Religious Conversion Is a Basis for Qualifying for Exception to Rule That Asylum Application Must Be Filed Within One Year.

Taslimi v. Holder (9th Cir. 2010)

Generally, a person seeking political asylum in the United States must file the application within one year of his or her entry into the country.  An application which is filed later than that would be considered time-barred.  Regardless of the merits of the case, such application will likely be denied.  Fortunately, there is an exception to this rule found in 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(D).  An asylum seeker may apply for asylum beyond the one-year deadline by demonstrating the existence of changed circumstances which materially affect the applicant’s eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing the application.  Further, an applicant seeking waiver of the one-year rule based on changed circumstances must also establish that the application was filed within a reasonable period of time given such changed circumstances. 

From my one experience, the above exceptions have saved many asylum applications which would have been denied as untimely.  There is no firm rule on what does or doesn’t constitute “changed circumstances” which may justify a late asylum application, so the decision is made by the courts on a case by case basis.   The 9th Circuit ruled in this case that a religious conversion may be a basis for finding that an applicant qualifies for the changed circumstances exception.  Taslimi, the applicant in the case, was a citizen of Iran who first came to the U.S. in 1992.  She arrived on a visitor visa and never left the country.  She was born a Muslim, but converted to Christianity in 2002.  Seven months after her conversion ceremony, she applied for asylum at the urging of her pastor.  She alleged that she was not aware that she would be able to apply for asylum based on her religious conversion until her pastor urged her to do so.

In addition to finding that Taslimi’s religious conversion was changed circumstance, the court found that Taslimi’s seven month delay from the date of her conversion ceremony to her filing an asylum application was reasonable.  The court accepted her explanation that she wanted to ensure that her conversion “took hold” and that she intended to follow the path of Christianity before filing for asylum.   The conversion ceremony was only the beginning of her conversion journey.  It took some time for her to fully embrace her new religion.  For this reason, the court found that she qualified for the one year waiver, as well as established that her application was filed within a reasonable period of time.

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