Online Signature Legality for Email Cover Letter in United States

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if you want to apply for asylum in the United States but you've got questions about how to fill out the Asylum application form then you're in the right place I'm going to show you exactly how to fill out form i-589 which is the government's Asylum application form in this full-length training video we're going to go step by step addressing everything on the form because it's critical that you get this right the application is the first step on your road to Asylum and it's extremely important that you fill it out correctly and that you use it to frame your case in an impactful way I'm Brian Manning I used to be an asylum officer with the government but now as an asylum lawyer I help immigrants all over the country to secure their future in America through Asylum and in this immigration tutorial I'm sharing with you all my best tips for filling out the Asylum application form now these insights that I'm sharing with you are informed by over a decade of my work with the government's two main agencies for Refugee and assign matters and of course by my time as an asylum lawyer now helping people from all over the world to win their Asylum case and by the way if you want to maximize your chances for Asylum success then be sure to hit the Subscribe button and the bell notification so that you don't miss the insights that I share on this channel alright let's go now to the training [Music] welcome to the USA Asylum application form training where we're going to discuss form i-589 in detail by the end of this training you should have a better understanding of what exactly the Asylum application form is asking of you and how to provide the information the form calls for I believe that you'll feel much more confident in filling out this form after having watched this training we're about to dive in and discuss the form but first let me say just a few words about some things to keep in mind during this training and as you actually fill out the Asylum application form yourself we're going to go through the whole form this may feel a bit tedious and you may be tempted to skip over parts of this training perhaps thinking that what we're discussing maybe doesn't apply to you or that you just don't need to know whatever it is we're covering like some of it may sound pretty basic such that you're tempted to skip over it I urge you not to do that as a former government immigration officer and now as an asylum lawyer I can tell you that lots of people end up having problems with their immigration applications simply because they didn't pay enough attention to a question on a form so they didn't give the information requested or maybe they just didn't understand something that didn't seem important but really is don't let that happen to you be disciplined do whatever it takes to maintain your focus as we review this Asylum application form and as you fill your application form out and prepare your application packet as I think you'll agree by the end of this training even some of the questions that seem innocent enough can actually be tricky and there might be a lot more to it than you think at first glance so be patient and focus with me as we go through this okay great okay before we dive in let me tell you who this training is intended for it's for anyone who wants to apply for asylum in the United States and that means it's both for people who are in deportation proceedings and are thus going to be applying with an Immigration Court and for people who are going to submit what's called an affirmative Asylum application which goes to an immigration agency called USCIS and that acronym by the way USCIS stands for U.S citizenship and Immigration Services which is the entity that runs the Asylum offices which is where you'll have an asylum interview to have your claim considered if you are not subject to deportation proceedings in Immigration Court now you're going to use the same Asylum application form whether you're applying with USCIS or in Immigration Court how you actually go about applying will differ depending on which of those tracks you're on for example most people who are going to apply with USCIS can actually apply online through the agency's web portal but with Immigration Court at least at the time I'm making this training there's no web-based application instead people who don't have a lawyer just have to take or mail a physical version of the application form to the Immigration Court while a lawyer is able to upload a PDF version of the application to a certain website for their client I think everyone will eventually be able to apply online with both the Immigration Court and USCIS all right we're not going to go much further in this training on the logistics of applying for Asylum but are instead going to turn in just a minute to the application form itself I want you to know what it's asking of you and how to frame your case so that you can get things started on the right foot having a well-crafted Asylum application form is the first step in building the strongest Asylum case possible so that you can win your case so that you can stay safe and build your future in America all right at the outset let me stress that you need to be honest and forthcoming in filling out this form and indeed in all your representations too and dealings with immigration agencies for starters honesty is the best policy just because being honest is the right ethical thing to do but it's also the best strategic approach for trying to get the immigration benefit you're seeking you see there's a lot that the government will forgive and yes it's true that there are some things in a person's history that will prove a deal breaker things that will make you ineligible for the benefit you are seeking pretty much no matter what but then there are other things that you may think will hurt your case but which won't actually lead to a denial as long as you're honest about them so while there's a lot that the U.S government will tolerate it normally will not tolerate lying to try to get an immigration benefit like Asylum so it's better to just be open and honest about everything than it is to lie or withhold information that's being asked for if the government finds out or believes you're not being truthful it will likely lead to your Asylum claim being denied and it can keep you from ever getting any immigration benefit in the United States in the future committing immigration fraud can lead to a monetary fine or even jail time so you should be 100 honest and forthcoming and not represent to the US government anything that could be misleading and now with all that out of the way it's time to get started on the Asylum application form which again is called form i-589 to find it you can either type into your browser the URL that you're seeing on the screen right now or you can just Google the phrase USCIS Asylum application form if you search for that you should see results like this with the official USCIS Link at the top of the page you'll know it's an official U.S government website if it's got the dot gov in the website URL click on that and you'll get the page for the URL I showed you a second ago which looks like this now we're going to scroll down a bit until we get to the form details section and then click on the part where it says forms and document downloads you'll then see a couple hyperlinks one for the application form and another for the instructions to get the form click on the top link which says form i589 that should open up a fillable pdf version of the Asylum application form by the way unless you're applying online I strongly recommend accessing the application through the USCIS website like we just did if you get it off some other website or if someone perhaps just sends it to you you might not be getting the most recent version of the form you see the government pretty frequently makes tweaks to immigration forms and they'll reject your application if you don't submit the current version if you get the form from the USCIS website you'll know you're