If you are in the United States with an asylum status, you can apply for that status with certain family members, in accordance with some policies applied by the country.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) explains through its site that if you are a principal refugee who has been admitted to the US within the past 2 years or a principal asylum seeker who has been granted asylum within the past 2 years, you (petitioner) can submit Form I -730, Petition for Refugee/Asylee Relative.

How to apply for asylum in the United States and who is eligible for this benefit

Asylum recipients in the United States

With this you can, if necessary, request your spouse and unmarried children to join you in the United States.

If you are granted asylum, USCIS says, you can ask to bring your spouse and children to the United States by filing Form I-730, Petition for Refugee/Asylee Relative.

You must submit the request within two years from the date on which you were granted asylum. Photo: Istock

Those beneficiary children, in addition to meeting that marital status, must be under the age of 21.

You must submit the request within two years from the date you were granted asylum, unless there are humanitarian reasons that exempt you from meeting this deadline.

You do not have to pay any fees for submitting this petition.

Asylum in the United States for children over the age of 21

The US Citizenship and Immigration Service emphasizes that “under certain circumstances, unmarried children over the age of 21 may be eligible for immigration benefits for family reunification (known in English as “following-to-join”).

Asylum seekers in the United States must have their own interpreters from September 2023

The information and form are available on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service website. Image Pexels/Canva Studio

Asylum in the United States for your partner

In the case of the spouse, the form must be submitted within two years immediately after they were granted asylum status or entered as refugees, Infobae describes. “This period may be extended for humanitarian reasons.”

Whereas if your partner is abroad, you will receive a notification asking the local consulate to complete the process.

In the event “you have already entered, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will notify you if the application has been approved by submitting Form I-797, Notice of Action.”

This is all you need to know before presenting the United States asylum interview

If you are a citizen by naturalization

If you’ve already become a citizen of the United States through naturalization, Infobae indicates, you can no longer request that your dependents be granted derivative refugee or asylum status.

What he will be able to do, the medium continues, is “to help his family immigrate to the United States through other means available to citizens.”

Siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents are not eligible for the family reunification program for refugees and asylum seekers, USA Hello reported in May 2023.

Keep these in mind two recommendations provided by the USCIS on its portal:

For more information, see the USCIS website.