ASYLUM AND EXTREME HARDSHIP IMMIGRATION PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Department (USCIS) and other immigration offices in other parts of the world, including Canada and European countries, people may seek asylum due to persecution or fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in organizations, or political views. The USCIS also accepts petition for asylum from people who have undergone extreme hardship. This hardship can stem from political oppression or violence, human trafficking, forced labor, or domestic violence. In order to legally immigrate as an asylum seeker and receive permission to work and access to necessary healthcare, you will likely need to undergo a psychological evaluation. Hardship or persecution combined with cultural shock and transition to a new environment can be very difficult and traumatic, so an assessment is an important part of the immigration process to ensure your health and safety. During an asylum and extreme hardship immigration psychological evaluation, we provide a testing battery that will help us ensure you receive any necessary medical and psychological care you need. The results from our assessment will be included as part of your legal immigration application.

Psychological evaluations are required for the majority of asylum and hardship immigration cases (see sample cases below). Your lawyer will likely refer you, your partner, and/or your family to complete these evaluations. The psychological evaluation will be included as evidence of the hardship and/or persecution you’ve experienced in order to ensure you receive acceptance from the USCIS or other countries as an asylum seeker. These reports consist of a thorough 10 to 15 page document your legal counsel can use to strengthen your court case. While only 30% of asylum seekers total are approved, 90% of those who have a psychological evaluation as part of their application for asylum are approved. For just a few hours of your time, you can dramatically improve your legal case for asylum.

The 7 Cases When You Might Need a Psychological Evaluation

1. Extreme Psychological Hardship

In an extreme psychological hardship case, a citizen or resident of the United States applies for the immigration waiver because the deportation of a family member will cause extreme hardship for themselves or their family.

It’s important to remember that that deportation will cause hardship to the family (e.g. spouse, children, or parents) rather than to the individual that may be deported.

The negative impact of deportation such as job loss or separation of parents from small children are considered “typical” hardships in the eyes of the court.

The court considers a hardship to be “extreme” only if the impact on the family is unusual or beyond what would be normally expected from deportation.

Here are some examples of situations that are considered “extreme”:

• A family member has a major medical issue and can’t safely travel abroad, making it necessary for the individual to remain in the U.S. to care for the family member.
• An individual’s parents are aging and require the person to stay in the U.S. to care for them.
• An individual is a primary breadwinner in the family and their deportation will cause extreme financial hardship for the family.
• The individual’s children are far along in their education in the U.S. and are unable to speak, read, or write in the language of the foreign country. Leaving the U.S. might permanently prevent them from completing their education.
• If one parent has to leave the U.S., it can cause the child that is left behind to develop separation anxiety. In some cases, young children who lack the emotional maturity to understand why a parent might have to leave the U.S. might also develop a depressive disorder.

If the court finds that there will be extreme or exceptional hardship on the U.S. citizen or resident, the deportation order may be canceled and legal permanent residence granted.

2. Political Asylum

In political asylum cases, an individual has been subjected to mistreatment and abuse in their country of origin due to their political beliefs, religious affiliation, ethnic identity, or gender.

In these cases, they are seeking asylum or safety from their country of origin within the U.S.

It is not uncommon for individuals to develop depressive disorders or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the abuse or mistreatment they endured in their country.

A psychological evaluation will establish the mental health consequences of prior abuse or persecution.  An evaluation will also help determine how the abuse or will continue to impact the individual in the future.

3. Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) provides for immigration benefits to men and women who have been physically and/or mentally abused by their U.S. citizen spouse.

If an individual is undocumented, married to a U.S. citizen, and they are victims of domestic abuse, they may be eligible for permanent residency in the U.S.

A psychological evaluation will help establish the psychological impact that the verbal, physical, or sexual abuse had on the individual.  

4: Citizenship Examination Waiver (N-648)

In these cases, an individual is requested to be waived from taking the U.S. citizenship examination due to cognitive deficits.

Conditions that can cause cognitive deficits include dementia, traumatic brain injury, learning disabilities, or an intellectual disability.

An individual can be evaluated to determine if their claims are valid and the extent to which their cognitive impairment will impact their ability to take the examination.

5. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Individuals petitioning for a waiver under DACA can be denied if they have a serious criminal conviction (e.g. domestic violence).

A psychological evaluation can help determine if their actions and behavior were due to a mental disorder, abuse, or other cognitive deficit.

6. U-Visa

A U-Visa may be granted to an undocumented individual living in the U.S. if the individual can demonstrate that they have experienced substantial mental or physical abuse due to being a victim of a serious crime that occurred in the U.S.

Examples of serious crimes include but are not limited to the following: domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, murder, torture, kidnapping, and stalking.

The individual must also be willing to help law enforcement and provide information that assists with the prosecution of the individual that committed the crime.

It is not uncommon for victims to develop a depressive disorder or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A psychological evaluation can help establish how the crime mentally impacted an individual.

7. T-Visa

A T-Visa can be granted to victims of human trafficking and their immediate families if they agree to assist law enforcement in testifying against their perpetrators.

In order to be eligible for a T-Visa, an individual must demonstrate that they will endure unusual or severe harm if they were deported from the U.S.

Unusual or severe harm does not include current or future financial detriment or lack of social and economic opportunities.