getting the current version also if you're applying online with USCIS through the agency's web portal then you'll be using the current version of the form that process doesn't involve a PDF at all rather you fill out what is basically an online questionnaire and it builds your Asylum application form for you the final version that you get at the end of the process does look quite different from the PDF for form that we're working with today but the questions are the same well I should say that they're almost the same I've noticed some slight variations in the wording of some questions from the official pdf version and the questions are also in a slightly different order so if you're doing your application online through the my USCIS application some of the questions are going to be a tiny bit different than what you're seeing today in this training and the questions might not be in the same order keep that in mind okay all right here we go time to start on the form near the very top it says start here type or print in Black Ink see the instructions for information about eligibility and how to complete and file this application there is no filing fee for this application first I urge you to type your answers don't print with an ink pen okay you may think your penmanship is beautiful but it might not be legible to others also it just kind of looks unprofessional like you didn't care enough or take the process seriously enough to do this on a computer if you do handwrite it cannot be pencil and it cannot be an ink pen that has a color other than black it must be black USCIS has rejected immigration forms filled out in red ink and even blue ink and note the bit about how there's no fee for this form thankfully applying for Asylum is free so if anyone like some unethical paralegal ever tries to get you to pay an asylum filing fee claiming there's a government fee involved you know they're trying to scam you okay just below that line it says note check this box if you also want to apply for withholding of removal under the convention Against torture and there's a little box you can check what is that well in Immigration Court if the judge is convinced that you'll be persecuted on account of one of the five protected grounds under U.S Asylum law but you don't actually qualify for Asylum for certain reasons then they can allow you to stay they can give you a form of protection called withholding of removal which allows you to stay and work legally in the United States it's not as good as Asylum but it's better than being deported you might qualify for withholding of removal but not Asylum if you filed your Asylum application after you've been in the United States for more than a year or if you were resettled in a third country before you go to the United States by checking this box you're saying yes I want the judge to consider giving me this protection in the event that I don't qualify for Asylum unfortunately an asylum officer can't give this kind of protection to you the only thing that they can consider is Asylum but if your case gets sent from the Asylum Office to Immigration Court because the Asylum officer decides you don't qualify for Asylum then you'll want the judge to consider withholding of removal as an option for you so there's really no reason not to check this box whether you're in Immigration Court or your case is going to be with USCIS ingly I do recommend that you check this box alright that gets us to part A one information about you okay in box one you're asked to provide your alien registration number if in fact you have one this is sometimes referred to as an a number or an immigration number or a USCIS number so what is this alien registration number it's a 9 or sometimes eight digits following after a capitalized letter A which the immigration authorities assigned to people with certain pending immigration cases if you've ever applied for an immigration benefit other than a U.S visa then you have an alien registration number if you've ever been detained by the immigration authorities or been placed in Immigration Court proceedings then you have one of these but if none of those apply to you then you probably don't have an alien registration number if you do have one then it is included in any document you have received from the government on any immigration matter it except for Visa applications here's one example this is a document you get after you apply for Asylum with USCIS telling you that they've accepted and are processing your application in the upper right hand side here right next to where it says applicant you see the letter A followed by nine digits that's this fictitious person's alien registration number that's not a real Asylum applicant's name or as far as I know a real immigration number by the way so back to our Asylum application form if you've got an alien registration number put it here the made up alien registration number in the sample receipt notice I just showed you was a213849238 so I'm going to disregard that a at the beginning and then type in this box the nine digits which are two one three eight four nine two three and eight so what if you don't have an alien registration number what do you do with this space you should write the English language letter n and then put a forward slash and then the letter A like this that stands for not applicable as in this doesn't apply to me because I don't have an alien registration number and actually this goes for every box on this form and indeed on any immigration forms that you fill out where the question or instruction doesn't apply to you I recommend not leaving any boxes blank and instead putting n slash a if it doesn't apply to you or unknown if it applies but you just don't know and can't Supply the information sought this is because USCIS has in the past rejected some applications where there were answer spaces left blank at the time I'm creating this training USCIS has stopped this practice they've said they won't reject forms just because there's a field left blank but you never know they could easily go back to the policy of rejecting applications that don't contain a response for every question or request okay next at number two you're asked for your U.S social security number most Asylum applicants don't have one of these 150 days after applying for Asylum you're eligible to apply for both a work permit and a social security card which will contain a social security number but unless you've been in the United States on a business related Visa you probably don't have this of course if you do have one of these then put it in this box if not write n slash a alright on to number three which requests your USCIS online account number this is an identifier you get if you've created an account through the USCIS portal called my USCIS most Asylum Seekers have not created such an account but if you have like if you sought some other immigration benefit then of course put your USCIS account number here don't have this you know what to do Type n slash a and that takes us to your name at four through seven four asks for your complete last name now I'm about to tell you something really important and it applies not just in filling out this form but for every form you fill out for any U.S immigration agency and for any time you represent your name to a US government agency you need to represent your name exactly as it appears on your passport even if that's different from what's on your birth certificate and even if that's different from what's on your national ID card your driver's license and even if it's different from what you actually go by in your everyday life even if your name is misspelled on your passport that's the name you should use for U.S immigration purposes spelling it exactly the way it's spelled on your passport so do refer to your passport and filling out this form see the section on this sample passport page that says surname we're going to take the names that appear there which are Rodriguez Cepeda in this example and then type that in box 4 right here now let me back off of what I said a second ago about reproducing the name exactly as it appears