Asylum interview in San Francisco is now scheduled much faster than before. On January 29, 2018, USCIS made changes to priorities in scheduling asylum interviews. We are now back to the last in first out system. We had that system in 2014. New affirmative asylum filings now have the top priority when asylum office schedules asylum interviews.

Prior to January 29, 2018, asylum applicant knew that he had about two years from filing until scheduling of asylum interview. It was clear that applicants would receive their employment authorizations after six months of filing. Now asylum applications filed after January 8, 2018, became priority for scheduling asylum interview. They can expect an asylum interview in the nearest months. Only rescheduled cases have a higher priority.

What are the recent scheduling changes for an asylum interview in San Francisco?

Update to this article on February 22, 2021:

On February 22, 2021, there was another virtual meeting of immigration lawyers with the director of Asylum Office in San Francisco. Ms. Bardini answered all of the questions posted by immigration attorneys.

By now, asylum office has caught up with all interview reschedules that happened due to COVID-19. Asylum office is now conducting four interviews in the morning and four in the afternoon Monday through Friday. That is only eight interview per day for the asylum office. This is down to twenty or twenty five percent of the office’s capacity before COVID.

Asylum office has started scheduling for interviews some cases from the backlog. One attorney reported that her case filed in December 2016 was recently scheduled for an interview in 2021. Asylum office believes that they are in year 2017 now for scheduling backlog cases. My experience shows that my clients’ cases filed in 2014, 2015 and 2016 have not been scheduled for interviews yet. Asylum office will look at the earlier filed cases and will plug them in for interview scheduling.

Due to COVID-19, asylum office is not scheduling anyone now for the interview who would have to travel to California. They don’t feel comfortable doing so, even if the client is willing to self-quarantine for 14 days before the interview. For Seattle cases, they are waiting to open a satellite office there and do the interviews via videoconferencing. 

Asylum office is widely utilizing shortlist for cases that are ready to go forward. An attorney can put his client on the shortlist if all documents have been filed, client is prepared and ready to go with an interview. No other reason is needed to be added to the shortlist. The case can be called for an interview if somebody else cancels their interview at the asylum office. The case can be called with a notice ranging from one to twenty one days before the actual interview dates. Many attorneys will not be available for such a short interview notice and will not agree to take a client wishing to go for the shortlist.

Some attorneys report that they placed their clients on the shortlist 14 months ago and have not been called in for the interview yet. Ms. Bardini responded that it should not take that long for the shortlist and asked to contact her office in cases of such delays. There are currently several hundred cases on the shortlist in San Francisco asylum office. 

Asylum office encourages not to bring minor children to the interviews if the child is not a derivative on the application. Minor children with trusted adults should not enter the building.

Asylum office is planning to implement a pilot program in March or April where attorneys will attend the client’s asylum interview remotely from their office via videoconferencing. 

Update to this article on August 19, 2019:

On August 19, 2019, there was another meeting of immigration lawyers with the director of Asylum Office in San Francisco. Director Bardini was not present at the meeting. Her assistants answered the questions.

The major news is new delays in scheduling interviews on newly filed asylum cases.

Until recently, an interview notice could be expected 45 days after the date of filing of I-589. Now, new affirmative applications are no longer a priority for the San Francisco Asylum Office. In addition, summer vacations have also led to delays in processing asylum cases. More officers are expected to schedule cases in the fall. Now, on average, 8–19 officers per day conduct affirmative asylum interviews in San Francisco. San Francisco Asylum Office is trying to hire new officers.

We did not receive an answer to the question of how long is the wait for an interview in a recently filed case of affirmative asylum. In my experience, my clients, whose asylum applications were filed 90-100 days ago, have not yet been called in for an interview.

Interviews with asylum seekers at the southern border are now the first priority.

San Francisco Asylum Office is not an exception. The same thing happens at the Asylum Office in Newark, New Jersey, and in Boston, Massachusetts. Both of these offices send most officers to conduct interviews at the border. Only a small portion of recently filed asylum cases will be interviewed.