Unusual or severe harm can include the following:

• Age and personal circumstances of the T-Visa applicant.
• Serious physical or mental illness of the T-Visa applicant because treatment is not available in their home country.
• High likelihood of re-victimization.
• Reasonable expectation of punishment by the trafficker or related individuals upon return to their country.

A psychological evaluation can be helpful in highlighting the specific hardship issues related to the case. It is also not uncommon for individuals to develop depressive disorders or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of their experiences. 

A psychological evaluation will establish the mental health consequences of the physical or sexual abuse they endured while they were being trafficked.

(Source: Emin Gharibian, Psy.D)

The majority of your psychological evaluation with our team will be a clinical interview. Some patients find this interview intimidating, but you should just think about this as a relaxed talk with a caring professional. In order to gather the information we need to provide USCIS and/or other immigration offices in other countries and your legal counsel, we may need a visit with you over the course of three or more one hour sessions. The number of meetings will really depend on the complexity of your case. Because you’re seeking asylum or hardship immigration, we’ll want to take the time to discuss any past trauma. It’s important that we be able to help you evaluate and begin to address traumatic experiences. We will also discuss any past psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. We want to help patients receive the appropriate ongoing care. We also discuss your current living situation and plans for the future as well as any friends, family, or other support systems you have in place to help you successfully immigrate. This may include discussing future employment and/or education plans. The goal of this part of your clinical evaluation is to help you plan to handle stresses that may arise during your transition. During the clinical interview process, the role of your clinician is to collect necessary information for any of your legal documentation. We’ll also assess any potential roadblocks to your safe and successful immigration, and help you address them. We will also directly tackle any concerns that can arise during these discussions and provide you with the techniques to continue working through emotional responses that may arise. In addition to this clinical interview, you will also be asked to complete some questionnaires that will use rating scales to help gain further understanding of your emotional and mental processes. These scales as well as the information gathered during your clinical interviews will be used to create the report that we provide to your legal counsel as part of your immigration process. It will take four to six weeks for our clinicians to complete these reports.

To schedule an asylum and immigration psychological evaluation, contact us.

We get a lot of questions from clients regarding what they can expect when they meet with a psychologist for an immigration evaluation.

This process can be very anxiety-provoking, especially for someone that has never met with a psychologist.

We want to ease some of your anxiety so we’ve included a quick overview of what to expect during an evaluation.

A typical immigration evaluation includes the following:

• An interview with you and close members of your family. The interview will help us understand important psychological, medical, and social background information, and your current level of cognitive and psychological functioning.
• Consultation with your attorney to determine the type of waiver that will be best suited for your case.
• A review of medical, psychological, and other supporting documents that help us have a better understanding of your psychological and emotional functioning.
• If necessary, we will administer psychological tests and questionnaires to help us figure out specific areas where you are having psychological difficulty.
• If your attorney requests to have you evaluated for cognitive problems such as a learning disability, dementia, or traumatic brain injury, we will also administer neuropsychological tests.
• After we complete the evaluation, we will write a comprehensive report that integrates our findings and give it to your attorney.

When necessary, we will schedule your assessment with a foreign language interpreter in the language of your choice. For Tigrinya speakers, our psychologist and different members of our team are fluent in Tigrigna and could administer the evaluation without interpreters.

The role of the psychotherapist in these cases is to inform the court, not to decide the ultimate question of deportation. The forensic psychotherapist generally provides the attorney with a comprehensive written evaluation assessing the degree of hardship, the category of hardship, related documentation of the history of the person and an explanation of the impact deportation would have on the person, as well as their family.

Depending on the results of the evaluation the attorney may or may not submit the psychological evaluation to the court. The demonstration of extreme exceptional hardship based on the evaluation and other factors does not automatically indicate a privilege for relief or the granting of cancellation of removal. The Cancellation of Removal and Adjustment of Status for Certain Non permanent Residents (1996): I.N.A Section: 240 A (b) states in addition to the identification of an exceptionally extreme hardship the application for cancellation of removal must verify:

• The alien has been physically present continuously in the United States of America for a period not less than 10 years immediately preceding the application;

• The alien has been a person of good moral character;

• The alien has not been convicted of an offense or “aggravated felonies.”

The decision to cancel removal is multi-factorial and the determination ultimately rests with the USDOJ-EIRO Immigration Court Judge, or the Attorney General, based on the specifics of the case.

The purpose of the evaluation in immigration deportation cases is NOT to diagnosis in order to treat a psychological disturbance, but rather to determine if the disorder is present and if an exceptional hardship would result due to the disorder if deportation occurs. Therefore, the forensic evaluator is contractually hired by the immigration attorney NOT the client (even though the client/family usually covers the costs for the evaluation). All reports are furnished directly to the hiring/referral attorney NOT to the client or the client’s family.

I am a licensed psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania (License #PS019073). Also, I am licensed through Psypact (License # APIT 9984) to practice in multiple states, including Alabama; Arizona; Arkansas; Colorado; Connecticut (Enacted 5/24/2022, Effective October 1, 2022); Delaware; District of Columbia – DC; Georgia; Idaho; Illinois; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky; Maine; Maryland; Minnesota; Missouri; Nebraska; Nevada; New Hampshire; New Jersey; North Carolina; Ohio; Oklahoma; Rhode Island (Enacted 6/21/2022, Effective Tentatively 1/1/2023); Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Virginia; Washington; West Virginia; Wisconsin. If you live outside of the United States, please email Dr. Tekie at dr.yacob.tekie@protonmail.com for further information.