presence of nationwide violence strengthen arguments against relocation.

One-Year Filing Deadline

You normally must apply for asylum within one year of entering the U.S. Exceptions exist for changed circumstances, such as a new threat or worsening country conditions, and extraordinary circumstances, such as trauma, medical emergencies, or legal disability that led you not to apply within one year of arrival.

Discretionary Review

Even if you meet all legal elements, the officer’s discretion plays a role in the asylum process, with humanitarian considerations often playing a major role.

What Is the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process?

U.S. law provides two ways for seeking asylum, which affects the humanitarian asylum review process. If you apply for asylum from the USCIS and you are not in removal proceedings, you apply for affirmative asylum.

If you apply for asylum after the government places you in removal (deportation) proceedings, you apply for defensive asylum in immigration court. A USCIS officer decides affirmative asylum claims, and an immigration judge decides defensive claims. Although the processes differ, the legal standard is the same. 

If a USCIS officer concludes that you do not meet the humanitarian asylum requirements, they typically “refer” your case to immigration court. Here, an immigration judge will take over to complete a defensive asylum claim.

What Is Asylum on Humanitarian Grounds?

Asylum is always humanitarian. However, asylum on humanitarian grounds considers other factors if you are unable to qualify for asylum under the more traditional route.

Humanitarian asylum focuses more on past harm. Specifically, the individual has experienced exceptionally severe past harm, that returning to their country would cause undue hardship or extreme conditions.

The term “humanitarian asylum” can describe asylum cases centered on humanitarian hardship, such as:

• Extreme past violence,
• Gender-based harm,
• Harm to children,
• Serious medical needs,
• Trauma affecting memory or testimony, or
• Danger from militias or gangs.

Humanitarian concerns are always present in asylum cases. Still, these extreme humanitarian circumstances can make the case more compelling or used when the individual does not necessarily qualify under a protected ground. 

Skilled Asylum Representation

Humanitarian concerns play a role in all asylum cases, but some focus more on those considerations than others. You deserve an experienced attorney who understands both the legal requirements and the emotional weight of your story.

At the Law Office of Rosina C. Stambaugh, we handle asylum cases with careful preparation, trauma-informed advocacy, and a deep knowledge of U.S. immigration law. 

Contact our office today to learn how we can help you in pursuing protection in the U.S.