322 Immigration Attorneys Specializing in Asylum & Refugee

To qualify for asylum protection, you must establish two fundamental legal requirements: (1) you have experienced persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution, and (2) that persecution is based on one of five protected grounds. The five protected grounds are race, religion, nationality, political opinion, and membership in a particular social group. Persecution means serious harm inflicted intentionally or with deliberate indifference because of your protected characteristic. It is not enough to fear generalized violence or economic hardship; the harm you fear must be targeted at you personally or at a group you belong to. The "well-founded fear" standard does not require that you prove persecution will certainly occur. Instead, you must demonstrate that a reasonable person in your circumstances would fear persecution if returned to your home country. Courts examine both the objective conditions in your country of origin and your individual circumstances, including your personal profile, activities, or family connections that might make you a target. Many cases rest on demonstrating membership in a "particular social group," a category interpreted broadly by courts to include, for example, women fleeing gender-based violence, LGBTQ individuals in countries where such identity is dangerous, or persons who have resisted criminal organizations.