Also, at least two immigration courts have changed priorities. In immigration court in San Diego, California, and in El Paso, Texas, hearings are now being rescheduled for 2021. The main priority for them is now asylum cases filed by immigrants at the border with Mexico. In those cases, immigrants await hearings in Mexico. They are brought to immigration court from Mexico by bus, and then taken back.

Update to this article on May 20, 2019:

On May 20, 2019, there was another meeting of immigration lawyers with the director of Asylum Office in San Francisco. Director Bardini was not present at the meeting. Her assistants answered the questions.

At the meeting, we were given answers to the following questions of immigration lawyers. If the wife of the principal asylum seeker, whose asylum application is buried in the backlog, submits her own asylum application, will she be given an interview date quickly? The answer is negative.

Some immigration lawyers complained that the cases of their clients, were they filed expedite requests back in 2016, were still not scheduled for an interview. The deputy director of the Asylum Office explained what needs to be done and who to contact in this case.

What happens if an applicant asked to reschedule the interview once and failed to appear for the next interview or brought in additional documents? The second interview in this case may not take place. Applicants may be referred to the immigration court without an interview. Immigration attorneys were given examples of exceptions to this rule.

Asylum office still does not schedule interviews for old cases from the backlog. The automated system manages scheduling interviews only for the newly filed cases. Old cases are no longer being scheduled for interviews manually. Presently, there are only twenty-five asylum officers.

According to the immigration lawyers attending the meeting, the line stopped somewhere in December – November 2017. The deputy director was unable to confirm this information. The next meeting of lawyers with the director of the Asylum Office will be held in August 2019 in San Francisco.

Update to this article on February 11, 2019:

On February 11, 2019, there was another meeting of immigration lawyers with the director of the San Francisco Asylum Office.

Asylum Office has switched to new software. It now automatically assigns interview dates. As a result of the transition to the new system, some cases were missed. Sometimes an interview notice generated by the system does not make sense. Employees have to manually check and identify errors. Now 85% of the system is working.

The closure of the federal government (shutdown) had no effect on the Asylum Office. They continued to work at the time when the immigration courts were closed.

The office still does not schedule interviews for old cases from the backlog. In the last week, five officers were sent to the border. This constitutes the loss of 20-25% of the Asylum Office staff. In addition, 7-8 officers work in Tacoma, Washington. They fly there every week.

Asylum Office director explained that cases transferred from other jurisdictions are scheduled for interviews in accordance with the initial date when the asylum application was filed with USCIS. Director shared with lawyers the contact information of the officer responsible for scheduling the interviews.

On May 7, 2018 immigration attorneys met director of San Francisco Asylum Office Emilia Bardini. Director informed us at the meeting that presently they schedule asylum interview in San Francisco only for cases filed after January 29, 2018. Moreover, about fifteen percent of new asylum filings received every month by the San Francisco Asylum Office after January 29 are not scheduled for an interview timely. Director makes it her priority to prevent these fifteen percent from joining the backlog.

Also, director Bardini stated that the backlog is significantly bigger in Portland. The backlog is even worse in Seattle.

Director Bardini shared statistics of case approvals after asylum interview in San Francisco. Overall country-wide the approval rate is 23%. After asylum interview in San Francisco, however, 42% of cases receive approval.

I left the meeting with an understanding that for affirmative asylum cases filed in San Francisco before January 29, 2018, Asylum Office is not scheduling an asylum interview. However, upon return to my office I found in mail two letters. Those notices scheduled asylum interview in San Francisco for two of my clients. We filed their asylum cases on January 25, 2018. On May 7, 2018, we received their interview notices. Their asylum interview in San Francisco was scheduled for May 24, 2018.

The article below dates back to February 2018:

On February 5, 2018, director of San Francisco Asylum Office Emilia Bardini answered the questions of immigration attorneys, members of AILA. First, she gave us the following example. A person filing for asylum on January 29 should expect an asylum interview in San Francisco on February 19. However, director Bardini was not confident that she would have enough asylum officers. She may need more to schedule asylum interviews for all according to the new priority. If she has 20 officers, they can conduct 200 asylum interviews in San Francisco a week. If they receive 250 new applications, they can schedule asylum interviews for only 80%.

