Did you enter the U.S. less than one year ago, or do you qualify for an exception to the one-year filing deadline?
INA § 208(a)(2)(B) requires asylum applications within one year of arrival. The two exceptions under § 208(a)(2)(D) are *changed circumstances* (worsening country conditions, new persecution facts, change in personal circumstances like coming-out as LGBTQ+) and *extraordinary circumstances* (legal disability, mental incapacity, ineffective prior counsel, serious illness). The exception evidence must explain not just *why* the deadline was missed but why it was *unreasonable* to expect filing earlier. Withholding of removal under INA § 241(b)(3) and CAT have *no* one-year deadline and should always be filed alongside asylum.
Context & Examples
Real example — Manuel, Tracy. Manuel entered EWI in 2018 and lived peacefully for 5 years. In 2023 his cousin in Michoacán was murdered by Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación and the cartel began contacting Manuel's family in the U.S. demanding extortion payments. We filed asylum 14 months after the changed circumstance (the cousin's murder), well within the reasonable period under § 208(a)(2)(D). Asylum granted on changed-circumstance + family social group + imputed political opinion grounds.
Horror story — same fact pattern, no attorney. A Modesto applicant in 2019 had been in the U.S. since 2010. He never filed asylum because no one told him he could. When ICE picked him up for an old NTA in 2024, his attorney filed asylum 14 years post-arrival without proper changed-circumstance evidence. Time-barred. The withholding-only application was filed, but the IJ found him not credible because the asylum filing came so late — the credibility taint poisoned the withholding. Removed in 2024.
Why an attorney is essential: The one-year deadline forecloses the most powerful form of relief. We file asylum the day a changed circumstance arises, not 6 months later when memory degrades.
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