Alameda, CA Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

Your question requires an attorney consultation. It is not a simple question that can be answered on this type of forum. There are many factors that would need to be considered and evaluated. The first question that needs to be answered is whether or not you qualify for asylum. Why are you afraid to return to your home country? Have you been persecuted in your country in the past? Are you a member of a qualifying social group? With all that being said, the fact that you are asking what reason you should put on the form, makes me believe that you probably do not qualify for asylum. In addition there is a one year deadline from the date you entered the U.S. to file for asylum. It does not matter whether your present visa is valid or expired. However, there are exceptions to the one year deadline. I strongly suggest that you contact an experienced immigration attorney for a face-to-face consultation and give him/her all of the facts surrounding your situation. (S)he would then be in a better position to analyze your case and advise you of your options.

All persons approved for adjustment of status who have been married to their U.S. citizen spouse for less than two years at the time of approval are granted "Conditional Residence" and must file a Petition to Remove Condition during the 90-day period that ends 24 months after the date of Conditional Resident approval. Generally, a spouse of a U.S. citizen will be able to file a Petition for Naturalization at any time after the 90-day period that ends 36 months after the date of Conditional Resident approval. To be successful for naturalization, a Petitioner must satisfy numerous legal requirements, including two that sound similar but are actually different: the "residence" requirement (the Petitioner must continue to actually reside in the U.S. during the applicable time) and the "physical presence" requirement (during the relevant time - usually the 3-year period before filing the Petition for Naturalization plus the time between filing the Petition and the date of the Naturalization Oath Ceremony - the Petitioner must have been physically present within the U.S. for no less than half of that time). The Atlanta Field Office of the USCIS (covering Georgia and Alabama) generally takes about 4 months to adjudicate a Petition for Naturalization after it has been filed (and after the Petition for Removal of Condition has been approved). If the Petition is not approved at the time of the naturalization interview and examination, the case is considered "continued," and the USCIS has been taking as long as about 9 months to finally adjudicate those "continued" cases. Because of the risk of a long delay, it is very important to assure that a naturalization case is properly prepared and thoroughly documented. It would be wise to consider engaging an immigration attorney. Some immigration law firms, including mine, offer legal services on a "flat fee" basis so that a client will know the total expense from the very beginning, and a few immigration law firms, including mine, offer an initial consultation free of charge.