Good Trends -

hello my name is juliana kopisk i'm an

immigration attorney licensed in new

york and california

and i'm going to 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 um

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organize their stories in the best way

possible

we do not uh write or help people to

write fake stories

but we could improve your story to show

that you are in danger if you return to

your home country

so as of now after um covet

current team uss 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 in 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 uh people

bring their um 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 um

immigration officials noticed that you

do not

exactly follow our social justice

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 the rare

occasions it could the wait could be

up to an hour and more you will be

called by

a number which will be issued

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upon you and upon you entering the

office

so pay attention uh you're not allowed

to eat in the building you could bring

some water with you

because of corona virus the interview

will be conducted

in separate rooms and the officer will

be

in the same building just in a different

room with you um

talking with you through their video

camera

there will be so-called monitor

an interpreter from the government who

will

monitor you via a phone their video via

their technical equipment where

um you don't see each other uh where

that interpreter does not intervene

unless he or she

sees some kind of mistakes in

interpretation

or 华人 律师咨询 if they see some kind of uh

inappropriate conduct

let's say if you speak with your

interpreter

about some things you're not supposed to

talk about or they do not

offer correctly in some cases that

monitor could intervene

and tell the officer to stop the

interview

so it's very very important that you

interpret the 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 uh make sure there are no any kind

of

mistakes if there are typos if you put

in correct data and correct

location that's fine too they will just

make corrections

uh 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 um

in a particular order through a 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 uh with different wording

and it's very very important that you

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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

uh two years ago and not three

um you could add

some facts to your story if you wish but

you cannot change it

after the uh second part

of the um interview you'll you'll

transition to the third part which is

kind of uh typical

where the immigration officer make sure

make 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

police department for this amount of

time and that was related to my

um actually silent 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 a 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 the important fact

and you'd like to add that that's fine

too

um as a lawyer being present

at asylum interviews sometimes i'm able

to

help you with your story sometimes i

make um

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 this elementary 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 you're

prepared

at the end of the interview uh the

officer most likely will tell you that

you should expect

your decision in the mail within a few

weeks a month

prior to quarantine

usually slds 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 elementary is recorded

if somehow you're not you did not get an

approval that's not end of the world

your case will be referred

to uh immigration court and that's a bit

of a different story

but it's possible to um

win your asylum case and immigration

court as well will help find

outlines at this stage as well

also i would like to add that we are

expecting some kind of changes

in immigration rules um

in particular in asylum laws as well

because there is some kind of bill

being prepared which is supposed to make

uh asylum claims a bit harder

we don't know all the details yet it's

in the works

it's supposed to come out sometimes

within

a few weeks or before 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

you