in your passport you'll see that in this sample passport the names are written in all capital letters you don't need to use all capital letters in filling out your immigration forms in fact I recommend against it just capitalize the first letter in each part of your name like this if you've got multiple surnames separate them with one space between them in the next box at 5 which says first name put your first name as it appears in your passport in our example the person's first name is Jorge so we'll put that in box five box six is for your middle name if you have one in our example this would be Miguel even if you regularly go by two names for example Juan Pablo such that everyone calls you both of those names in referring to you and you consider them both to essentially be your first name you still just want to put Juan In The Box for first name and Pablo in the Box for middle name let's look at our example passport you only put the very first word that appears in the passport's name section in the application forms box for first name put any additional names from the passport's names section in the application forms box for middle name even if there are more than one if you have Dell before your middle name you would include that in box 6 for your middle name so for example if your names were Jorge Del Valle then you'd put Del Valle in box 6 for your middle name if you don't have a second name write n a in box 6. next at question 7 we're asked what other names have you used and specific examples of kinds of names they're inquiring about are aliases and maiden names it's tempting to skip over this without much thought thinking I've never used a name or anything like that so this doesn't apply to me don't do that many people have in fact used a name that's different from what appears on their passport so they do need to include that information here for example if you've been in the United States a while and you've gotten any kind of identification document whether for your job or school or maybe a driver's license then there's a good chance that at least one of those items doesn't contain both of your last names if you've got two last names or that there's something else that's different from what's on your passport your name may be rendered differently from your passport on things like your home or apartment lease documents your electricity or telephone bills or really any other document that lists your name and if that's happened if any document has ever shown a name different than what's shown on your passport then you should include include that variation or error in this box at number seven let's take the name Jorge Miguel Rodriguez Cepeda if he got a driver's license or if some other document shows his name as just Jorge Rodriguez then he would need to include that here as an alias that's because Jorge Rodriguez is a different name than Jorge Miguel Rodriguez Cepeda another very common scenario where someone would need to include an alias or other name is where a woman has changed her last name upon getting married she would need to provide as an alias whichever of the two versions that's not how her name appears in her passport this example is explicitly listed in the question at issue so what about aliases the questions asks about those what's an alias it's defined as a false or assumed identity this could include things like a pen name which is when an author writes under a false name or really any name you've gone by that isn't your real name but it's not just totally made-up names you need to include here you should also include variations on your real name if you ever list them on things or if people call you by them an example of this is the short form of a name so someone named Magdalena might commonly go by Lena if she's commonly referred to as Lena or if she introduces herself as Lena then she should include Lena in this section as an alias okay last thing before moving on it's best to play it safe and provide too much information rather than airing on the side of leaving things out if you're unsure whether something counts as another name used then you should include it other than taking a bit more effort to fill out this form there's really no downside to being over inclusive but if you don't provide certain information that the government ends up thinking is relevant and they realize that this has happened you could look bad and you have no way of knowing what information about you the government has I'm not saying the US government is all-knowing but you may be surprised by what they find out about people so yes the government might know about those other names that people have used to refer to you and if you don't include it here that's not good for you and this advice holds not just with regard to other names used but rather for all questions in all forms and in all your dealings with the immigration authorities honesty is the best policy and if you're not sure whether certain information is responsive to the question being asked or the information being solicited but you think it might be then it's probably best to include it okay moving right along we're at number eight which is residents in the U.S and in parenthesis it says where you actually reside they're asking here where you live they want your physical address this may be different from your mailing address which is where you want to receive mail for number eight regarding your physical address you need to give the address of where you're actually living at the time you're submitting your Asylum application okay next first box asks for Street number and name to make sure you render your address correctly in a format that is familiar to Americans I recommend putting into Google whatever you believe your address to be when you do that and you hit enter Google will pull up Google Maps and it will show you the address in the format that they think is best to use people are sometimes unsure what words to abbreviate or perhaps unsure about how to spell the words and might not know what the ZIP code is just use what you see in Google maps that will almost certainly be in a format that USCIS the immigration courts and the U.S Postal Service which will actually deliver the mail should you mail your application will recognize and in this street number and name box you'll put the number for your house apartment complex or whatever the case may be followed by the name of the street on which it's found next to the right we're asked for apartment number this bit applies to you if you in fact live in an apartment a suite or perhaps an entire floor in a building by far the most common of these is an apartment if your address contains an apartment number just type that number into the box here if your address does not contain an apartment a suite or a floor like if it's a house then just write n slash a in the Box to signify that this isn't applicable to you okay next up in filling out your physical address we're asked to list the city in which you live this one's easy you know this so that takes us to the state it's okay to write out the whole name of your state here or you can use the two-letter abbreviation for the state if you're filling out your Asylum application online through the USCIS portal you'll have to select the state abbreviation from a drop down so you do need to know how your state is abbreviated to ensure you select the right one go back to Google Maps the address rendered there will show you the proper abbreviation to give just a few examples Florida is FL while Texas is TX California is CA while New York is NY and Illinois is il okay next up zip code you must type in the five digit postal code that follows the state abbreviation in your address you can find this on Google Maps also if you've received mail at your physical address then you should be able to locate on the envelope the zip code for your address as that's part of the address that the sender of the letter had to include to get the mail to you and now Moving On We're asked for our telephone number you need to provide a Us phone number at which you can in fact be reached note that it's unlikely that USCIS