For immigration and asylum seeking purposes & and according to INA; am I considered as citizen of the country of birth or the country of nationality?
Asked on Jun 09th, 2013 on Immigration - Massachusetts
More details to this question:
Dear Madam/Sir, Does Section 202(b) of INA (Rules for Chargeability), which indicate that "For the purposes of this Act the foreign state to which an immigrant is chargeable shall be determined by birth within such foreign state ", is limited for the purposes of a numerical level established under subsection (a)(2) of the said section? In other words; I was born in Syria from Jordanian father and Syrian mother, and I lived there for the majority of my life, however I don't have Syrian passport nor Syrian citizenship statues, and my documents always were Jordanian. Bear on mind that I habitually resided in Syria prior to entering the United States, and haven't been to Jordan for residence purposes for the entire of my life. To conclude, I thought that I could be treated as Syrian even though I was entered to the US using my valid Jordanian document, and consequently I might be eligible for TPS "Temporary Protected Status" when it's re-open for registration as long as Syria is on it.
Chargeability applies only to the quota system we use to allocate immigrant visas, not asylum. For asylum purposes, your country of residence and your country of citizenship will both be taken into account. The determinative question for an asylum case will be whether you can move to one country or another to avoid the persecution you seek protection from. You cannot obtain asylum in the US if you are able to just move to another country to avoid the persecution. Indeed, if you are able to move to another part of the country where you reside to avoid persecution, asylum law will not intervene to protect you.
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