If I get asylum, how long for my green card? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States at our office here in St. Louis, Missouri. Today's question comes from [Wagdi 00:00:12]. Wagdi joined us on the Immigration Answers live show, and I was not able to get to the question. So Wagdi wants to know, "Hey Jim. If I get asylum, when will I get my green card?" The answer to that question, Wagdi, is you can apply for your green card one year, ie., 365 days after you are granted asylum.
So here's how it usually works. Somebody enters the United States. They file for asylum. They wait for their interview and eventually their case either gets approved or it gets referred to the immigration court. So Wagdi's wondering, if it does get approved, when do I get my green card? What has to happen, Wagdi, is after one year, you would file an I-45 application to adjust status. That would take the regular processing time, eight, 10, 12 months for you to get that green card.
Now, the interesting thing with people who apply for asylum and get it and then apply for a green card is that their green card start date will be the day that they were granted asylum. So that's a great thing. So it goes back to when you were admitted for asylum purposes as your start date on your green card. So that's not true in marriage cases. In marriage cases, the start date doesn't go back to the day that you got married and it doesn't even go back to the day that you filed for the green card. Instead, it goes back to the day that it was approved. So that will be the start date in your green card if it's not based on asylum.
So Wagdi, I hope this answers your question. If you have any more, be sure to join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Facebook or YouTube for our Immigration Answers live show. You can always call us at 314-961-8200. You can email us at [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. That's one of the ways you can catch the show. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's the other way you can find out, and you can also get updates whenever we make videos just like this one. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