will ever call you but you do still need to provide a working phone number just in case they do call in providing your number here you do not need to include the country code rather just include the 10 digits that someone will need to dial from within the United States to call you in the little part within the parenthesis you put the first three digits this is known as your area code and it's the first part of your phone number then to the right of that put the next seven digits okay with that we're done with number eight regarding your residence and are ready for number nine number nine says mailing address in the U.S if different than the address in item number eight how this works is that you definitely do have to list an address at number eight but if that address is indeed where you get your mail then you don't have to reproduce it again at number nine rather if your mailing address and your physical address where you actually live are the same then you can just write n slash a in each box for number nine but if those two addresses for you are different if you want USCIS to send mail to an address other than the one at which you live then you do need to provide your mailing address here for number nine all the same guidance I provided in terms of how to render your physical address applies here except you're putting your mailing address where you want correspondence from the government to be sent it's really important that you provide the government with an address where you know you'll actually end up getting something that's mailed for you it should be a place where someone checks the mail routinely at least every couple days and can inform you as soon as something addressed to you arrives you see if the government has questions about your application and wants you to provide more information or if they reject your application they'll let you know about this by mail they might not call you and they almost certainly won't send you an email they'll send physical mail also the government will use this information to mail you the notice that says you need to go to a Biometrics appointment which happens after you apply for Asylum and if you don't receive a letter from the government because you never actually got the letter they sent then you could miss a deadline or appointment they set and they can deny your application indeed if you miss an appointment with USCIS they can put you in deportation proceedings and if you miss an appointment with the Immigration Court they can enter an order of deportation against you so if things are hectic at your house and there's a chance some male might get lost or missed then you can consider having it sent elsewhere like to a friend or relative that's why the first box under number nine says in care of if applicable you're supposed to put here the name of whomever you want the government to address mail for you too and it's okay if it's someone other than you so put here the name of the person to whom you want your mail from the government to be addressed put their first name and their last name or assuming they've got two last names both last names if you want mail from USCIS to be addressed to you then put your name here alright on to number 10 which asks for your gender select male or female by putting an X in the corresponding box I think it's perfectly fine for a transgendered or transitioning person to Mark the sex with which they now identify rather than their sex at Birth number 11 asks for marital status you will select from single married divorced or widowed by placing an X in the corresponding box please note that if you are separated from your spouse but not yet legally divorced you should choose the married option if you were married but then got legally divorced you should select divorced despite that single might seem like an appropriate option if you got divorced or were widowed and then got remarried you should select married and do not check the boxes for divorced or widowed I'll say more in a while about how the U.S government defines marriage in the immigration context okay for number 12 enter your date of birth now this might sound odd but some people aren't sure of their birth date or might have an incorrect date listed on some of their personal documentation if you're not positive of the correct date then use the birth date that appears on your passport if you know your date of birth and it's something other than what appears on your passport then use your real date of birth even though this will conflict with your passport yes I know that earlier I emphasized that you should render your name exactly as it appears on your passport and now I'm telling you that you should use your real date of birth even if it conflicts with your passport this might seem like an arbitrary distinction but it is in fact my preferred approach informed by years of experience as both an asylum officer and an asylum lawyer if you do indicate a different date of birth than what's on your passport be ready to explain to the government why these two dates aren't in Harmony in providing your date of birth and indeed all dates in your application form remember to use the month day year construction that's the norm in the United States so if my date of birth were the 3rd of December 1988 I would put in this box 12 for December then type a slash then 0 3 for the day of the month on which I was born then another slash and then 1988 okay moving on the next question number 13 asks for your city and Country of birth you'll put here the name of the city you were born in then put a comma make one space and then type the name of the country in which you were born so if our sample applicant Jorge was born in the city of Caracas which is in the country of Venezuela he'd type Caracas Venezuela same guidance here as with the date of birth issue do put here the true City and Country in which you were born even if that conflicts with what's shown in your passport birth certificate or other documentation one more note on this question the government's instructions for the Asylum application form say that you should use the current name of the country do not use historical ethnic provincial or other local names okay at 14 we're asked about present nationality the word present is mean to signify that they're not asking here about any nationalities you may have previously held they just want to know about current nationalities and yes I did say nationalities in the plural despite that the prompt in the application form says nationality in singular form I advise that you list here every nationality you currently hold if you have more than one note that the instruction refers to nationality but then says citizenship in parenthesis as if they're treating these two words as synonyms under U.S immigration law there is a difference between citizenship and nationality but it's really complicated and not worth going into here suffice it to say that you should list any country here whose passport you hold or for which you know you're a citizen even if you don't have that country's passport and even if you've never been there or don't have any meaningful ties there what matters for purposes of this question is not how you feel about that country it's whether that country considers you under its laws to be one of its citizens or Nationals so there are people who don't have a country's passport and don't have any history in their own life with that country but who need to list it here because they are in fact a citizen or national of it this may happen where citizenship is passed down from parents or even grandparents for example keep in mind that being born in a country doesn't necessarily make you a citizen of that country also note that this question is not asking about permanent residence or any other immigration status in a country so you only list a country here if you're actually a citizen or national of the country one last note on this question about citizenship or nationality some people simply don't have any citizenship or nationality they are what's called stateless meaning no country claims that person as their own if that's you