Hello, my name is Tuyana Kupisk. I'm an immigration attorney licensed in New York and California, and I'm gonna speak today about
how asylum interviews are conducted
We have clients from all over the world who come to us at different stages of their case in regard to asylum
We help our clients to prepare for asylum interview
we help them to
organize their stories in the best way possible
we do not
write or help people to write fake stories
but we could improve your story to show that you're in danger if you return to your home country
So as of now after
COVID quarantine USCIS is
rescheduling interviews for asylum
you should get a letter with a new date for your interview
sometime within a few weeks or months
depending on
geographical location of your USCIS field office
You will be expected to have a mask with you and
a pen with blue or black ink
You won't be allowed into the building
Until approximately 30 minutes prior to your interview
You should bring an interpreter with you and in most cases people bring their attorneys with them as well
You probably will
you most likely will be requested to take your mask off for a brief period of time
For ID purposes and for taking pictures
if somehow they
see that you have symptoms of coronavirus
you will be sent home
If also
Immigration officials notice that you do not exactly follow social distancing guidelines, you could be sent home as well
The wait time for the interview may vary depending on how busy they are that day and
Also depending on certain rules in your local field office
It could be a few minutes, in rare occasions it could
the way it could be up to an hour and more
You will be called by a number which will be issued
upon you entering the office
So pay attention
You are not allowed to eat at the building. You could bring some water with you
Because of coronavirus the interview will be conducted in separate rooms and the officer will be
in the same building just in a different room with you
talking with you through their video camera
There will be a so-called monitor, an interpreter from the government
who will monitor you via phone, their technical equipment
Where you don't see each other
where that interpreter does not intervene unless he or she
sees some kind of mistakes in interpretation or if they see some kind of inappropriate conduct
Let's see if you speak with your interpreter about some things
you're not supposed to talk about or
They do interpret correctly
in some cases that monitor could intervene and
tell the officer to stop the interview
so it's very very
important that your interpreter translates correctly everything and does not add anything or give you any advice, etc
The first part of the interview is usually
biographical information
so the immigration officer will go line by line through your data and
make sure there are no any kind of mistakes if there are typos, if you put incorrect data, incorrect location, that's find to you
They will just make corrections
The second part which is the most important is the substantive
part of the asylum interview based on your essay. Please notice that the officer might not go
in a particular order
through your story
They might start asking questions from the end of your story and then come back or go in circles
or ask the same questions with different wording and it's very important that you
are prepared, you don't make mistakes
Or if you make some kind of mistakes, you have a good explanation you could say officer. Oh, I forgot this event actually happened
two years ago and not three
You could add some facts to your story if you wish but you cannot change it
After the
second part of
the interview
you'll
transition to the third part which is kind of typical where
the immigration officer makes sure
makes sure you don't belong to some kind of terrorist organization, that you don't have any crimes, arrests, etc
if you have any arrests in your home country related to your essay
to your story, you could explain that
That I've been arrested. I was holding in a police department for this amount of time and that was related to my
actual asylum claim
and you might not or you may have some documents to confirm that it's
It's not always
possible in some cases to have every documentation, supporting every element of your claim
at the end of the interview you will be asked if you would like to add anything to your story or
say anything that you think is important. So that's your chance also to
correct any mistakes you have said or if you suddenly remember important fact and you'd like to add that that's fine, too
as a lawyer being present at
asylum interviews, sometimes I'm able to help you with your story, sometimes I make a
closing statement at the end of the interview
Sometimes I make some corrections or highlight important facts
So it all depends, but you have to know that the main actor during thу asylum interview is you
Sometimes your immigration lawyer could help you to
correct whatever things you have
mistakenly misspoken about
sometimes they cannot, it depends on what you said and how well your're prepared
At the end of the interview
The officer most likely will tell you that you should expect your decision in the mail within a few weeks or months
prior to quarantine
Usually
asylees were asked to stop by the office and pick up the decision, but now most likely they will be mailed
and
The officer needs a few weeks at least to analyze
your claim, to read reports about your home country
and also to listen to the recording because every asylum interview is recorded
if somehow you are not
you did not get an approval. That's not the end of the world. Your case will be referred to
immigration court and that's a bit of a different story
But it's possible to
bring your asylum case in immigration court as well. We help clients, our clients at this stage as well
Also, I would like to add that we're expecting some kind of changes in immigration rules
In particular in asylum laws as well because there is some kind of bill
being prepared
which is supposed to make
asylum claims a bit harder
We don't know all the details yet. It's in the words
It's supposed to come out sometimes within a few weeks or before the end of the year
But we continue working, we continue helping our clients. Please contact us, we'll see how we can help you. Thank you