Director Bardini hopes that people who have no fear of returning to their home countries will not file for asylum with the single goal of getting an employment authorization in the United States. Moreover, immigration attorneys who had two years to prepare their client’s asylum application will now have to prepare it fully before filing. Otherwise, they are risking not having enough time to fully document the client’s asylum case and to collect materials on country conditions.

We need to take one year bar seriously

Immigration attorneys wanted to know what to do when one year deadline is coming up. Director Bardini suggested that we timely file within one year of applicant’s entry. Then attorney may request time for preparation. We should make such request when her office schedules an asylum interview in San Francisco. They schedule the next asylum interview in San Francisco in such case in three weeks. Immigration attorneys have a chance to request more time in these cases. Clock for employment authorization stops until the next asylum interview in San Francisco.

Director Bardini also said that if after 21 days they don’t schedule an asylum interview in San Francisco, we should expect scheduling within 100 days from the date of filing.

What happens to the cases that were in line for an asylum interview in San Francisco before January 8, 2018?

Director Bardini hopes that new asylum officers will help reduce the backlog. Up to date they have hired over twenty new officers. They continue hiring and training new officers. Furthermore, if fewer people apply for asylum, free officers will take cases from the backlog. Newly filed cases will be scheduled before older filings. Director Bardinin did not say anything about scheduling cases for asylum interview in San Francisco from the beginning and from the end of the line at the same time. Immigration attorneys left the meeting with a feeling that the cases of their clients who filed for asylum and have received their employment authorization are stuck in the backlog forever.

Asylum bulletin previously available here no longer exists. Now this page has an explanation of priorities in scheduling asylum interviews.

Scheduling an asylum interview in Seattle, Washington.

Director Bardini said now it take four to five years to schedule an asylum interview in Seattle, Washington. San Francisco Asylum Office plans to open a branch in Seattle in 2019. If that happens, the lines for asylum interviews may become smaller. San Francisco Asylum Office plans to move all of their supervisors to the eighth floor. The sixth and seventh floors will be only for conducting asylum interviews in San Francisco.

What happens to the cases that get selected and scheduled for asylum interview in San Francisco out of order?

Immigrants who live in the U.S. for over ten years file for asylum often. Many of those immigrants have a sick child, spouse, or parent. If their relative is a citizen or resident, they want to go to court. In removal proceedings they can file for cancellation of removal. They must prove that their qualifying relative will suffer extreme and unusual hardship. Then the immigrants get their green cards in court. Such applicants for asylum have no chance of getting asylum in the United States. Their goal is to get in removal proceedings sooner.

San Francisco Asylum Office started looking for such applicants in their database. Some of them are now receiving a notice scheduling asylum interview in San Francisco. These interviews happen out of order. If they want to go straight to court, they should notify San Francisco Asylum Office. Some applicants agree to bypass asylum interview in San Francisco and go straight to court. If it happens often, the workload of San Francisco Asylum Office will decrease. It will allow to schedule asylum interviews for people who waited long.

Changes in asylum interview times

Director Bardini informed us that starting in the middle of March 2018, asylum interview in San Francisco will be scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Previously the interviews were scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Often times asylum officer is unable to finish up his first asylum interview timely. Then the applicants scheduled for an asylum interview in San Francisco for 10:15 a.m. have to wait long until they get called in.

From the middle of March asylum interview in San Francisco will be scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. On Thursdays interviews will be scheduled for 8:30 a.m and 10:15 a.m., because on Thursdays asylum officers have meetings in the afternoon. On Fridays they don’t schedule asylum interview in San Francisco.

Expedite requests to schedule asylum interview in San Francisco

Director Bardini confirmed that the shortlist and expedite requests continue to exist. Director reminded immigration attorneys how to properly file requests to expedite scheduling asylum interview in San Francisco.

The meeting went on for an hour and a half. Finally, Bardini answered many other questions, such as what to do if asylum office does not issue a decision after the interview for a long time, what to do if the officer did not give the applicant an opportunity to explain and referred the case to immigration court, employment authorization clock, asylum applications of unaccompanied minors, and many other questions.

Article written by immigration attorney in San Francisco Andrei Romanenko.