you're probably already aware that you're in this position if that's you you should write the word stateless in this box our example applicant Jorge is a citizen of Venezuela right but let's say he's also a citizen of Spain so in this box for 14 he would put Venezuelan comma Spanish it's totally fine to State it as a noun rather than treating it as an adjective so Venezuela and Spain would be fine okay next up at number 15 it says nationality at Birth it doesn't say citizenship in parenthesis but we should treat this like we did the last question you should list here any country of which you were a citizen or national at the moment of your birth it doesn't matter whether you currently hold a given nationality or citizenship this question is only asking about the time of your birth note that if you had a citizenship or nationality at some point other than when you were born and do not have it now then you wouldn't need to list in this application form because the form is only asking about those two moments in time your birth and now meaning the time at which you're submitting your Asylum application all right with that we're ready for 16 which asks for your race and any ethnic or tribal groups to which you belong if you identify with a particular race or ethnicity put that here those two terms race and ethnicity aren't defined in the form's instructions and they aren't really well defined elsewhere or understood in general these are terms that Americans throw around a lot but which are kind of foreign to many other cultures so you might not know what to make of this don't worry there's really no wrong answer here the government treats this as one of those things where whatever you consider yourself to be is what you are in this box it's common to put things like white or black or Caucasian or Asian people from the Spanish-speaking world will often put Hispanic here if you belong to a tribe do state the name of it here you can either put just the tribe or you can list both your race ethnicity and your tribe it's up to you next we've got religion at 17. this is another of those where there's no objectively correct answer if you consider yourself to be religious then State your religion here if you don't consider yourself to be religious then you can either type the word none or put n slash a what about people who were born or raised in a religious family but either change religions or do not consider themselves to currently be a religious person well for the latter category people who are no longer religious I would suggest putting none or n slash a but if you changed religions then I would put your current religion no need to list any prior religion if you're not religious but a religion forms a strong part of your identity I think it's fine to either list that religion here even though you don't really consider yourself to be a believer or to put none or n slash a it's up to you for example someone from a Muslim family may not consider themselves to be religious or who is somewhat religious but not actively practicing the religion may want to go ahead and put Islam here if the religion is a key component of their cultural identity if your Asylum claim turns on religion if you fear being harmed because of your religion then you definitely do want to take care to correctly identify your religion here okay we're at number 18 which asks us to check one of three boxes a b or c this is getting at whether you've ever been an Immigration Court proceedings what does that mean well if you've ever gotten a letter from the government that says you need to go to Immigration Court for a hearing because the Department of Homeland Security is trying to deport you then you either are in or at least have in the past been in Immigration Court proceedings Immigration Court proceedings is basically a synonym for deportation proceedings these start when a document called a notice to appear is filed with an Immigration Court by the Department of Homeland Security which is known by its acronym DHS option A says I have never been an Immigration Court proceedings if you're sure you've never received a notice to appear then Mark this option option b is for people who are currently in Immigration Court proceedings if you have a case pending before the Immigration Court you need to check this box even if you haven't yet had a hearing or if no hearings are presently scheduled finally option C says I am not now in Immigration Court proceedings but I have been in the past this is for people who had a prior matter before the Immigration Court but ended and there's no case for them pending at present in Immigration Court a case can end in Immigration Court where a judge orders someone deported or grants them a benefit like something called cancellation of removal a case can also End by way of dismissal where it just gets terminated so Mark the option that applies to you and then you're ready to move on to number 19. this is about your departure from your own country and your entries into the United States so subpart a asks when you last left your country they want to know the date in month day year format on which you last left the country of which you're a citizen they're not asking here about when you left any other country you might have been in right before coming to the United States they want to know when you last departed your own country for this and the other parts we're looking at in this question you may need to consult old travel records to try to pin these dates down with certainty you really don't want to guess or estimate on these dates if you can help it this may necessitate looking up entry or exit stamps in your passport or maybe emails or text messages you got regarding flight details for any planes you took the date on which you last left your country and the date on which you most recently entered the United States are very important other prior entries to the United States aren't quite as critical in terms of ensuring you've got the exact date correctly stated now let's talk about sub Part B which says what is your current I-94 number if any let me explain what this is asking for if you entered the United States with a Visa or came to the border and were paroled into the country then you probably have an I-94 sometimes this is just issued electronically but sometimes people are given a little white card called an I-94 arrival and departure record if you came to the border to seek Asylum and were detained you probably don't have one of these cards or the corresponding I-94 record but again if you were paroled in you could have one if you arrived in the United States at an airport you should be able to obtain an electronic version of form I-94 this will show you your I-94 arrival departure record number as well as your entry date you can use the URL that's on the screen now to go to the government's website where you can get your I-94 if something changes and this URL doesn't work then you can just Google cbpi 94 and that should get you to the right place click on the tab near the top where it says get most recent I-94 section you'll then have to agree to the terms of use for the website once you do that you'll be taken to a page that looks like this on this page you'll need your passport information as you'll enter it along with your biographical information to get the electronic version of your I-94 it will look something like this I've drawn a red circle around some of the key information for your immigration application this includes your I-94 admission number that's the one that says admission I-94 record number it's the string that starts with a 2 and ends with a 2 as well this is the number you're going to put at question 19 subpart B in your Asylum application on the I-94 below the admission number is the date of your most recent entry in this example form I-94 you can see that the date of Entry is August 13 2019. next it shows your class of admission this is the immigration status they gave you upon entry it normally tracks with your Visa classification but not always in this sample I-94 the class of admission says B2 that's the classification for a visitor