Asylee’s Adjustment of Status to Permanent Residence

If you are an asylee, you can adjust your status to legal permanent residence (“green card”) with the USCIS one year after having been granted asylum. You can also submit petitions to sponsor your family members – spouse, minor children, and unmarried adult sons and daughters for legal permanent residence in the US.

To apply for adjustment of status, you (the asylee) should prove that you

have been physically present in the US for one year after having been granted asylum
remain a refugee (with a “well-founded fear of persecution,” etc.)
have not resettled in any foreign country
are not “inadmissible” or warrant a waiver of applicable grounds of “inadmissibility.”

You have to file the following documents with the USCIS:

Form I-485 and appropriate fee (or fee waiver request)
Form G-325
2 passport size photographs
Fingerprint fee
Evidence of asylee status (copy of I-94 and letter granting asylum or decision by Immigration Judge)
Birth certificate
Proof that you have been living in the US for the last year (such as copy of lease, bills, pay stubs, or receipt of government benefits)
Legal proof of change of name (if you have legally changed your name since getting asylee status.

As an asylee, you need not prove that you are not “likely to become a public charge.” Even if you have been receiving means-tested benefits such as public assistance or SSI, this will not prevent you from qualifying for legal permanent residence. You can also request a waiver of the filing fee for the adjustment of status application if you can prove that paying the fee would result in financial hardship.

After filing, you will receive an interview notice along with a medical examination form that you will have to get completed as instructed. If you entered the US with fraudulent documents (such as a passport purchased on the black market), you will also have to submit an application for a waiver of inadmissibility through Form I-602.

Although your asylee application and supporting documentation are part of the package that has to be filed with the USCIS, the adjustment interview will entirely focus on eligibility for adjustment to permanent residence and not on the underlying asylum claim. Not all asylee adjustment applicants will have interviews. Decisions on some applications are adjudicated merely on paper by mail.

Naturalization

A legal permanent resident can submit an application for naturalization (Form N-400) to become a US citizen five years after becoming a permanent resident. However, once an asylee is granted adjustment to permanent residence, the date of admission is one year before the date of approval of the adjustment of status application and it means the wait to apply for Naturalization is reduced to four years. Citizenship is the highest immigration status in the US and it has many advantages when compared to being just a legal permanent resident. This final step (becoming a citizen) in the immigration process may well be ten years or more from the date you file the asylum application.