Asylum is relief for a foreign national to remain in the U.S. under legal status because the foreign national has suffered past persecution in his home country or country of last habitual residence, or because the foreign national has a well founded fear of future persecution in his home country or country of last habitual residence and such persecution is based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

A refugee is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to and avail himself or herself of the protection of his or her home country or, if stateless, country of last habitual residence because of persecution or a well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

You may be granted Asylum if you are arriving in or are already physically present in the U.S. To apply for Asylum in the U.S.:

•     You may ask for Asylum at a port of entry (airport, seaport, or border crossing)

•     You generally must file for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal Center within one year of your arrival.

Spanish Law

In Spain, the only refugee status granted in Spain is the Convention status. Every alien is entitled to apply for asylum in Spain upon arrival or at any time during his/her stay in the country. Those persons seeking asylum will not be returned or expulsed until a final administrative decision has been taken on their claim, and those who attempt to enter Spanish territory unlawfully with the purpose of seeking asylum cannot be punished for it.

• However, asylum seekers who enter the country illegally are requested to submit their applications within one month of entry.
• Those who entered legally must submit their applications within the time of their allowed stay.

An asylum application lodged beyond the prescribed time limit may be rejected as inadmissible. However, late applicants may combat this presumption by providing a reasonable explanation for not having met the deadline. A personal hearing is conducted for every application.When an asylum seeker lodges an application for asylum, prior to the ordinary procedure, there is an admissibility procedure, which can be: Border admissibility procedure and admissibility procedure within the country, depending on the place where the application is submitted.

All applications for asylum submitted within the country undergo a preliminary procedure in order to decide if they are admissible or not. With the exception of time limits, this procedure is the same as the border procedure. The decision of inadmissibility regarding an application submitted within the country must be reached within 60 days. If no decision is made during this period, the application is automatically considered to be admissible and it is further processed under ordinary determination procedure. If the application is not admitted, the asylum seeker must leave the country within 15 days.

Applications considered admissible are processed under the ordinary refugee status determination procedure. Each application is studied by a staff member of the Oficina de Asilo y Refugio (OAR), office responsible for processing all asylum applications. Personal hearings are conducted not in every case, but in those in which refugee status or temporary protection may be granted. A personal hearing may also take place at the applicant's request or at the request of his/her lawyer, UNHCR or any refugee assisting NGO. The applicant may continue to submit any evidence to support his/her case throughout the OAR investigation. The file is then forwarded to the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Asylum and Refugees (“Comisión Interministerial de Asilo y Refugio” – CIAR), which has the task of drawing up a proposal for the first instance decision, which is then submitted to the Ministry of Interior for its ruling. The CIAR comprises a representative from the Ministry of Interior (who chairs the Commission), the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry for Labour and Immigration. The UNHCR representative in Spain acts as a member of the CIAR in a consultative capacity. The CIAR makes its proposal on the basis of the information and evidence produced by the applicant, the OAR’s report, and the opinions of UNHCR and refugee assisting NGOs. The procedure is written and no hearing is stipulated by the Asylum Act. The CIAR may decide to return the case to the OAR for further investigation, specifying the particular steps to be taken. Alternatively, it may formulate a proposal for a decision, which may be:–recognition of refugee status;–refusal of asylum;–refusal of asylum, but granting subsidiary protection through resident permit on exceptional grounds (article 31,3 - Royal Decree 203/1995), that allows to work. It is granted whenever there are serious and funded reasons to consider that return to the country of origin would result in a threat to life or physic integrity of the foreigner. –refusal of asylum, but granting leave to remain in Spain on humanitarian grounds through resident permit (article 31,4 - Royal Decree 203/1995). It is granted whenever there are humanitarian reasons different from art. 31,3 - Royal Decree 203/1995.The processing of an application under the ordinary determination procedure, from the submission of the application to the formal notification of the Minister's decision, must be completed within six months. In practice, however, the processing time usually lasts for up to more than one year.