for pleasure which includes things like tourism or visiting friends or family as well as getting medical treatment or doing business related activities below that is the admit until date that's the date by which you need to leave the country in the sample I-94 it's February 12 2020. for certain classes of admission there won't be a date here but rather the letter d and then a slash and the letter s this means duration of status which basically means that you can stay as long as you're maintaining your immigration status if you came on a student visa this likely applies to you you'll want to print this form and include it with your Asylum application by the way some people get a little white card when they come into the United States that says in the lower right hand corner CBP form I-94 and it says arrival record in the upper left corner this is the physical version of the I-94 which the US government is moving away from issuing in favor of just doing an electronic version online but still some people have this it looks like this if you do have this it will provide information we need for your application form and you should make a copy of it and submit that copy with your Asylum application materials so that's an overview of the I-94 let's go back to the Asylum application form take the I-94 admission number that you just found and put it at question 19 subpart B and with that we're ready for subpart C which says You Must List each entry into the US beginning with your most recent entry it then says to list each date place and your status for each entry so in the first blank next to the little letter C you've got to put the date of your most recent arrival in the United States where do you find this information well recall that it's in the I-94 that we just discussed so look for it there if you're able to access your I-94 online or if you have a physical I-94 card if you're unable to do that and you used a passport to enter the country as opposed to entering by crossing the border illegally there should be a stamp in your passport from the people at immigration in the airport or at the border checkpoint that stamp which will likely be next to the passport page containing your US Visa we'll have the date of your entry on it if you don't have or can't access your I-94 and you don't have a passport or don't have an entry stamp in your passport what do you do well if you know the exact date that you entered into the United States that is the date you will put down here if you are not sure about the exact date that you entered the United States please enter your best estimate as your answer moving over to the right you're asked to list the place of your most recent entry into the United States this is referring to the border crossing or airport where you came into the United States for most people what will go in this box is the name of the airport you flew into If you flew into one airport but then had a connecting flight to a different airport the one you want to list here is the first airport you came to in the United States that's where you went through immigration and were admitted into the country how do you find this information well if you don't know the name of the airport you flew into just Google for it if you know it was Atlanta Google Atlanta International Airport and you should see the name of the airport as well as the city and state in which it's located but if there are multiple airports in a city and you can't remember which you flew into let's say in the New York or Washington DC areas then you'd need to do some checking in your records look for old emails or other correspondence like perhaps messages from the airline you flew on to see if you can determine the airport where you arrived in the United States once you know that Google to get the city and state where it's located and enter that info so let's say you flew into Miami you could Google Miami airport and you'd see that the first result is Miami International Airport that's the official name of the main airport in Miami where international flights arrive if you click on Miami International Airport you'll see over to the right the address you'll see that it's located in Miami and the state is FL which is short for Florida so in this space you can write Miami Florida note that you can't just assume that an airport is located in a given City just because that City's name is used in the name of the airport for example Washington Dulles International Airport is in the Washington DC area but it's not actually in DC if you Google Washington Dulles International Airport you'll see that it's actually in a city called Dulles in the state of Virginia so do check to see where the airport you arrived at is actually located even if you think you know if you came from Mexico to a border checkpoint then enter the name of the city in the United States where that checkpoint is located for example if it was the one at Hidalgo Texas then you'd write Hidalgo Texas here if you entered illegally and weren't caught by immigration officials then put the name of the first U.S city you saw after you crossed if you just don't know or don't remember then put unknown in this box okay we're still at number 19 subpart C and now we're ready to provide the status this refers to immigration status they're asking about the immigration you had when you entered the United States they want to know the immigration classification you were admitted under if you came to the United States with a Visa then you can find your immigration status granted upon entry on the form I-94 on the electronic version you're looking for the line that says class of admission there should be a letter and a number printed out to the right rather than writing out tourist status or business business Visa or whatever I recommend writing the letter and number that comes after class of admission on your I-94 that will take out the guesswork for you and it will tell the immigration officer reviewing your application the precise status you are admitted in for people who came to the United States on a tourist visa this will almost certainly be B2 if that's you just write B-2 in this box note that this isn't asking what your current status is if you came on a tourist visa were admitted for six months which is very often the period of stay that's granted and you're filling out your Asylum application a year after having been admitted then you probably don't have lawful status but you don't have to speak to that here because this is asking what your status was when you last entered the United States so you'd put B-2 if you came through Mexico to the U.S border and asked for Asylum you may have been paroled into the country that basically means that you didn't have valid documents to enter but they let you in anyway so that you could pursue your Asylum claim and gave you an I-94 on which they wrote the word paroled if that's you put humanitarian parole in this box if you cross the border and didn't present yourself to a border official and you weren't caught then you weren't admitted into the United States in a lawful status in that case write no status in this space the same is true if you did have contact at or shortly after entry with the authorities but they released you without giving you an I-94 in that case you should write no status right here alright a little further to the right the form says date status expires this is asking when the status that you entered on for your most recent entry expired or is set to expire this one can be a bit tricky because determining someone's immigration status can actually be really complicated under U.S immigration law if you know that you've still got valid status like if you came on a tourist visa were admitted under the B2 classification for six months you haven't done anything to violate your status like work illegally and you're applying for Asylum after having been here just three months then go ahead and list that expiration date here in this space remember to use the month day year format if you came to the border and were paroled your I-94 should say on it the date on which your parole status ends put