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Adapted from a longer version in Winning Asylum Cases as originally published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center

WHAT IS POLITICAL ASYLUM?
Political asylum is granted to people who are afraid if they return to their home country they may be persecuted. People may also be granted political asylum if they left their home country because they were persecuted in the past. If you win political asylum, you can apply for your Green Card (permanent residence).
To win asylum because you are afraid of returning to your home country, you must show the judge that your fear is "well-founded." Thus, you must convince the judge that you truly believe you're in danger, that you have good reasons for this belief, and that someone else in your position would also be afraid.
You must show that you fear persecution in your home country or that you have been persecuted in the past. Persecution can mean that you have been, or may be, hurt, kidnapped, detained, jailed, tortured, threatened, killed, or beaten, or that your freedom was or will be taken away in any other way.
The people who persecuted you or whom you're afraid will persecute you if you return to your home country can be the government (army, police, soldiers, elected officials, death squads, or others), the guerrillas, another opposition group, the civil patrol, or any other group that the government cannot or will not control.
The people who persecuted you or whom you think will persecute you if you return to your home country must be persecuting you based on one of the following five reasons:
- The most common reason for being persecuted is because of your political opinion. It doesn't matter whether you support or oppose the government. People who have been persecuted because of their political opinions and have won their asylum cases have included: people who demonstrate as students, are active in labor unions, or are members of political parties or the government. Sometimes, even if you don't have a political opinion, the persecutor may think you have a certain political opinion. He may persecute you because he thinks you have a political opinion due to things you do, groups you belong to, or your family's background.
- Another common reason for being persecuted is your religion, no matter what religion it is. If you're not allowed to practice your religion or you are persecuted because of your religious beliefs, you may be able to qualify for asylum. Many times people who are religious workers, catechists, or members of Christian Base communities qualify for asylum.


- Often people are persecuted because they belong to a particular social group. This means people who share certain characteristics such as: age, place where they live, family, ethnic group, race, nationality, gender or community.
- Sometimes people are persecuted because of their race. This means that if you have been or may be persecuted because of your skin color, origin or background you may qualify for asylum.
- Some people are persecuted because of their nationality. Nationality is similar to race. It can mean your country of citizenship, country of origin or your ethnic group.
If the persecutor is after you because of personal reasons only, you will not be able to win your case. Yet, if you think he's going to persecute you for many reasons, one of which is personal, then you may be able to win your case. For example, if a soldier who is off duty threatened to kill you because he thought you had stolen money from him, that would not qualify as a well-founded fear of persecution for purposes of political asylum because the threat relates to something personal, strictly between the two of you. But if this same soldier then told his commander that you were a guerrilla, then we could argue the danger would no longer be just personal; it would also be political.
The closer the persecution came to you, the stronger your case will be. For example, you would have a better case if you yourself were threatened or captured than if a fellow-student or someone else in your town or family were threatened or captured. However, if you can prove that what happened to the other person shows that you are also in danger, you still may have a strong case.
Your testimony, if the judge (or Immigration Service official) believes it, can be enough to prove your case. You do not need documents. Even though you do not need them, documents are always helpful to show that parts of your story are true. For example, it can be helpful to show student or union I.D. cards, letters from a church or other group with whom you've worked, newspaper articles about you, your family or town as well as general articles showing the problems in your home country.
Anyone who applies for political asylum and has persecuted someone else because of that person's political opinion, her membership in a social group, her religion, her race or her nationality may not be granted political asylum, no matter how strong the case may be. For example, if a member of the army or a guerrilla group participated in the kidnapping, torture or murder of someone else whom he suspected of opposing his group politically, this could mean he was persecuting another because of political beliefs and he will probably lose his political asylum case.

Besides persecuting others, you can also be denied political asylum if you were convicted of certain bad crimes or for other reasons. You should always check with a lawyer or law office to see if you may be able to qualify for asylum.


PERSECUTION OF OTHERS
Anyone who applies for political asylum and has persecuted someone else because of that person's political opinion, membership in a social group, religion, race or nationality may not be granted political asylum, no matter how strong the case may be. This is because the U.S. government has decided that such people do not deserve political asylum.
If you have persecuted someone else then you will not qualify for asylum. This only counts against you if you persecuted the person because of her political opinion, her membership in a social group, her religion, her race or her nationality. Persecution can mean that you have hurt, kidnapped, detained, jailed, tortured, threatened, killed or beaten someone, or that you took away someone's else's freedom in some way. For example, if a member of the army or a guerrilla group participated in the kidnapping, torture or murder of someone else whom he suspected of opposing his group politically, this could mean he was persecuting another because of political beliefs and he will probably lose his political asylum case.
Yet, if you were a guerrilla or soldier and hurt or killed another guerrilla or soldier while you were fighting in a war, then you probably would not be considered to have persecuted another and you may still be able to qualify for asylum.