EOIR
and INS Lift Conditional Status for Certain Fiscal Year 1999
Asylum Grants Based on Coercive
Population Control Policies
Law
Limits Asylum in Such Cases to 1,000 Applicants in Each Fiscal
Year
The Executive Office
for Immigration Review (EOIR) recently sent notices to aliens in
the United States who had been granted asylum conditionally
from October 1, 1998, to March 18, 1999, based on their
persecution or fear of persecution related to coercive population
control in their countries of origin. The notices informed those
aliens that they were now fully eligible for all asylum benefits.
Asylum
is granted on a conditional basis by Immigration Judges and by
the Board of Immigration Appeals in EOIR, or by Asylum
Officers in the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS),
because the law specifically limits to 1,000 per fiscal year the
number of applicants who can receive asylum on grounds related to
coercive population control. After the cases are
completed, EOIR and INS arrange all conditional asylum grants
chronologically, then convert no more than 1,000 to outright
grants for any fiscal-year period and notify the grantees.
Any
alien who was granted conditional asylum on or before
March 19, 1999, by EOIR but who has not received a notice
advising that a number is available may check on the status of
his or her asylum grant by promptly sending a letter with a
copy of the order granting conditional asylum to the office
with jurisdiction over the case. The addresses are listed below:
Conditional
Grant issued by an Immigration Judge:
The
Office of the Chief Immigration Judge
Attn: Mark Pasierb
5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite 2500
Falls Church, VA 22041
Phone: 703-305-1247
Conditional Grant
issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals:
Board
of Immigration Appeals
The Clerk's Office
Post Office Box 8530
5201 Leesburg Pike, Suite 1300
Falls Church, Virginia 22041
Phone: 703-605-1007
The INS Asylum
Offices are in the process of removing the conditional grant
status and sending out notification letters to certain aliens
granted conditional asylum status by the INS during fiscal year
1999. Aliens who received a recommended approval from the INS
from October 1, 1998 through March 18, 1999, will receive a
notice of a final grant of asylum from an INS asylum office at
this time.
The INS
granted conditional asylum status to aliens only after completion
of all required background investigations, such as fingerprint
checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). If an alien
was found eligible for asylum based on persecution or fear of
persecution on account of opposition to coercive population
control practices, the INS issued the alien a recommended
approval pursuant to regular INS asylum procedures, pending
completion of the required background investigation.
Once the INS
received results from the background investigation, the INS would
convert the recommended approval to a conditional grant of
asylum, pending release of the numbers for fiscal year 1999.
Therefore, an alien who was given notification of a recommended
asylum approval in fiscal year 1999 may not have been granted
conditional asylum in fiscal year 1999, if the results of the
background security check were not received on or before
September 30, 1999.
Any inquiries
regarding removal of the conditional asylum status granted by an
INS Asylum Office should be directed to the Asylum Office that
issued the recommended approval.
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