that date here if you never had lawful status to begin with or if you had it but your period of admission expired and you didn't extend it or apply for and get any other immigration benefit then you should put no status here alright if you've entered the United States on any other occasions you need to tell the government about them that's what the two lines below are for you'll see that they ask for the date place and status of any such entries be sure to go in reverse chronological order so the top line should be more most recent entry and then the line below it should be your second most recent entry like the entry closest in time to your most recent entry ingly for each entry just do the same thing we already discussed for your most recent entry in terms of providing details for the date and place of your entry and the status in which you were admitted note that your most recent entry is the only one for which you need to provide the expiration date of your status you don't have to list this for other entries now there are just two lines here on page one where you can list additional entries right so there's space for a total of three entries to the United States what if you've entered more times than that what should you do well this is where the continuation page comes in if we go down to page 12 we'll see the words supplement B form i-589 in the upper right hand corner this is where you're going to put information about the prior entries beyond your three most recent entries you're also going to put here any other information that doesn't fit in the boxes up above for all questions except those related to some of your children I'll say more about that when we get to your children so on this page page 12 you'll see that at the top you've got to put your a number the date on which you're finalizing your application form and your name also you've got to sign it I recommend that you fill out this information both at the top of page 12 and at the top of page 11. even if you don't actually provide any other information on these pages one word on the applicant's name box because this is a little different format than what we saw on page one where we were asked to put different parts of our name in different boxes at Pages 11 and 12 you're asked to put your whole name in a single box so put your first name and any middle names followed by your last name or names you do not need to put your last name or names then a comma then your first name okay so how would you use this page if you needed to provide information about a fourth entry to the United States since there was only space for three entries up on page one to start we've got to tell them which questions we're providing the additional information for you see just below the part we were talking about where it asks for your name and signature it says part and question so we've got to go back up to page one and see what part the stuff about entries to the United States was on as well as the specific question we're now addressing so let's go back to page one to check it looks like it's part A1 and the question we're answering is number 19c all right so we'll go back down to page 12 and out next to the word part we'll type a period capital I because that's how they styled it up above on page one then below that next to the word question we'll type 19 period C then in the blank space below just type out the same information that we provided for the entries on page one provide the date place and status you had at each entry you do not need to write out the words date place and Status instead just provide the information requested so if you entered at San Francisco International Airport as a student on February 1st 2023 you could write 0 2 comma 0 1 comma 2023 then do a space and then type a dash then make another space and then type San Francisco comma CA followed by a space then a dash and then F-1 got it great if you've got additional entries just drop down a couple lines and do the same thing and keep doing that until you've addressed every entry before finishing up with the entries let me acknowledge that sometimes people have made many many entries to the United States and they just don't remember the details for all of them and can't find any any kind of record with this information that's understandable just do your best to provide as much information as you can for as many entries as you can if you're estimating on the date you can type in just the month and year and not put the specific day okay with that we're ready to go back up to page one where we're going to move on to number 20. this one is much easier the question is what country issued your last passport or travel Document don't let the bid about the travel Document confuse you this applies to very very few people you can think of this as asking just about your passport so just list the country that gave you your passport if you have passports from different countries then just list whichever you received most recently since the question asks specifically about your last passport at 21 you need to put your passport number you can find this on the data page of your passport that's the page that contains your photograph on it there should be a part that says something like passport and O like you can see in the upper right hand side of our sample passport here if you have a passport then just below the space for number 21 out next to where it says travel Document number put N Dash a because you don't have a travel Document number to be clear the travel Document number they're asking about here has nothing to do with your passport okay to the right we've got number 22 which asks for your passport's expiration date you can find that too on your passport data page page in our sample passport we see it kind of on the lower left hand side next to the photo it says date of expiry your passport might use a word other than expiry like expiration alternatively your passport might say valid until to show when the passport expires put that date in month day year format in the space at 22. if you've never been issued a passport then just put n slash a for 20 both parts of 21 and for 22. and with that we're at number 23. this question asks what is your native language and then in parenthesis it says include dialect if applicable if you speak one language then the answer to this question is obvious list the language you speak here if you speak multiple languages then I think you should put here the language that you currently speak best it's true that this might not be technically be your native language but that's okay what they really want to know here is what language you understand and speak the very best if you speak multiple languages equally well then go with the one that you spoke in the house with your family when you were growing up okay 24 asks are you fluent in English there's no clear cut off for how well you have to speak a language for you to be considered fluent in it this is a pretty subjective thing there's no widely accepted definition of fluent when it comes to languages if you understand spoken English really well and you're comfortable holding fairly extensive conversations in it meaning you can also produce not just comprehend then it's fine to check the box for yes to say you're fluent note that checking the box here to say yes I'm fluent does not oblige you to then speak English at your Asylum interview or Court hearings it's perfectly fine to signify that you're fluent in English but then opt to speak your own language and use interpretation when it's time for your hearings or interview doing this will not look bad or somehow harm your case Okay so check yes or no here based on your own assessment of your level of English language fluency and then we're ready for number 25. it asks what other languages do you speak fluently this is asking about languages other than your native language in English if you do speak other languages pretty well but you're not positive you're fluent in them then use the same standard we discussed in assessing your English language fluency and if you think you're fluent in them list them here if there are multiple languages list them one by one with a comma after each one followed by a space By the way while we're talking about language it Bears stating what might seem obvious but I'm telling you as an asylum officer I saw people do this wrong all the time you need to render your answers in English that includes not just the longer narrative stuff we're going to get to later but also the one word answers and other short responses you're giving in the first few pages of the application all right immediately below the section we've been working in there are additional sections that we're not going to fill out on the left it says for eoir use only and on the right it says for USCIS use only this means that these two boxes are for the Immigration Court and agency to fill out not you as the applicant so leave these parts blank do not write n slash a or anything at all in them and with that we've completed page one and Along With It Part A1 nice work the next page is going to go much quicker I assure you page two is for part A2 titled information about your spouse and children are you ready to get started on it here we go before we get to number one we've got to consider the text at the top of the boxes it says your spouse and then to the right there's a box you can check that says I am not married and then in parenthesis skip to your children below you're meant to check this box if you are not in fact married in which case you don't need to fill out 1 through 24 in this spouse section if you're not married then put a check in the box I do recommend that if you're not married you still go ahead and put n slash a in each of these spaces into which you can place text now before we address what's being asked for in terms of information about your spouse let's talk about the definition of married for purposes of this form it may seem like this is an obvious thing but it can actually prove kind of tricky the US government only considers you to be married if you are considered legally married by your country or some other country in which you may have gotten married or if you are married under the laws of a U.S state so if you had some kind of marriage ceremony and got an official license from a government entity in your country and you haven't gotten formally divorced then you are married as far as the U.S government is concerned but there are lots of people who haven't formally gotten married but who carry on as married people tend to carry on such as by living together for a long time and perhaps having kids together whether this counts as being married for purposes of U.S immigration matters depends on whether your own country legally considers this kind of common law marriage to be a legal valid marriage like whether your country considers you to be married under its own laws and answering that question can actually be difficult if you don't have some kind of formal recognition by your country or another country in which you had a marriage ceremony then you probably need to check the box to signify that you are not married if that's you and you want to include your partner as a dependent in your Asylum claim to have them be part of your application then you should get married in the United States more on that in a minute okay last thing on marital status if you're married it doesn't matter whether your spouse is in the United States or not and it doesn't matter whether you've been living apart for a long time you are married for purposes of the Asylum application form if you were legally married and have never formally gotten divorced sometimes people will think oh you know my spouse and I haven't lived together in many years and I haven't even talked to them in years so I don't really consider myself to be married and so they will indicate here that they're not married that's not good the US government would consider a person in this position to be married and may think they're lying to try to hide something if the person says they're not married okay with that let's go through what information you need to provide if you are in fact married don't worry this won't take long at number one you put their alien registration number if they have one at two you're asked to put your spouse's passport or ID card number if they have one if they have a passport put their passport number here if they don't have a passport but they have a national ID then use their national ID number next at three put their date of birth ensuring to use the month day year format number four asks for your spouse's U.S social security number if they have one at five you're going to put their complete last name or last names if they have multiple last names then at six and seven you're putting their first and middle names respectively just like you did for yourself and like we discussed earlier when talking about rendering your own name your spouse's name should look exactly like it looks in your spouse's passport at eight you'll put other names used by your spouse including their maiden name and any aliases if those things apply so same guidance we already discussed for you applies here for your spouse at number nine you must put your date of marriage put the date on which you became legally married moving along at 10 you must indicate the place of marriage I recommend putting the city in which you got married with a comma after it then make a space and type the name of the country okay for number 11 You Must List your spouse's City and Country of birth next at 12 you put your spouse's nationality just like we discussed for yourself for your spouse you'll want to list all countries of citizenship note that this is asking about current citizenship it's not asking about their citizenship at Birth alright at 13 we've got the thing about race or ethnic or tribal group like we discussed earlier for you so provide this information for your spouse going by whatever your spouse considers their race or ethnicity to be or if they've got a tribal affiliation their tribe than over at 14 check the appropriate box to indicate your spouse's gender mail is on the left and female is on the right all right at 15 you're asked is this person in the U.S why are you being asked this well in order for them to be a dependent in your case they must be in the United States now to be included in your case they don't actually have to be in the United States at the time you submit your Asylum application they just need to be in the country before you are actually granted Asylum but still the U.S government wants to know at the time you're submitting your application whether your spouse is here or not so answer ingly dictated by your spouse's location at the time you're submitting this Asylum application form if they are in the United States then check the box for yes on the left and then continue to answer questions 16-24 if your spouse is not in the United States then check the box before the word no then in the space out to the right of that word you're asked to specify your spouse's location write in the name of the city in which they're living then put a comma do one space then put the country if you checked no because your spouse is not in the United States then you can skip 16 through 24. just put n slash a in all the spaces where text goes but if your spouse is in the United States such that you check the box for yes then at 16 you've got to list their place of last entry into the U.S so like you did for yourself earlier list the city and U.S state where your spouse most recently entered the United States then at 17 put the date of that entry and at 18 put your spouse's I-94 number if they were admitted or paroled into the United States at 19 list their immigration status upon entry next at 20 the question is what is your spouse's current status which of course refers to their immigration status so follow for your spouse the same guidance I gave for assessing your own immigration status and put the answer here at 20. then at 21 in month day year format put the expiration date of the status they got when they last entered the country if they in fact entered with legal status for 22 you're asked is your spo